Colorado nonprofit Impact on Education fundraised $800,000 to add four mental health advocate positions in schools attended by students displaced by the Marshall Fire in Boulder in late December 2021, local news source 9News reported June 6.
The funding came from community partners, including Community Foundation Boulder County, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, AT&T, UnitedHealthcare, Google, Bender West Foundation, El Pomar Foundation, Ilse Nathan Foundation, and the City of Boulder Housing and Human Services Department.
The funding will allow the positions to exist for at least 18 months during the academic school year and facilitate two summertime positions to check on students while school is not in session.
"In the wake of the Marshall Fire, it was clear that our community needed us in a huge way," Allison Billings, executive director of Impact on Education, told 9News. "My hope for our community and really for kids everywhere is that somehow this trauma upon trauma upon trauma that we have experienced these last couple of years build us into more resilient people and more resilient humans."