| 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. |
“We’re
in need, and there’s no one here to help.”
In
1992, that expressed need brought together dozens of residents
living and working in the rural mountain areas southwest
of metropolitan Denver to find ways to assess and respond
to the needs of families and communities unique to the mountain
area.
Hidden
poverty, geographic isolation, and a lack of accessibility
to health and human services available in more urban areas
created increasing pressures on mountain area families.
The result was significant prevalence of family crises,
domestic violence, early childhood developmental and educational
problems, youth disenfranchisement, and community fragmentation.
Responding
to family and community outcries, a group of citizens formed
a coalition that researched and identified health and human
service needs for mountain communities. As a result, service
priorities were defined, funded, and implemented through
the creation of the Mountain Resource Center, known then
as the Mountain Family Project.
A
family resource center with membership in the Colorado Family
Resource Center Association, 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. With
a service area of 1000 square miles, Mountain Resource Center
provides unduplicated, essential health and human services
to a population of over 55,000 across a dozen communities
and surrounding rural areas.
Through
Mountain Resource Center, these citizens have access to
a single point of entry for a broad array of health and
human services, including: ¨family crisis assistance
services, ¨early childhood education, ¨youth services,
¨healthcare and health education, ¨domestic violence
intervention, and ¨community disaster relief. Working
in collaboration with local businesses, private and public
agencies, and hundreds of invested volunteers, Mountain
Resource Center also promotes the practice of “neighbors
helping neighbors,” connecting people with the local
and governmental resources they need to build healthier,
safer, more self-reliant families and communities.
The Mountain Resource Center served 7,641 people in 2006. There were 2,319 youth who received violence prevention education, 1,908 family members who received emergency assistance, and over 1,135 people who accessed affordable health services, early childhood education, and domestic violence assistance. Community members donated over $70,000 in goods and services last year, plus 430 volunteers donated over 12,500 hours of service to help their neighbors through Mountain Resource Center programs.
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