College Counseling Center Outreach—An Organizing Framework

Abstract

While outreach has long been considered an important component of counseling center efforts, the increasing demands for clinical services, along with increased severity and acuity of presenting concerns, pose a challenge for centers that also aim to incorporate a robust outreach effort into their overall services. Outreach has been defined and implemented in such a way that it encompasses a complex variety of activities in response to the needs of various constituencies. Therefore, some organization of outreach efforts and the priorities they address may help counseling center directors and outreach coordinators in an increasingly resource-strained profession. This article introduces an organizing framework of four Levels of Outreach, with distinct goals and functions for each outreach level to facilitate goal setting, aiming to assist toward more efficient resource management by counseling center and student affairs administrators and more purposeful implementation of overall outreach strategies.