Easing access to critical community resources, the West Mountain Regional Health Alliance (WMRHA) recently updated its all-encompassing online directory for residents of Garfield, Pitkin and Eagle counties. Available in Spanish and English, the user-friendly directory provides information about free, reduced-cost and low-income services.
“The goal is to put everything into one location so people don’t have to look all around or figure things out on their own,” said Berta Rivera, WMRHA’s regional health connector. “There’s a lot of information, and it might be overwhelming when you’re just trying to find a specific need.”
Currently, the directory has 12 resource categories: animal and pet care; community and personal safety; disabilities and special needs; employment and personal development; financial assistance; food; health; housing; legal support; mental and behavioral health; transportation; youth and family support. Within each category are multiple subcategories to streamline the information. For example, under “housing” the subcategories are: affordable housing, emergency assistance, homelessness and senior housing.
The directory also includes other regional service directories such as Immigration Resources, Garfield County Public Health’s Dental Directory, Community Compass and Mountain Youth. Statewide resources for Yampah, Routt and Chaffee counties and Southwest Colorado are also available.
Intended to be comprehensive, the directory may be used by people as needed or integrated into daily lives — for volunteering, social connection or family planning, for example.
One such resource is Elephant Circle, a Denver-based nonprofit with the mission to advance birth justice. Through the directory, residents can find information about Elephant Circle’s free Doula Is a Verb program where families can connect to over 100 Colorado birth doulas who are Medicaid, low-cost and no-cost providers. They also have a statewide Medicaid-approved doula training program and provide advocacy work, public health and legal support for LGBTQIA+, multiracial, low-income, teen and incarcerated reproductive, pregnant and parenting populations.
“Overall, our goal is to ensure that every person in the perinatal period feels safe, connected, loved and able to make choices that they feel are best for them and their bodies,” said Sarah Lopez, Elephant Circle’s community doula ambassador.
Families can also access long-term support as they navigate potential challenges during the perinatal and parenting period, including the family policing system and legal system. For Elephant Circle, a supportive and informed collective will help establish and amplify equal access to self-determination during the perinatal period for all people.
Like Elephant Circle, WMRHA’s directory came to fruition as the community’s need for support became apparent. For nearly two years, the directory has been Rivera’s priority project. In that time she has been compiling data, researching nonprofits and analyzing the tri-county region’s top barriers.
“Among the top three issues for all three counties was access,” said Rivera. “This meant access all over, including resources, healthcare, food. People did not know what resources were available and how to access them.”
Since last year’s launch, the directory has received consistent positive feedback. Residents can now seamlessly access information and local nonprofits with limited time, and nonprofits can focus more effort on providing direct services rather than constant advertising. Recently, Rivera has created and distributed bilingual paper booklets for organizations to keep in-house for translating and educational purposes.
True to its founding ideals, the resource directory is another nod to WMRHA’s mission to build an integrated health system that supports optimal health for this region’s residents. Founded in 2010, WMRHA originally examined the access to care gap of perinatal care for low-income women in western Eagle County. Now, the nonprofit has expanded to include whole health systems as it seeks to improve social determinants of health for all people by identifying issues and finding solutions.
Looking toward the future, Rivera intends to continue gathering feedback and routinely updating the directory in response to the community’s needs. All the while, she is excited to advance WMRHA’s vision to increase equal access to high-quality, comprehensive, integrated and cost-effective healthcare services.
“It’s really amazing to see this come to life,” said Rivera. “It’s now ready to be advertised and put out there for community members to really benefit from the resources and services.”
Visit www.westmountainhealthalliance.org/resources to access services, including Elephant Circle, using WMRHA’s resource directory.