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

Volunteer Spotlight: Cindy Arbuthnot

Cindy Arbuthnot has worked for Broomfield-based Premier Members Credit Union (PMCU) for over 32 years. She specializes in reporting and analytics that support their portfolio department and is often the first to raise her hand to support the strong partnership PMCU has with Impact on Education.

What motivates Cindy to volunteer

Helping other people and making a difference in her community brings Cindy joy. While we appreciate the time and energy she spends helping the students and staff of the Boulder Valley School District, she enjoys making them feel appreciated. PMCU regularly offers opportunities for their staff to volunteer with Impact on Education, most recently helping assemble and distribute over 900 comfort kits to students across the district who remain displaced by the Marshall Fire.

Cindy was lined up to help with the Comfort Kits, but a last-minute emergency kept her from participating. She has, however, volunteered her time helping with a number of wonderful projects, including assembling welcome back bags for every BVSD staff and educator in fall of 2020 and welcome baskets in the fall of 2021.

Welcoming staff and educators back to school

The fall of 2020 and the fall of 2021 looked very different, and Cindy supported two very important volunteer projects for back to school.

In 2020, the school year began with all students learning remotely from their homes. In order to boost the spirits of staff and educators we partnered with PMCU to put together over 5,200 welcome bags that included water bottles, pens, notepads, and some local chocolate from Lily’s Sweets! It was a huge undertaking and the bags were so appreciated throughout the district.

In 2021, the school year began with in-person learning. Everyone could feel the excitement, the anticipation, and the pure joy of being back at school. We partnered with PMCU again to deliver over 120 welcome baskets to each school and BVSD building break room, filled with snacks, stickers, dry erase markers, sticky notes and other fun items to help start the year off on a high note.

Meaningful volunteer opportunities

While Cindy’s analytical mind was key for putting together efficient assembly lines, she also enjoyed the creative element required to make the bags and baskets look special.

“I want teachers to know they’re appreciated. I could never do what they do, and it’s important for them to know other people are paying attention.” 

Cindy Arbuthnot, IOE Volunteer

Cindy says she has a lot of fun volunteering on these projects. She knows that they’re doing meaningful work and gets to broaden her network by connecting with people from other departments and branches of PMCU.

Find volunteer opportunities with us

Is your organization interested in partnering with Impact on Education to support the students and staff of Boulder Valley School District?

Your support of Impact on Education makes a difference and we’ll work closely with you to ensure the community knows you are committed to public education. Together with our corporate partners, we create opportunities to strengthen brands while building support for public education and meeting the needs of local students and teachers.

Learn more about IOE Corporate Partnerships >>

Five ways we are supporting Marshall Fire recovery for the BVSD community

Four weeks ago, the Marshall Fire devastated our community, and left many of our family, our friends, and our colleagues unexpectedly displaced. Our schools and neighborhoods are collectively grieving and working to help each other rebuild, both physically and emotionally.

We remain grateful to every individual, business and community partner who’s reached out to us looking for ways to help. Thanks to this generous outpouring of support, we’ve raised over $700,000 through our Critical Needs Fund to support BVSD students and staff. 

We’ve already distributed backpacks full of school supplies to students who lost their homes and here are five additional ways we’re supporting recovery for the BVSD community right now.

1. Providing 900 “Comfort Kits” to displaced students and staff

Thanks to a generous donation of backpacks from JanSport, we’ve been working with local volunteers to build “comfort kits” by filling these backpacks with gift cards, blankets, art supplies, journals, letters of support from students and community members and other age-appropriate items. 

This week, schools will receive enough “comfort kits” for every student that is still displaced by the Marshall Fire and included on the McKinney-Vento roster. Soon after, kits will also be delivered to each of BVSD’s over 70 displaced staff members.

We’d like to say thank you to JanSport, Boulder Book Store, Grandrabbit’s Toy Shoppe, and every individual and business that has made a donation of their time or resources.  

2. Supporting the mental health of students and staff

Families rebuilding their lives after the devastation of the Marshall Fire face a mountain of challenges, and that stress and uncertainty weighs heavily on them. In close coordination with BVSD Student Support Services, we are working to secure funding to increase the number of Mental Health Advocates available and programming that will support the emotional well-being of students and staff. The Marshall Fire’s impact on our community’s well-being is significant, and we feel strongly that we must immediately increase the mental health services available to BVSD students.

3. Transportation stipends

With students from Louisville and Superior now displaced and living all across the Front Range, getting students to and from school each day presents a new and immediate challenge for families. With the shortage of bus drivers, providing additional routes and changing current routes cannot reach all displaced families. BVSD is promoting the school pool program, in the hope that families will be able to help others who need help getting kids to school, but carpools and buses are not enough. 

The McKinney-Vento Act provides an optional reimbursement for personal transportation costs, but it’s modest and barely covers the cost of gas. Impact on Education is supplementing the transportation reimbursement so all families who now have to drive their students further can be fully reimbursed for those costs. We know it’s not the same as living in the neighborhood, but we hope it makes things a little easier for families who are struggling. 

4. Replacing instruments and athletic equipment

Working closely with our partners at BVSD, we are identifying students that are missing academic materials, including textbooks, library books, musical instruments, Chromebooks and athletic equipment. When these items can’t be replaced with a donation or insurance, Impact on Education is paying for replacements so each student can fully engage in school. From golf clubs and violins to textbooks and hockey pads, we’re making sure students can return to their learning, their music, athletic endeavors and other extracurriculars without delay. 

5. Crocs donating shoes to every BVSD student and staff member

You may have already seen that Crocs committed to providing over 30,000 pairs of Crocs to students and staff in the Boulder Valley School District. We’ve all been through a lot, and this generous donation is extra special because it will provide a little comfort to the entire BVSD community of students, educators, administrators and staff. We’re helping facilitate the distribution of Crocs in the coming months, starting with our schools impacted most by the wildfire.

What lies ahead

We’re only able to do all of this impactful work with the support of volunteers and community partners, and our work is not done. Your help allows our small staff team to continue focusing on tackling the ongoing needs of all students. 

We’re working on providing summer learning opportunities for 160 rising kindergarten students, facilitating a Career Readiness Academy for low-income BVSD high school students, and addressing economic and learning barriers that curtail student success

The importance of our mission does not change during a crisis. The students in our community rely on us to ensure they have the resources needed to fully engage in their learning. Our work to empower students and educators drives us in good times and in challenging times, too.

Crocs to donate 30,000 pairs of shoes to the BVSD community

In the wake of the recent wildfire, everyone in our community is looking for ways to support each other. We’re excited to share that Crocs, the Broomfield-based maker of innovative casual footwear, has committed to providing a new pair of Crocs shoes to every student, educator and staff member within the Boulder Valley School District. While we know it’s a long road to recovery, we hope this simple gesture provides a sense of comfort.

The impact of the Marshall Fire throughout the BVSD community

Many of us were evacuated or under pre-evacuation orders for the Marshall Fire, with 2,400 students and almost 200 staff members from the the Boulder Valley School District living within the burn area boundary. Over 500 students and 40 staff members lost their homes, and over 800 students and 50 staff members are currently displaced because of the fire. 

“As with every tragedy our community has endured, we immediately heard from people who wanted to help students, schools and staff,” said Allison Billings, Executive Director at Impact on Education. This outpouring of support is what makes the BVSD community so special. The needs of our displaced family, friends and colleagues are continuing to emerge and it’s difficult to imagine how a community recovers from devastation like this. It’s gestures like these that remind people they’re not going through it alone.”

Impact on Education has now raised over $600,000 through our Critical Needs Fund and we’re working closely with BVSD to support the immediate needs, long-term recovery, and mental health of all BVSD students and staff. 

Crocs is a local company making a huge impact

Crocs has called Colorado home since its founding in 2002 and more than 450 team members work out of their Broomfield headquarters.

“Like so many, we were heartbroken to witness the devastating wildfires that will forever impact the lives of our neighbors, friends and colleagues in Boulder County,” said Shannon Sisler, SVP & Chief People Officer at Crocs. “Over the past few weeks, we’ve received countless requests for Crocs shoes and are committed, through our partnership with Impact on Education, to provide a sense of comfort during this difficult time to the students, faculty and staff of the Boulder Valley School District. While the path to recovery is still unclear for many, we hope this donation will supply simple comforts as our community rebuilds.” 

The generous donation has the potential to impact over 30,000 people throughout the district. The gesture stems from Crocs Cares, the brand’s global philanthropic arm, which is dedicated to providing comfort when and where it’s needed most.

How the Crocs will be distributed

Impact on Education is working with school principals and their PTO/PTA organizations to create a roll-out plan for delivering shoes directly to students and staff. Crocs’ mobile truck will visit each school – beginning with those hardest hit by wildfire – potentially as early as next week, and will continue making stops at area schools over the coming weeks. Students and staff will get to choose from donated products from the brand’s Classic Collection.

The road to recovery

Our partnership with Crocs is one way we’re looking to support all students and staff during a difficult time. We’re also working to provide cash assistance to staff and gift cards to students most in need of support, and will soon be delivering “comfort kits” with letters of support from students and community members, art supplies, journals and other age-appropriate items for these students and educators. 

Looking ahead, we’re working closely with BVSD to fund additional mental health resources for the BVSD community to support the recovery of our students, staff, and their families. 

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. 

Click here to read a story about this investment in the Daily Camera (paywall).

In September, we opened our Academic Opportunity Fund to provide grants to Boulder Valley School District educators and administrators to meet student needs on an individual, school or district-wide basis. We are proud to share that we have invested over $100,000 this fall to support BVSD students and schools.  

Who applied for funding

Over 60 applications were submitted to the Academic Opportunity Fund from 30 different schools and departments. Geographically, the schools ranged from Nederland and Gold Hill to Broomfield, and everywhere in between. Applicants included school principals and administrators, classroom teachers, and specialists, with an even mix of requests from elementary, middle and high schools.

How applications were reviewed

We engaged the community in this work by bringing in 15 volunteers to examine and evaluate the 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 each funding request was under $2000, though requests ranged from $100 to $20,000.
• 50 applications were funded directly by IOE, and we were able to connect six additional applicants to BVSD internal resources to meet the identified need.

What students and schools need

From school-based tutoring to RTD bus passes to an online math software, our Academic Opportunity Fund supported a variety of student and school needs including funding to:

• run a before and after school high school tutoring center specifically targeted to getting under-represented students enrolled and engaged in advanced courses. 
• purchase IXL Math to help BVSD middle schoolers catch up on the math concepts they may have missed. 
• repair instruments for BVSD for students in financial need 
• provide after school tutoring for students identified as needing additional support
• purchase Spanish language picture books for the classroom library.
• purchase 10,000 RTD bus passes to help ensure transportation is not a barrier to class attendance.

Future rounds of the Academic Opportunity Fund 

The positive response from schools reinforces the need for us to work closely with BVSD and provide supplemental funding to meet student needs. Our community volunteer grant readers were equally encouraged by their experiences learning about the needs of schools and educators across the district. We’ll continue to provide direct funding for school-based tutoring programs and plan to reopen the Academic Opportunity Fund for other needs early next year.

If your school is in need of funding for a tutoring program, please email allison@impactoneducation.org.

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