Shelter Program: SPAN’s Emergency Shelter has seen an increase in families with children seeking safety, with three families of five or more children sheltered just since the start of 2023. Our Shelter Child/Youth Counselor/Advocate has a central role in supporting families, coordinating resources like school enrollment and childcare, and ensuring children and their parents have the care needed during their stay. SPAN’s 24/7 Crisis Line, based in the Shelter, responded to more than 1,100 crisis calls in the first six weeks of 2023. Some of these calls came from local law enforcement agencies using a Lethality Assessment Protocol to identify and effectively respond to high-lethality domestic violence calls and refer directly to SPAN. Through our 24/7 Crisis Line, we have developed and strengthened our coordinated response to provide resources to survivors as immediately as possible.
Housing and Economic Justice Program: SPAN’s Housing & Economic Justice Program has remained extremely busy supporting housing clients, responding to referrals, and sharing community resources. Since the start of 2023, the Housing Team has supported 28 families currently in SPAN’s Housing Program, responded to more than 40 requests for rental assistance from survivors in the community, and assisted 10 families to exit our Emergency Shelter and move into safe housing. We also have distributed nearly $60,000 of rental assistance and flexible funding to survivors since the start of the year.
Counseling Program: One of the most notable projects and community collaborations for the Counseling Program has been the expansion of SPAN’s Family Resilience Empowerment and Engagement (FREE) Program. The FREE Program partners with Boulder County Parents as Teachers, “Let’s Connect” (a community-based parenting program with the University of Colorado), and the VOZ Program through the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition, to name a few. The FREE Program focuses on children’s socio-emotional learning within a “whole system” approach, providing parents/caregivers self-care and support groups to nurture the parent-child bond.
Education Program: SPAN’s Violence Prevention Educators are active in Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), bringing our evidence-based curriculum to classrooms across the district. During the fall semester, SPAN Educators visited 17 BVSD middle and high schools, providing a total of 246 presentations that reached 2,038 middle and high school students. Our Educators are scheduled to reach even more students in the 2023 Spring Semester.
Legal Advocacy Program: SPAN’s Legal Advocacy Program continues to support survivors navigating the Civil Protection Order process and provide resources about Family Law and Immigration. Through our Lawyers for Victims Program, survivors have access to attorneys knowledgeable about domestic violence who can support them through the Protection Order process. SPAN’s Legal Advocacy Team answers referrals in both English and Spanish and works to empower survivors when going through overwhelming legal processes.
