Expand Health Coverage - Grantee Story - The Colorado Trust

Southern Colorado Collaborative - Grantee of The Colorado Trust

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»CSU: SOUTHERN COLORADO COLLABORATIVE

A new health advocacy partnership is taking a regional approach to expanding access to health care in Colorado's poorest counties: they're going straight to consumers.

With a three-year grant from The Colorado Trust, the Hasan School of Business at Colorado State University-Pueblo, the Action 22 Foundation, the San Luis Valley Immigrant Resource Center and the Center for Immigrant and Community Integration administered by the Catholic Charities Diocese of Pueblo have come together to address the health needs of 22 counties in southeastern Colorado. The Southern Colorado Collaborative is engaging hundreds of people to learn how best to improve access to care in their communities, and working to duplicate effective programs.

Seven of these 22 counties don't have a hospital and mental health care is almost nonexistent in some areas," said Deborah Watson, PhD, who coordinates the collaborative and directs CSU Pueblo's Center for Leadership and Community Development. "A lot of our counties have the highest poverty and unemployment rates, and the lowest education and median annual income statewide. Southern Colorado has many challenging issues. Health is not a top priority if people don't have jobs, a roof over their heads or food for their families."

Collaborative leaders are tapping into community groups that have already formed for other purposes, encouraging them to also advocate for health care and health coverage. For example, in Huerfano County, home to Walsenberg and La Veta, a strong alliance had formed to resist the U.S. Army's plans to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site outside Fort Carson. The collaborative hopes to harness the same group, along with others, to push for a new clinic in the county.

The collaborative will also bridge diverse counties facing similar issues. In the San Luis Valley, for example, some people who live in remote areas struggle to travel to the largest city in the area, Alamosa, when they need health care. The partnership found the same issues in Rocky Ford where farm workers spend their days far from health clinics. Now, the two communities are helping each other find the best way to deliver care.

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Mitch Garcia, Director, Farmworker Services and Health Education, Valley-Wide Health Systems, Inc. A popular new clinic provides urgent care for people in and near Alamosa.