The Colorado School of Public Health’s Center for Public Health Practice recently received a generous donation from The Colorado Health Foundation to bolster the Center's efforts to engage and support queer youth throughout rural Colorado.
"LGBTQ+ young people in rural areas often lack access to quality programs and resources to help them face adversity and gain a strong sense of identity, personal agency, and community belonging," said Rose Green, senior program officer at The Colorado Health Foundation.
Funding provided by the Foundation will directly support the continued growth and development of Colorado’s Queer Youth Network (CQYN)—a virtual meeting space enhancing belonging of rural queer youth led by affirming queer-identified adults from the Hub for Justice-Centered Youth Engagement housed within the Center for Public Health Practice. CQYN will engage young people (ages 12-18) who identify as queer and live in rural parts of Colorado in a Creative Journey program that uses arts-based methods to identify and address young people’s unmet mental health needs. The group will meet regularly over 16 weeks to explore their unmet mental health needs and identify recommendations for addressing those needs.
"CQYN’s unique combination of advocacy, celebration, connection, and support for these young people made a donation to help continue their work an obvious choice," Green added.
“The Colorado School of Public Health would like to thank The Colorado Health Foundation for its recent donation to the Center for Public Health Practice, and we congratulate Dr. Heather Kennedy and Noah Jansen for leading this important initiative,” said Travis Leiker, ColoradoSPH’s assistant dean for external relations. “The school is honored to partner with the Foundation to ensure that youth facing the greatest inequities have the resources they need to thrive.”
To learn more about engaging with these and other initiatives at the Colorado School of Public Health, please contact Travis Leiker, assistant dean for external relations, at travis.leiker@cuanschutz.edu.