Caring for Colorado is a grantmaking foundation making good health and health care more accessible every day for people in Colorado. We believe that some of the solutions to health care issues are coming through the innovation, collaboration and community-based work of our grantees.  That is why we have provided seed money and funded these original projects that are working in a variety of ways to improve the health of vulnerable people in Colorado.

Spanish PeaksRegional Health Center; Adolescent health program for girls ages 11-14, Huerfano County, Colorado

"They went way out on a limb to fund a vision," said women's health Nurse Practitioner, Sandy Dolak, RN. "I was amazed at what could be done with the help of visionary funders." It is Dolak, of course, who engenders the praise of those in her community. She has lived in Huerfano County for eight years and in that time, has written grants, secured funding for and managed nearly $8.5 million in health care programs for the county.

She set out to tackle some of these statistics: Huerfano County had the state's highest teen birthrate in the early and middle part of this decade; There was a high teen drop out rate, and no student health centers in the county's two high schools or in nearby Las Animas County, where the pregnancy rate was the second highest in the state. (click here to read more)