A Bountiful Harvest
By Jill Johnson, The Colorado Trust
Colorado Trust staff recently conducted a series of community forums across Colorado. Deidre Johnson, a Trust Program Officer, and I visited communities in the Southwest corner of the state, including Southwest Open School (SWOS) in Cortez, Colorado.
A charter school that has supported an onsite School-based Health Center (SBHC) for 14 years, the SWOS received one of The Trust’s 25th Anniversary Awards in 2010 for its collaborative efforts to increase children’s access to health care. SWOS provides an alternative education for nearly 200 students, who largely come from disadvantaged homes with issues of drugs, violence or economic hardship. Of the 25 most populous counties in Colorado, Montezuma County has the second highest child poverty rate, with 26.5 percent of children under the age of 18 living in poverty (Kids Count! 2012). One hundred percent of SWOS students were identified as “at risk” by the Colorado Department of Education’s alternative school guidelines. Serving one of Colorado’s medically underserved communities, the SWOS SBHC provides the Cortez community with access to health care for the school’s students and local community.
There is a strong partnership between the health care providers, school administration and the community at the SWOS SBHC. The SBHC provides access to comprehensive services for underserved children and adolescents through well visits, immunizations, acute illness/injury treatment, chronic care management, medications/prescriptions, preventive dental care, health education, mental health and substance abuse assessment/treatment and reproductive health.
The staff’s enthusiasm and variety of projects and opportunities SWOS provides their students is impressive. The staff members are devoted to the youth they work with and are in it for the long haul. The SWOS may not have a lot of resources, but they make the funds they do have go a long way. They have built a refuge for young people.
SWOS used The Trust’s award to plant seeds that have produced a bountiful harvest for their students.
The visit to SWOS was a rich experience as I don’t often have the chance to visit our grantees. The SWOS SBHC makes a difference in Cortez. What organizations make a difference in your community?
