“Neighbors helping neighbors build
a viable, healthy community” is the vision that
inspired a group of local citizens to respond to a critical
lack of health and human services in the mountain areas
west of Denver in 1992. Geographic isolation, hidden poverty,
and the inability to find help normally available in more
urban areas created pressures on families that resulted
in a significant prevalence of family crises, domestic
violence, early childhood developmental and educational
problems, isolated teens, and community fragmentation.
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Recognizing that area
residents needed access to health and human service
programs locally, a coalition of concerned citizens
researched and identified the specific and unique
needs of people living in the rural mountains of west
Jefferson and east Park counties. |
Once service priorities
were defined and funded, the Mountain Resource Center
(originally known as the Mountain Family Project)
was created to provide assistance to people in need. As the population increased to its current
65,000, Mountain Resource Center’s programs adjusted
and expanded to serve an even greater number of neighbors.
A successful capital campaign gave the community a new
building to utilize in 2004.
Mountain Resource Center is a community-based
nonprofit organization and a member of the Colorado Family
Resource Center Association. Through a dedicated, highly
qualified staff and over 400 volunteers, the Center is
able to provide unduplicated, essential health and human
services to more than a dozen communities in a 1,000 square
mile service area. Working in partnership with local businesses,
private and public agencies, churches and individual volunteers,
the Center is a single point of entry for a broad range
of services which include: family crisis assistance, health
care and health education, domestic violence intervention,
early childhood education, life skills classes, youth
services and community disaster relief.
More than 9,551 people
were served in 2007. Community members donated over $70,000
in goods and services last year, plus 450 volunteers
gave over 11,000 hours of service to
help their neighbors build healthier, safer, more self-reliant
families and communities.
The Mountain Resource Center is a community-based
non-profit organization that promotes community involvement
and responsibility to foster the optimal welfare of children,
youth, adults, and communities in a 1000 square mile rural
mountain area serving a population of over 65,000.
