DEL NORTE — The Caring for Colorado Foundation concluded its “Community Conversations’’ tour in Del Norte at the High Valley Community Center on Thursday morning. Del Norte was the third stop in the San Luis Valley and the very last of approximately 30 visits across Colorado.
The Caring for Colorado Foundation is a 501-C4 non-profit that was founded in 2000 through an endowment from Anthem. Based in Denver, the foundation awards approximately $6 million in grants across the state annually. The funding priorities for the foundation include efforts related to oral health, adolescent behavioral health, community health, healthy children and youth, and reproductive health. Chris Wiant, president and CEO of Caring for Colorado, pointed out that the “Community Conversations” was put in place because the foundation recognizes that Colorado is changing and the board of directors want to be attuned to the current needs of Colorado’s communities and where the foundation might be able to provide grant assistance.
During the Del Norte forum, Wiant opened the discussion by giving a brief overview of the foundation to the participants. After the overview, participants were given 30 minutes to discuss the needs of Del Norte and the rest of the Valley. Some of the common themes that surfaced during the conversations included a lack of resources particularly when it comes to recreational activities for children and families as well as a significant lack of resources in the childcare sector. Another significant challenge is a lack of capacity for behavioral health, especially in schools.
Wiant observed that the childcare issue is one of the many common themes that he has heard during the tour. He also announced that Caring for Colorado will be investing an additional $6 million to help address behavioral health issues over the next several years. In addition, the foundation staff is ready and willing to help point entities in a direction that might be helpful, even if that avenue is not directly through Caring for Colorado.
With the tour now being complete, the foundation staff will take the responses that they have gathered from each community visited and prioritize their next set of goals accordingly. Those goals will be presented by July of 2019.