The Chicago School Forensic Center, practice-arm of the Forensic Psychology Department, understands the importance of meeting community needs and integrates student learning through community initiatives.  Unique to the Center is our mission to challenge individual and systemic barriers commonly faced by the underserved and to consider our students as agents of change.  Students are offered exceptional hands-on-training alongside faculty, while providing high quality mental health services to diverse forensic populations.  The center’s emphasis on innovative teaching methods and commitment to the community challenges our students to be civically responsible, ethically informed, and clinically astute.    

The center began its mission to reduce incidents of child maltreatment by providing evidence-based treatment to children and families involved with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS).  The center expanded to meet the critical demands of the community and offered parent training to individuals working toward reunification with their children in foster care, job readiness training for adult offenders transitioning from correctional facilities into the community, victim-related trauma treatment for women transitioning from correctional facilities into the community, and program evaluation to assess community agencies’ efficacy of services among high risk youth.       

Through the unyielding dedication of faculty and staff to academic excellence, service, and social change, the center has provided innovative training to 73 students, affected the lives of 101 individuals, given approximately 1,200 hours in community service, and partnered with 8 community-based organizations.  Our efforts to meet the demands of the community and to effect individual and social change could not be possible without the support of The Chicago School Cabinet, Board of Trustees, and Community Partnerships.  With continued support, the center will lead the nation in innovative training of mental health practitioners and become the premiere forensic mental health service site in the State of Illinois.