Second Wind receives 5-year/$330,000 Colorado Trust grant for Latino youth at-risk for suicide

The Second Wind Fund has received a 5-year, $330,000 grant from The Colorado Trust to strengthen its services to Latino youth. Second Wind works with schools and other organizations to link uninsured or underinsured youth (19 and under) at-risk for suicide with professional counseling services, and pays for 8 to 20 sessions for those youth to visit qualified providers. To date, nearly 700 youth have been referred through Second Wind. The Colorado Trust’s Equality in Health Initiative will enable Second Wind to address issues around accessibility to counseling for Latino youth, where language barriers and stigma can often discourage youth seeking help for suicidal thoughts.

The Colorado Trust, a grantmaking foundation, created the seven-year (2005-2012), $13.1 million Equality in Health Initiative to help reduce disparities in Colorado. Through this initiative, Second Wind Fund, A Fund of The Jefferson Foundation, is one of 26 nonprofit organizations and educational institutions that are helping health care providers gain the skills necessary to consider unique cultural backgrounds as they provide care and, in turn, reduce racial and ethnic disparities.

Through the grant, Second Wind will hire a bilingual therapist who will provide services to some Latino youth referred through the program. The therapist will also act as a general case manager for all Latino youth referred to Second Wind, and work with schools and other organizations to develop strategies for breaking down stigma and easing language barriers both in the Latino community in general and for when those latter two factors come into play in the cases of specific youth at-risk for suicide.

For more information about Second Wind Fund’s efforts to strengthen equality in health, contact Jeff Lamontagne at 303-988-2645.

For additional information about The Colorado Trust’s Equality in Health Initiative, please visit www.coloradotrust.org.

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