IOE funding expands mental health support for BVSD students and staff

This post is an updated version of this article posted on February 25, 2022.

Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a pediatric mental health state of emergency in May of 2021, citing skyrocketing demand for mental health services among Colorado’s youth. In addition to the well-documented impact of the pandemic on mental health, our community also experienced a mass shooting and Colorado’s most destructive wildfire in 2021. 

BVSD is committed to providing mental health support for students from kindergarten through graduation. For young learners, sharing feelings and learning to work through problems will be all they ever know, and for older learners, having school-based support is critical to navigating mental health struggles.

We’re investing over $800,000 to support the ongoing mental health needs of students and staff throughout the Boulder Valley School District.

Mental health professional development for BVSD staff

School Age Care (SAC) staff serve a diverse group of students daily at 32 sites throughout Boulder Valley School District (BVSD). From grade levels to academic ability levels to emotional and behavioral health levels, SAC staff must manage each student’s needs and create a safe environment outside of school hours for students and staff.

Impact on Education funded six hours of Calming Kids professional development for BVSD School After Care educators to teach them strategies for managing student mental health needs and their own. The first sessions were held in 2021 thanks to a partnership with the City of Boulder’s Housing and Human Services Department, and additional sessions are planned for 2022.

Expanding BVSD’s team of mental health advocates

In the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), referrals of students to Mental Health Advocates have risen by 86% this school year compared to the same period during the 2020-21 school year. 

Mental Health Advocates supplement what BVSD’s school counselors can provide since their focus is exclusively on mental and behavioral health. Within BVSD, Mental Health Advocates: 

• provide prevention and intervention services for students, supporting their social-emotional and behavioral development, student achievement, and crisis intervention
• provide both group and individual counseling support and work directly with students, parents, and staff members
• help families access external resources, including making appropriate referrals to community partners such as Mental Health Partners and Jewish Family Services

Impact on Education provided funding to hire four additional Mental Health Advocates to be deployed year-round in BVSD’s schools most impacted by the Marshall Fire. 

“We are seeing a significant increase when it comes to the social-emotional support our students need at this critical moment. Those impacted by the fire are working to process everything that happened. It was a deeply traumatic experience and it will take some time for these students to cope with the tremendous amount of loss and PTSD that everyone impacted by the fires are struggling through.”

Tammy Lawrence, Student Support Services Director

The additional support of four new Mental Health Advocates will ensure all of the schools impacted by the Marshall Fire have the intensive layer of mental health support needed, and expand BVSD’s capacity to respond to mental health referrals. 

The intensity of mental health concerns and the time required to provide support and intervention varies dramatically from case to case, but BVSD’s leadership is confident that adding these clinicians to the School District team was the most critical immediate step.

Funding to support mental health has come from our generous community partners

• Community Foundation Boulder County
• CDP Colorado Wildfires Recovery Fund
• AT&T
• United Healthcare
• Google
• City of Boulder Housing and Human Services Department

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YOU CAN HELP …

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We are still actively raising funds to support the mental health needs of Boulder Valley students and staff. You can help by making a gift to support this work.

Helping BVSD students see all colors of the world

Students in the Boulder Valley School District deserve to know they belong, especially in school. One simple, yet powerful, way to achieve that is giving them art supplies that represent a range of skin tones. 

We are proud to partner with NAACP Boulder County to provide multicultural art supplies to BVSD classrooms so students can more accurately reflect themselves and others in their art and other work.

“All children deserve the ability to draw themselves in true form and that includes skin tone color. These art supplies make that vision become a reality which is priceless.”

Michelle Willingham
DEI Collab Group Leader, NAACP Boulder Chapter EDU Committee

Impact on Education funding will provide Crayola Colors of the World supply kits and workbooks to every elementary classroom in the next two weeks.

All of BVSD’s 31 elementary schools will receive Crayola Colors of the World art supplies and activity books for each of their classrooms. Each pack of crayons, markers and colored pencils contains 24 specifically-formulated colors representing people of the world. The subtle shades inside are formulated to better represent the growing diversity worldwide 

We’re also working to provide age-appropriate books to each classroom to promote healthy conversations around racial diversity and providing additional Crayola Colors of the World supplies to middle schools across the district in the fall.

BEFORE YOU GO

Impact on Education is an independent non-profit supporting the Boulder Valley School District. We depend on the generosity of our community to put our mission into action.

Will you help us provide opportunities and resources to local students?

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We support Boulder Valley public school students with community funding and resources in order to meet critical needs and eliminate opportunity gaps. Your support keeps us going strong and your donation will help us equalize opportunity, bolster academic success for local students.

How we’re funding opportunity for students across BVSD

One of the key ways we provide opportunity to high needs students in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) is through our Academic Opportunity Fund. Our fourth and final funding round for the 2021-22 school year recently closed and we’re proud to share that we’re investing another $44,000 to meet the needs of BVSD students. This brings our total Academic Opportunity Fund investment to over $150,000 for the 2021-22 school year.

In Round Four, community volunteers helped evaluate 17 anonymized application requests and provide feedback on funding decisions. That data was then reviewed by Impact on Education (IOE) staff and final decisions were made.

• The average amount of funded requests was under $3,300, though requests ranged from $320 to $7,500.
• 14 projects will be funded directly by IOE, and we are working to meet some of the other needs through existing BVSD services.
• The funding will support twelve of BVSD’s elementary, middle and high schools. 

A variety of needs

From competition fees to tutoring programs, our Academic Opportunity Fund supported a variety of student and school needs including funding to:

• purchase guided reading bundles for elementary students
• fund tutoring sessions at multiple schools
• purchase Neuromaker Brain Computer Interface Kits for STEM learning
• provide professional development for trauma recovery
• help DECA members in financial need attend an international competition
• fund instrument repair and competition fees
• purchase graphic novels to help students with their reading comprehension
• expand a school-based tutoring program

Other ways we’re investing in student success 

The success of BVSD students sometimes requires more than our schools and teachers are able to provide during the day, and this is where we step in. With the help of our community, we can support students and families by providing equitable access to critical academic opportunities.

This summer, we’ll be working to help students in our Career Readiness Academy line up summer employment, preparing for an expanded early learning program for rising kindergarteners this summer, and kick off our annual Crayons to Calculators school supply distribution. Learn more about how we support Student Success.

Helping students find their purpose and build confidence

Did someone teach you how to shake hands? When to make a phone call instead of sending an email? How to feel confident in a job interview? These are a few of things students in our Career Readiness Academy have learned over the past two months.

What is the Career Readiness Academy?

We launched the pilot of our Career Readiness Academy in January 2022. This program is designed to provide 20 low-income BVSD high school students with workforce readiness skills, training, and leadership development to help prepare them for success after graduation. 

The sessions are delivered in partnership with industry and community professionals who know firsthand how the application of these skills leads to success. So far, students:

• were guided through a self-knowledge journey and exercises to find their purpose with Ross Wehner of the World Leadership School,

• learned about professional communications and networking, including best practices for emails, phone calls, texting, and tips for expanding their networks, from Royce Hauw of Goodyear and Natasha Wright of Google,

• learned and practiced new skills through an evening of mock interviews with local HR professionals who shared their wisdom and experience.

How one student described the most valuable thing they learned:

“Communication, because I didn’t realize I could make a stronger impression from just shaking someone’s hand.”

Career Readiness Participant

What other skills will participants gain?

In the remaining four workshops, Career Readiness Academy students will learn about different skill sets and what jobs they may align with, the impact of social media, and participate in workplace simulations. We’ll also be working closely with our community partners to help students line up summer employment and put all of their new skills to use.

Is your company is interested in supporting our work?
Learn about corporate partnerships >>

Thank you to our Career Readiness Academy sponsors, Anchor Point Foundation, Seagate Technology, Premier Members Credit Union, Cielo Foundation Boulder, and Google. And thank you to IOE volunteer Cathleen Kendall for leading the preparation for our mock interview session last week and the 20 volunteer business leaders who participated.

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BEFORE YOU GO …

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We support Boulder Valley public school students with community funding and resources in order to meet critical needs and eliminate opportunity gaps. Your support keeps us going strong and your donation will help us equalize opportunity, bolster academic success for local students.

Increasing mental health support for students most affected by the Marshall Fire

Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a pediatric mental health state of emergency in May of 2021, citing skyrocketing demand for mental health services among Colorado’s youth. In addition to the well-documented impact of the pandemic on mental health, our community also experienced a mass shooting and Colorado’s most destructive wildfire in 2021. In the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), referrals of students to Mental Health Advocates have risen by 86% this school year compared to the same period during the 2020-21 school year. 

What are mental health advocates?

Within BVSD, Mental Health Advocates provide prevention and intervention services for students, supporting their social-emotional and behavioral development, student achievement, and crisis intervention.

Mental Health Advocates can also provide both group and individual counseling support and work directly with students, parents, and staff members. For more acute counseling needs, they help families access external resources for mental health. As a direct result of the Marshall Fire and the mental health impacts this is having on our community, we are working to immediately increase the mental health services available to BVSD students.

Raising funds to expand BVSD’s team of mental health advocates

Impact on Education is actively seeking funding to facilitate hiring four additional Mental Health Advocates to be deployed in BVSD’s most impacted schools. The additional staff would be assigned to the 7 schools most directly impacted by the Marshall Fire, serving 6,061 students, 687 of whom lost their homes or remain displaced. With more than one in every ten students losing their homes and nearly all students at these schools impacted by the evacuation orders and trauma of temporary displacement, these are the schools with our most pressing mental health needs right now.

“We are seeing a significant increase when it comes to the social-emotional support our students need at this critical moment, those impacted by the fire are working to process everything that happened. It was a deeply traumatic experience and it will take some time for these students to cope with the tremendous amount of loss and PTSD that everyone impacted by the fires are struggling through.”

Tammy Lawrence, Student Support Services Director

The additional support will ensure all of the impacted schools have the intensive layer of mental health support needed, and expand BVSDs capacity to respond to mental health referrals. The intensity of mental health concerns and the time required to provide support and intervention varies dramatically from case to case, but BVSD’s leadership is confident that adding these clinicians to the School District team is the most critical immediate step.

Nearly half of the necessary funding was secured from a donation from the Community Foundation’s Boulder County Wildfire Fund and we are actively working with other funding partners to secure the balance of the required funding.

The importance of mental health support right now

Increasing mental health support to the students most affected by the Marshall Fire will benefit approximately 6,061 students in 7 of the 32 schools home to students impacted by the fire. BVSD’s Mental Health Advocates collaborate and make appropriate referrals to partners including Mental Health Partners and Jewish Family Services.

Mental Health Advocates supplement what BVSD’s school counselors can provide since their focus is exclusively on mental and behavioral health. They work directly with the administration in each school building to determine the needs, and then collaborate on what curriculum to use to meet individual students’ needs. This includes working in collaboration with school counselors to ensure there is a direct impact for each student, and extends into providing services to the teachers and staff who always play a key role in supporting the social-emotional health of the students.

District seeking additional mental health grants

Beyond their funding request to Impact on Education, BVSD is requesting two emergency grants, one state and one federal, to provide additional mental health staffing and support to schools most impacted by the Marshall Fire.

“We are tremendously grateful for the support of Impact on Education and our entire community, as we work to provide support for those impacted. This is not a situation that will be resolved in days or weeks. We must be ready to help our fellow neighbors for the many months and years it will take to not only rebuild, to once again feel safe and to return to normalcy.”

Dr. Rob Anderson, BVSD Superintendent

Read more about BVSD’s plans to hire school counselors, nurses, and outreach positions in this story from the Daily Camera.

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YOU CAN HELP …

Impact on Education is a nonprofit organization, and we depend on our community to help us put our mission into action. We are still actively raising funds to support the mental health needs of Boulder Valley students and staff. You can help by making a gift to support this work. On the donation form, where it says “My donation is for” please select “Critical Needs Fund – Marshall Fire.”

How BVSD Community Liaisons support families in need

In difficult times, sometimes it’s hard to know where to turn. For many families in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), their school’s community liaison is their first – and sometimes only – trusted resource.

What is a community liaison?

Most schools in BVSD have a community liaison who works to direct services to high needs students and families and acts as liaison for families with school and community agencies. Liaisons are key to providing opportunities for students to develop a desire and ability to complete their education. They also advocate for practices and policies that may help decrease student dropout rates, increase graduation rates, and increase student attendance and achievement.

We often refer to the team of community liaisons at BVSD as our front line workers. During remote learning periods they helped provide emergency resources for families, including delivering food and other essential supplies to students’ homes, assessing who needed home internet, and offering up emergency child care for students who didn’t have other options. They are also playing a crucial role in our Marshall Fire response and helping to recruit students for our Career Readiness Academy.

3 ways we partnered with community liaisons this month

Many BVSD students and families are in need of essential supplies to support their ability to learn and stay in school. Using $40,000 of the funds raised through our Critical Needs Fund, last week we distributed:

• 10,000 RTD youth bus passes
• 10 boxes of new mindfulness books 
• Over $32,000 worth of gift cards to stores like Walmart and King Soopers 

These resources were distributed to community liaisons at their February meeting. Thank you to our partners at Premier Members Credit Union who joined the meeting and provided breakfast AND a coffee gift card to each liaison as a thank you for their incredible dedication to students and families.

“Impact on Education is a reliable bridge to community resources. Our community liaisons know they can depend on Impact’s steadfast commitment to students and families and the generosity of their donors to meet the needs of those in our community facing the toughest challenges.”

Ari Gerzon-Kessler, Coordinator of Family Partnerships

In total, this month we placed over $50,000 of assistance into the hands of those who work most closely with BVSD students and families in financial need, continuing our long-standing partnership. 

We know how hard BVSD’s team of community liaisons works to provide resources to those who need them most and are so grateful for their commitment to our students.

Helpful resources for families

The team at BVSD has a fantastic resource page for families, with information about key BVSD supports, ways to get involved and stay informed, who to contact if you need help, and a list of community resources and services:
https://www.bvsd.org/parents-students/family-supports

How our Critical Needs Fund will support the BVSD community

It’s hard to believe the Marshall Fire began two weeks ago. We remain heartbroken to see the devastation in our backyard and more so as we realize how it will affect the community for years to come.

Impact on Education raises $500,000 for BVSD students and staff

We’re pleased to report that we not only met last week’s $50,000 matching grant challenge from Don and Karen Brown, but we’ve now raised over $500,000 through our Critical Needs Fund since the Marshall Fire began on December 30th. The outpouring of support from the community is uplifting to see, and we’re incredibly grateful to the 800 donors that helped us reach this milestone.

The funds we’re raising will directly support the immediate needs, long-term recovery, and mental health of BVSD students and staff.

What we’ve done so far

Our immediate focus was ensuring that the students who lost their homes would be able to return to school with everything they needed to resume learning. We brought together community volunteers and supporters to organize and distribute nearly 600 backpacks filled with school supplies and headphones for these impacted students across the district.

We’ve also utilized our dedicated volunteers to:

• help transport dozens of musical instruments to schools for students who lost one
• support a pop-up food pantry at Douglass Elementary
• assemble elementary science kits at the FOSS Center

Thank you to the volunteers who have supported us with these efforts and to the hundreds more who raised their hand to help!

More support for staff and students is coming

While the needs of our community become more clear, our next step is to provide cash assistance to staff and gift cards to students most in need of support. In addition, we have volunteers corralling in-kind donations from local partners and will be creating comfort kits that will be distributed to impacted students and staff later this month.

We’re simultaneously working with BVSD and other partners to build a long-term mental health response that will support everyone in the district. This fire impacted the entire community, and coupled with the stress of the pandemic, we know providing free access to mental health resources will be critically important. 

BVSD also continues their work to support families and employees directly impacted by the Marshall Fire and offering trauma support.

Responding to the Marshall Fire

The magnitude of the Marshall Fire tragedy is unimaginable. But so is our community’s willingness to help. Thanks to this generous community, so far we’ve raised over $200,000 from over 400 supporters through our Critical Needs Fund. These dollars are already being deployed to fund the distribution of backpacks, headphones and school supplies to nearly 600 students at 22 affected schools in BVSD.

School supplies delivered for every impacted student

In close coordination with BVSD, our immediate focus is enabling students to return to school and to learning as quickly as possible. Yesterday, we pulled together 25 volunteers who helped us organize and deliver 600 backpacks filled with school supplies to 22 BVSD schools with students displaced by the Marshall Fire. Every BVSD student who lost their home was welcomed back to school today with a brand new backpack and the supplies they need to start the semester off.

The needs of our community are continuing to unfold and we’re here to help.

BVSD staff are rapidly gathering information about the academic materials that need to be replaced including textbooks, workbooks, computers, calculators, musical instruments, athletic equipment, library books, and more. Impact on Education will deploy our Critical Needs Fund dollars to pay for these supplies as well so that school can return to normal for students. 

$50,000 matching grant from longtime Louisville residents

To ensure that we have the financial resources to meet the ever-evolving needs of our schools and students, we are proud to announce a $50,000 matching grant from Don and Karen Brown, longtime Louisville residents and champions of public education. Every dollar raised by Friday, January 7th, up to $50,000, will be doubled thanks to the generosity of the Brown Family.

How We Invested in Education in 2021

As individuals, as families, and as a community, we are just starting to feel the full impacts of the pandemic. Last year, we focused on meeting the critical needs of Boulder Valley students and families by providing food, internet access, school supplies, child care and more. 

This year, their needs are even greater. Students and educators need mental health support, targeted tutoring, and access to academic opportunities. Here’s a look at how we invested in public education this year.

January – May 2021

• Accelerated the LiveWire internet rollout, ensuring all BVSD students could access the internet at home (and at no cost if they are eligible for free & reduced lunch.) Read more >>

• Partnered with the City of and County of Boulder to purchase 450 hot spots for BVSD students to ensure they had adequate service for remote learning. Read more >>
• Ensured all BVSD students were able to access emergency food distribution while school was both remote and hybrid learning.
• Completed a pilot of Couragion, an online career discovery platform, at 5 middle schools, allowing students to access information about a wide range of careers. Read more >>
• Celebrated the outstanding contributions of all BVSD educators with Impact Awards Community Edition. Read more >>
• Funded targeted tutoring for 44 high risk elementary students. Read more >>
• Distributed $24,000 in college scholarship funds to deserving students, including first-ever Earl & Barbara Bolton Scholarship awardee. Read more >>
• Started a video interview series, What I Know Now, with 13 community leaders (watch the interviews)

June – August 2021

• Surveyed BVSD parents and educators, and conducted focus groups with educators to inform our 2021-22 priorities
• 31 preschoolers living in public housing attended our kindergarten bridge program and 70% of the children made at least one point of growth on the BVSD TS-Gold Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. Read more >>
• 11,000 backpacks filled with school supplies were distributed to students in BVSD and SVVSD through our Crayons to Calculators program. Read more >>
• Funded credit recovery for 1272 HS students Read more >>
• Facilitated summer learning for 161 students in grades K-8 by providing full day child care. Read more >>

September – December 2021

• Provided mental health training to  64 BVSD after-school caregivers. Read more >>
• Launched the Academic Opportunity Fund and invested $100,000 to support educators and over 8,500 students. Read more >>
• Selected our first cohort of students to participate in our new Career Readiness Academy
• Co-hosted a forum for BVSD School Board candidates
• Convened a Parent Partnership Summit, bringing together parent leaders from most BVSD schools. Read more >>

Your support is critical

There is a long road ahead, and it takes ALL of us working together to create lasting change for the students in our community. If you haven’t made a tax-deductible gift to support our work in 2022, there is still time. And if you’ve already given this year, THANK YOU for being a part of our team!

We’re excited to announce our new Career Readiness Academy! This program will provide low-income BVSD high school students with workforce readiness skills, training, and leadership development to help prepare them for post-secondary success. 

10th and 11th grade students with an openness to learn, explore and share will be admitted into the first cohort, launching in January 2022. Priority is being given to students facing financial hardship.

Why we’re launching this program

The Career Readiness Academy workshops are designed to introduce and develop critical skills found essential yet lacking in job applicants. The sessions will be delivered in partnership with industry and community professionals who know firsthand how the application of these skills can lead to post-secondary success.

51% of the members of the Society for Human Resources believe education systems have done little or nothing to address the soft skills shortage.

What students will learn

The students will attend a series of professional development workshops focusing on key career readiness competencies that employers value, including: critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork and collaboration, professionalism and work ethic, and oral and written communications. Staff will also help students line up summer jobs that align with their interests and goals.

The students enrolled in the Career Readiness Academy will:

• gain knowledge about post-secondary options and possible paths
• gain knowledge of and experience with professional (soft) skills
• build self-confidence and self-knowledge
• gain real-world job experience 
• earn valuable skills and a $250 stipend

One of the key focus areas of our work is college and career readiness. In addition to providing college scholarships, this new Career Readiness Academy will be a key initiative for helping students find success after graduation. 

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