Caring for Denver Foundation

We’re excited to be featured in The Foundation Review article, “Seeding Impact: Shifting from Orchestration to Emergence.” 📑 In the article, our Director of Evaluation and Learning, Rebecca Davis Ochtera, discusses how Caring for Denver has embraced Emergent Learning to facilitate “Line of Sight” conversations as a way to help staff create a unified vision for our organizational initiatives. Caring for Denver is highlighted for demonstrating how emergent learning can drive meaningful change within an organization—enhancing how we engage, make decisions, and build impactful partnerships. By focusing on a shared line of sight, we’re better able to align our efforts and leverage everyone’s knowledge and experience to evolve our grantmaking. ✨ We’re incredibly grateful to the Emergent Learning Community Project for helping us navigate challenges, adapt, and grow stronger as we work to better serve Denver! 🌟 Check out the full article! https://buff.ly/3A1141S

Last Thursday, the City and County of Denver celebrated the 10th Annual Global Peer Support Celebration Day with a city-wide event honoring the transformative work of Peer Support Specialists. These incredible individuals are more than service providers—they are change-makers, offering hope and connection. “Peer Support is about connection and shared experience,” said Parker LaCombe, DDPHE Peer Support Workforce Development Specialist. “Our Peer Support Specialists are walking alongside people in their recovery journeys, helping them see that recovery is possible.” The celebration began on Monday, October 14 with a proclamation reading at the City Council session, sponsored by Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez. Caring for Denver Foundation is proud to be recognized in the proclamation for supporting this vital work. 🌟 Thank you, Peer Supporters, for your dedication to healing our communities from within. Denver Department of Public Health and Environment ,Denver District Attorney's Office, Denver Office of the Municipal Public Defender #GPSCD #PeerSupport #RecoveryJourney #CommunityHealing

Grantee in the news! 🌟 St. Francis Center is transforming Denver’s art scene with a powerful project: “Heard to be Seen, Seen to be Heard,” a 5-foot canvas boulder created by people who have experienced homelessness. 🎨✨ This social justice art aims to give a voice to those who often feel unseen, sparking conversations around equality, struggle, and human rights. Fifteen residents of Saint Francis Apartments—a supportive housing community for formerly unhoused individuals—collaborated to bring this project to life. At Saint Francis Apartments, residents are given the space to heal, though that process can be challenging. As Kathy Carfrae, Housing Director at Saint Francis Center, says: "You don’t need to fight anyone. You don’t need to steal. You don’t need to sleep with one eye open because you’re afraid. We have gone through this, and we’re resilient. It’s remade." Caring for Denver proudly supports Saint Francis Center in providing mental health and substance misuse treatment for adults experiencing homelessness, while also funding case management and behavioral health services to reduce barriers and improve access to care. Learn more about this incredible project and the impact it’s having! 👏 https://buff.ly/4gDWczW 📷: @Andy Colwell/ The Colorado Sun #SocialJusticeArt #MentalHealthMatters #EndHomelessness #SupportiveHousing #ArtForChange

Join the Latinx Therapist Project on Thursday, October 24, for "Pathways to Therapy: Exploring 5 Specialties in Mental Health." This event is great for anyone considering a career in mental health and looking to explore different specialties. You'll also have the chance to connect with Latine therapists, hear about their career journeys, and ask questions. Register today! https://buff.ly/40ciWRO

Congratulations to our Program Officer, Juan E., for being featured on Great Day Colorado! 🎉 As the 988 Crisis Hotline Enterprise Board Chair, Juan was highlighted during Suicide Prevention Awareness Month to discuss the 988 campaign, which supports anyone facing emotional distress, mental health challenges, or substance misuse concerns. We’re incredibly proud of Juan and his dedication to improving mental health and substance misuse outcomes for everyone! 👏 🔗 Click here to view the full segment: https://buff.ly/4h3P6VK

Last week, members of Caring for Denver’s team had the opportunity to attend Vivent Health 's Accidental Overdose Response and Prevention Training at Colorado Village Collaborative’s La Paz site. Caring for Denver is proud to support Vivent Health’s Harm Reduction mobile services and opioid overdose reversal trainings, which equip peers with Narcan supplies and life-saving skills. During these sessions, participants learn to prevent, identify, and reverse opioid overdoses. Each trainee receives a toolkit containing life-saving supplies, and additional materials—including a training video—so they can pass on their knowledge to others, such as friends, family, and their communities. Anyone can save a life! To request or learn more about upcoming trainings, email denver.thrive@viventhealth.org. A big thank you to Vivent Health for offering this essential training! We're excited to partner with you! #HarmReduction #OverdosePrevention #NarcanSavesLives #OpioidCrisisResponse #CommunityTraining #EndOverdose #PeerSupport

Today is World Mental Health Day 💚, and we couldn’t be more grateful for the people of Denver who voted to make mental health and substance misuse a priority in our city. As we celebrate five years at Caring for Denver, it’s clear that community is the heart of it all. Because of your trust and support, we’ve been able to award more than $172 million to 264 organizations working to improve mental health and address substance misuse right here in Denver. 🎉 Together, we’ve built something special—a community grounded in understanding, compassion, and meeting people where they’re at. 🌟 Change takes time and trust, and the progress we've made together inspires us and makes us excited about the future. Never underestimate the power of collective change. Check out our 5-year celebration video and explore our special webpage to see the amazing milestones we've reached, together. #ThankYOUDenver💙 🔗 Watch & Celebrate: https://buff.ly/4dGulML #CaringForDenver #MentalHealthMatters #DenverStrong #CommunityImpact #WorldMentalHealthDay

Big shoutout to our incredible Evaluation and Learning Team for presenting at the Colorado Public Health Association’s Public Health in the Rockies! 🙌 They shared Caring for Denver's unique evaluation approach and how they use learning partnerships to better understand and amplify the impact of community initiatives in behavioral health. By empowering our grantee partners to define and measure success in ways that are meaningful to them, we elevate the expertise of those doing the work and strive to create authentic processes that highlight communities' unique perspectives. We're so grateful for our Evaluation and Learning Team and excited to keep learning how to better serve Denver! 💙 Haley Mackrow Sammen, Hillie Teller, Sydney Chaves, MPH #CommunityImpact #LearningPartnerships #LearningAndEvaluation

Grantee Spotlight! 🌟 At our recent celebration with The Moth, Shay Jacobs of Adam's Purpose courageously shared her story of finding hope and purpose during an extremely difficult time of grief and child loss. Adam's Purpose, a nonprofit that promotes grief awareness, education, and recovery services, supports communities of color facing grief. In partnership with Caring for Denver, they provide mental health resources to bereaved moms of color, educate communities on coping with grief, and work to destigmatize mental health. In honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, Denver Urban Spectrum featured Shay's story of "Turning Heartbreak into Purpose." ❤️ Click the link and turn to page 7 to read her inspiring journey of healing! Read now: https://buff.ly/3zyjDu1 #GriefAwareness #MentalHealth #PregnancyAndInfantLossAwareness

Ten years ago, Wings Foundation introduced a new approach to addressing childhood sexual abuse (CSA) trauma by establishing September as Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivor Awareness Month (CSA-SAM). As we close out September and continue to observe CSA-SAM, Caring for Denver proudly spotlights the transformative work of Wings and The Blue Bench, both changing the lives of survivors. We invite you to read our in-depth interview with Jennifer Stith, Executive Director of Wings, and Laura Patlan, Co-Director of Client Services at The Blue Bench. Our program officers, Jacqueline Esquibel and Raymael Blackwell, sat down with Jenny and Laura as they shared insights on the mental health impacts of sexual assault and the critical interventions available to support healing. Jenny’s work centers on the unique needs of adult survivors of CSA, while Laura leads efforts to provide vital resources for those affected by sexual violence. Let’s come together to support recovery and amplify the conversation around sexual violence and CSA. 💙 https://buff.ly/3ZKdvt2 #CSASAM #CSASurvivorAwareness #HealingTogether #MentalHealthMatters #HealingHappensInCommunity #SpaceToHeal #Wings #TheBlueBench