Help Double the Behavioral Health Workforce in 5 Years
Join the Voice Up LCSW Accelerator
The United States is facing an unprecedented behavioral health workforce shortage. Communities across the country are experiencing rising demand for mental and behavioral health services, yet the number of licensed clinical providers entering the workforce each year is not keeping pace with the need.
Thousands of talented social workers graduate every year ready to serve their communities, but many struggle to successfully pass the licensure exam required to become fully licensed clinicians. This gap has profound implications for access to care, community wellbeing, and the future of the profession.
Over the next five years, Voice Up has a bold mission: to help double the number of licensed clinical providers entering the behavioral health workforce.
To accomplish this, we are launching a first-of-its-kind Licensed Clinical Social Worker Accelerator, bringing together experienced clinicians who are ready to help lead innovative solutions to strengthen the profession.
About the Founder
The Voice Up Licensed Clinical Social Worker Accelerator is driven by the vision of the Founder, an executive leader whose career has been dedicated to transforming mental health and education systems.
The initiative was birthed from a single, profound question:
“How can I help others understand what I know to be true about careers in mental and behavioral health?”
Recognizing the exceptional lack of understanding among young adults regarding mental health pathways, the Founder designed Voice Up as a light-touch, human-centered community designed to connect people to purpose.
The Voice Up Success Story
Voice Up creates stable, judgment-free spaces that scale organically to help individuals navigate their career pathways.
The success of this model is demonstrated by its remarkable, proven real-world impact:
• To date, over 3,600 students spanning 177 institutions across more than 40 countries have interacted with Voice Up.
• Participants come from a wide range of educational settings, spanning from community colleges to elite medical schools and Tier 1 research universities.
• Over 27 institutions have awarded verified academic credit for student participation.
• Students have achieved exceptional outcomes, including securing signed partnerships and funding allocations—such as federal Title I dollars and local public tax dollars—to support their original community-facing initiatives.
• The model has proven highly effective at reaching traditionally underserved communities, including:
individuals transitioning from the armed services
those facing homelessness
people managing diagnosed mental health conditions
The Opportunity for Clinical Leaders
The Licensed Clinical Social Worker Accelerator is designed for experienced clinicians who want to contribute to meaningful workforce innovation while expanding their own leadership and impact.
Participants do not need to leave their current roles; the accelerator is designed to complement existing professional work while creating opportunities for expanded impact and collaboration.
As an accelerator participant, you will collaborate with Voice Up to:
• Mentor social workers preparing for licensure through an 8-week cohort-based program
• Participate in workforce development initiatives
• Explore new social impact pathways within behavioral health
• Contribute to innovative programs strengthening the profession
Our goal is not simply to help people pass an exam; it is to develop confident, prepared, purpose-driven clinicians ready to serve their communities.
Logistics, Support, & Compensation
Format:
Remote / National Network
Time Commitment:
Flexible, requiring approximately 3–4 hours per week during program cycles.
This includes:
60–90 minutes weekly for cohort mentoring
1–2 hours weekly for preparation and collaboration
Infrastructure:
Voice Up provides the infrastructure needed to support you, including:
Program frameworks
Enrollment and participant management systems
Marketing support
Access to a national professional network
Compensation:
While the accelerator is mission-driven, participants who facilitate licensure success cohorts are compensated.
Facilitators typically earn a modest stipend per cohort.
Join the Movement
The behavioral health workforce shortage is one of the defining challenges of our time.
Licensed Clinical Social Workers have an opportunity to help lead a new approach to strengthening the profession and expanding access to care.
If you believe in this mission and want to help build something transformational for the profession, we invite you to join us.
VOICE UP
A Three-Part Series
MARCH 2026
Editor's Note: The following three articles trace the emergence of Voice Up Publishing, Inc. — a public health startup and grassroots movement born in November 2024. Together, they document what happens when purpose, patience, and a deeply human methodology meet the urgent question that quietly haunts so many lives: Where do I belong?
PART ONE OF THREE
The Question Nobody Is Asking
How a prayer walk in the rain became a global movement — and what it reveals about the gap at the heart of American education
Voice Up Series · March 2026
On a rainy evening in November 2024, Art Fuller went for a walk. From the outside, this might seem unremarkable. From the inside, it was anything but. Fuller was carrying, at that moment, approximately three careers' worth of responsibility. He was a member of a seven-person executive leadership team at a large behavioral health organization — overseeing more than 500 staff, an operating budget exceeding $53 million, and services reaching 13,000 patients across eleven counties in Indiana. He was simultaneously completing a doctoral degree. And he was something else, too: a man who had spent thirty years building things from scratch, leading them through difficulty, and handing them to communities that needed them.