SAMHSA Minority Fellowship Program (MFP)

SAMHSA MFP Conference Evaluation: Unsolicited Comments from SAMHSA Staff

I thought the first conference was an incredible and inspirational experience! It was a joy to be a part of it. I'm looking forward to a possible meeting in January to contribute ideas for follow-up. I have already submitted the names of four MFP fellows in the Children and Families breakout group who offered to review our system-of-care cooperative agreement proposals that were submitted in October. They will be reviewed in the next few weeks. I can't thank the Conference Planners enough for efforts to help build the workforce among highly competent fellows of color!

It was very interesting to attend the Minority Fellowship Program Conference. One thing that came up in our session was what a useful resource the MFP scholars could be to conducting CMHS' business. Would it be possible for you to post a list of the MFP participants on the intranet or the webpage, or even send around an electronic copy to All-CMHS? Several people within my Division have suggested an interest in drawing on this group for committee and advisory work, review groups, etc. The scholars themselves also seemed very interested in maintaining a connection to SAMHSA's activities.

I found out about the Minority Fellowship conference last week, from a fellow who is a grantee, and went to the Saturday session. I discovered we've been undercounting the American Indian/Alaska Native fellows, in the Tribal Consultation reports. We do seem to need a better way to connect with that program. It doesn't seem that they do internships? We have the executive orders to support Historically Black, Hispanic, and Tribal colleges, the Asian Pacific Islanders, and the Tribal Consultation, and produce reports on our activities. It would be good to know more about the MFP participants, and have more meaningful connections to them.

Response: We plan to have an informal meeting in the near future of the MFP team and interested staff to discuss a variety of possible follow-up activities to the Conference. We see the Conference not as an end, but as a beginning of a greater dialogue between SAMHSA and the MFP Program.