On May 25, 2021, Children’s Hospital Colorado stated they have seen “a 90% increase in demand for behavioral health treatment in the past two years”. Further, the article goes on to state that this crisis is affecting everywhere in Colorado. Unfortunately, Weld County appears to be no exception.
However, several nonprofit organizations in Weld County are working toward helping our youth tackle this crisis.
The Weld Trust has seven key funding initiatives within health and education. In the fourth quarter of 2021, they had their first funding cycle in education for the key initiative, Access to Resources. This strategy supports K-12 students in a variety of ways including academic support, early literacy, food stability, workforce development, and mental/emotional health.
Under the key initiative, Access to Resources, the Weld Trust awarded grants to seven organizations who are providing youth programs focused on mental and emotional health. These organizations provide a wide array of services to support students’ social-emotional health, mental health, prevention education, life skills training, mentoring, and teen parenting programs.
One of these programs is Northern Colorado Youth for Christ’s Rebalance program. This secular program is designed for youth ages 11-19 who have been impacted by severe or chronic trauma or stress. The Rebalance program employs trained coaches through physical activities and roundtable discussions. The activities are carried out in a controlled environment specifically designed to activate the threat response system, so they can employ Trust Based Relational Intervention tactics to teach them self-regulation. Once they are in a regulated space, they facilitate a discussion around a character value designed to help them thrive in the community. The participants of this program are referred by various schools and agencies throughout the county.
The Weld Trust awarded a grant to Northern Colorado Youth for Christ to operate this vital program to help youth across Weld County. This organization, as well as many other Weld County nonprofits are striving to support our youth with their mental and emotional health, especially during these extra challenging times resulting from the pandemic.
The Weld Trust’s goal is to improve the mental health resources for the youth of Weld County.
Source: https://www.childrenscolorado.org/about/news/2021/may-2021/youth-mental-health-state-of-emergency/
