Senate Democratic Behavioral Health Champions Meet with Students in Recovery
DENVER, CO – Today, Assistant Majority Leader Faith Winter, D-Broomfield, and Senators Chris Kolker, D-Centennial, and Kevin Priola, D-Henderson, met with students at 5280 High School, the nation's largest recovery high school and grant recipient of the Community Gap Grant Program established by HB22-1281.
The Community Gap Grant Program provided $90 million dollars to help local governments and nonprofit organizations implement community-based programs and services filling regional gaps in the continuum of care across the state so Colorado families can find behavioral health care closer to their homes.
“In 2022, we had a unique opportunity to invest American Rescue Plan Act dollars in our communities to move Colorado forward and address the root causes of our behavioral health crisis,” said Winter. “The work 5280 High School is doing speaks to that vision. When students participate in recovery programs like this one they have better odds when it comes to entering the workforce, breaking family cycles of addiction and preventing future substance use.”
“Today we listened to students’ inspiring journeys to recovery and what I heard was that the success of this program is based on the help of the recovery community, the professional staff, and shared experiences of each student establishing a peer network of support. They are able to learn, grow, and graduate with the focus on their personal mental and physical health to recover from trauma and substance abuse,” Kolker said. “5280 High School’s recovery program is making a profound impact on Colorado’s youth, and is an example of exactly the kinds of community-based programs we hoped would benefit from the Community Gap Grant Program.”
“The ways in which we support people in the most difficult battles of their lives has been one of my main priorities in my time in the legislature,” said Priola. “Today I was able to hear from students like Emma who shared about their experience with substance use. She and others explained how they fell into addiction and how a safe connecting place like 5280 High School is helping with their recovery. I was reaffirmed in the work we are doing to invest in these kinds of programs throughout our state.”
Winter, Kolker, and Priola all served on the Behavioral Health Transformational Task Force which invested $450 million in federal pandemic relief funds to help transform our behavioral health system so it better meets the needs of folks with mental health conditions and substance use disorders.
Kolker also successfully passed SB22-147, a bipartisan bill which invested over $11 million to allow pediatricians to better identify and treat behavioral health conditions and provide school-based support for kids and their families.