Colorado began funding co-responder efforts in 2018 and now backs 31 such initiatives. An additional 20 or so programs exist across the state that send mental health clinicians out with law enforcement.
The Colorado Trust
Posted inColoradans
Immigrant workers who maintain Aspen’s lavish playground strive for lives of their own
Much of the workforce serving the Roaring Fork Valley economy — from construction workers to hotel cleaners — are Latin American immigrants working low-wage jobs
Posted inEconomy, Equity, Health, News
Slow loss of obstetrics care forces rural Coloradans into long drives, or long stays, when babies arrive
When Georgina Bishop became pregnant with her third child, things got complicated. Not with the pregnancy itself or even the labor. But she did drive two-and-a-half hours — one way — to reach the hospital so she could give birth. Bishop lives in Telluride. With her first two children—now 6 and 10 years old—she used […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Sheriffs who denounced Colorado’s red flag law are now using it
By Markian Hawryluk, KHN Dolores County Sheriff Don Wilson never expected to use Colorado’s red flag law when it was passed in 2019. He thought the law made it too easy to take a person’s guns away. The statute allows law enforcement officers or private citizens to petition a county court to confiscate firearms temporarily from […]
Posted inEconomy, Equity, Housing, News, Outdoors
In the Roaring Fork Valley, seeking shelter has gotten even harder
By Sarah Tory, The Colorado Trust José Saéz didn’t hesitate when a friend called to offer him a job at an air conditioning company in Glenwood Springs. He was used to moving. His father was in the military and growing up, Saéz had lived all over—Germany, New York, Delaware, Texas. He was in western Massachusetts […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Equity, News
Women leaving prison in Colorado are released without much-needed resources
On the day Pam Clifton was released from prison to a halfway house in Littleton, she was in possession of one pair of sweatpants, a box of paperwork and $3.18. It was 2002, and she had served almost four years on a drug charge. Being on the outside immediately overwhelmed her. Even the thought of […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, Equity, News
A tutoring program cultivates community bonds to help Latinx students in Boulder County
When HollyAnne Giffin began tutoring 12-year-old Gabriel Fernandez last winter, they worked on math homework via Zoom. As they got to know one another, they took adventures beyond their screens. Last spring, they experimented with elephant toothpaste at a neighborhood park, building on Fernandez’s middle school science curriculum. They took a bike ride and a hike. When […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, Health, News
COVID closed Mesa County school kitchens. Students got them reopen.
As the recent Thanksgiving Day holiday approached, school district officials in Grand Junction were in a bind. COVID-19 outbreaks, other respiratory illnesses and staff shortages had all challenged the district since classes began in August. And now, the turkey was in jeopardy. Mesa County Valley School District 51 has had a long tradition of serving […]
Posted inHousing, News
Extended-stay motels quietly fill the gaps in Gunnison’s chronic housing shortage
By Nick Bowlin, for The Colorado Trust Drivers entering Gunnison from the east will pass a number of motels off to the side of Highway 50, which runs down into town from Monarch Pass on the Continental Divide. Many travelers seeking adventure in the Rockies—or carrying on to Utah—pass this way. The next substantial town […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, Health, News
Eight months into coronavirus, an immigrant community in Colorado finds hardship and hope
By Sarah Tory, The Colorado Trust It was the barren shelves at the grocery store that worried Berenice most when the coronavirus pandemic hit last March. She worried about having enough food for her three children: Abdeal, age 9; Kendra, 6; and Greicy, 4. Then, a week later, schools shut down in Eagle—a town of […]