It is with excitement that Social Venture Partners Boulder County (SVP) shares our 2023 Catapult recipients. But first, we thought it would be helpful to share how we got here. Starting last year, we reworked our Catapult grant program to be more community centric and fill the gaps we had in the nonprofits we serve. The first glaring gap we discovered was that we were not working with any BIPOC led nonprofits serving primarily BIPOC communities. We spent last year listening and hearing from BIPOC leaders in the community as well as building relationships with organizations which culminated in our inviting El Comité de Longmont to join our Catapult program. It also influenced our decision to keep working with BIPOC organizations as a priority in all aspects of our decision making.
This year, we noticed another gap in the nonprofits that we have supported throughout our 23 years in Boulder County (find our full list of Catapult recipients here). This was mental health organizations. Mental health challenges have grown in our community and all communities in our state. Colorado was listed as 49th in supporting mental health initiatives. Hopefully, that is changing with strong mental health advocacy from State Representative Judy Amabile among others, but we noticed as an organization that we wanted to learn more about the mental health nonprofits who are doing amazing work in our community and to find ways to partner with them.
This began a nine month process where our Investment Selection Committee (ISC) made up of 12 SVP Partners and led by Karin Lindgren and Jorge Méndez, began meeting with mental health leaders in our community, mental health organizations, and researching the field in general (read ISC 2023 Highlights for more information). We researched 64 organizations, had 28 meetings with local leaders, created a mental health forum where we educated ourselves and our community with panelists either working in the field or studying the field. Through that process we realized that we wanted to focus on mental health organizations who work with youth.
This resulted in us inviting both Rise Against Suicide and Women’s Wilderness as our 2023 Catapult recipients. Both organizations create such pivotal impact, one as a direct resource and health intervention for children and young adults suffering from suicidal ideation, and one for helping build mental resilience for girls and young women.
Here is a brief snapshot of each organization and we encourage you to go to their websites and learn more:
Rise Against Suicide
Mission: Rise Against Suicide helps youth at risk of suicide by removing the financial and social barriers to treatment, enabling them to find hope and healing.
- Their programming is purposely one dimensional, focused on suicide treatment and prevention, and they are expanding their reach by working with more partners and community organizations for referrals. This includes Boulder Valley School District, Clinica Family Health, the Core Program, Longmont Youth Center, Out Boulder County, the Point, and Boulder Community Health among many others.
- They have funded over 7,500 therapy sessions that offer suicidal youth a safe place to discuss their struggles and gain tools to help them when they are struggling. By the end of therapy, these youth are well on their way towards finding hope and healing.
- Rise Against Suicide continues to recruit and need therapists. They are also updating their referral management system to support their increased service demand which has been drastically increasing year over year.
Women’s Wilderness
Mission: Women’s Wilderness helps support girls, women, and LGBTQ+ people in accessing their power and improving their health through connections to the outdoors and community.
- This year is Women’s Wilderness’ 25th Anniversary and a continued commitment to creating space for girls, women, and non-binary people of all ages and backgrounds to find their place, their voice, and their power in the outdoors.
- Women’s Wilderness is a secondary provider of mental health services; mental health is a fundamental part of their programming relating to social and emotional well-being and skill development.
- Women’s Wilderness has affinity groups that serve girls of color, adult women, corporate-designed courses, elementary, and high school programs that serve girls and refugees/immigrants.
- Here’s a video if you want to learn more about Women’s Wilderness: https://vimeo.com/768703384
