{"id":2448011,"date":"2019-08-26T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T03:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/giving-thought-school-resource-centers-help-keep-regions-families-afloat\/"},"modified":"2019-08-27T08:01:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T14:01:32","slug":"giving-thought-school-resource-centers-help-keep-regions-families-afloat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/giving-thought-school-resource-centers-help-keep-regions-families-afloat\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Thought: School resource centers help keep region\u2019s families afloat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aspen Community Foundation, Lauder event, Aug. 13, 2018.<\/strong>
Steve Mundinger<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

As students are settling into a new school year, it\u2019s an opportunity to take a look at how schools throughout the Aspen-to-Parachute region are supporting students and families.<\/p>\n

Educators know that kids are more successful at school when the situation at home is stable and secure.<\/p>\n

Bearing this truth in mind, the Roaring Fork School District established its Family Resource Centers in 1995. The idea was to assist students and their families to address any problem \u2014 financial, emotional, medical or anything else \u2014 in order for the child to show up on time and be ready to learn. Today the RFSD has a bilingual, bicultural family services liaison in every school to help families remove any non-academic barriers to a student\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the liaisons work directly with families, but often the liaisons refer students or families to other providers. In 2018-19, 1,164 specific services or needs were provided to families, including food, medical or dental care, mental health support, rental assistance, clothing or help with Medicaid applications. More specifically, 114 students were designated homeless and received support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for a student to be successful in school, they need a stable home life,\u201d said Sarah Fedishen, family services director for the district. \u201cWe need to engage the whole family to address their basic needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

And family disruptions aren\u2019t confined to the lower and middle portions of the Roaring Fork Valley. In 2016, Aspen Family Connections opened its doors at Aspen Middle School to fill a similar role there. Aspen\u2019s affluent reputation might lead many to assume that nobody in Pitkin County needs help, but the reality is different. Aspen\u2019s higher-than-normal rates of substance abuse and mental health problems are well-known, but residents of the upper valley experience unemployment, divorce, bereavement and illness just like people everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is complicated, and we see the full range of human conditions and economic problems because Aspen is a very expensive, difficult place to live,\u201d director Katherine Sand said. \u201cAs soon as something affects a family, you see those effects playing out in their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, a similar operation has opened its doors in the Garfield 16 School District in Parachute, the western extremity of Aspen Community Foundation\u2019s service area. It\u2019s good to see this concept of school-based resource centers catching on, because we\u2019ve seen the positive results from Glenwood to Aspen, and we know there\u2019s a need across the region.<\/p>\n

Of course, each city or town from Aspen to Parachute is unique and the services provided by family resource centers are tailored to meet the needs of each school community. Recently, the Garfield 16 school-based Family Resource Center partnered with a local church to give away 116 pairs of new shoes to students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we can provide some of their basic needs, we start to build a culture and a climate of \u2018this is my community, my school district. They know me, they care about me, and I belong here,\u2019\u201d said Claudia Flores Cruz, director of the school-based center. \u201cIt all starts by providing things like food, safety and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone who drives Highway 82 during morning or afternoon rush hour understands how the Parachute-to-Aspen region is interconnected. Much of Aspen\u2019s workforce commutes daily from western Garfield County, and Aspenites often travel to Glenwood or Rifle for everything from car repairs to clothing to building supplies.<\/p>\n

We are all connected by the fibers of our regional economy, where the high cost of living and seasonal fluctuations in weather and work make for a transient population. Like it or not, we\u2019re all floating in the same regional boat, and we need to look out for one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all vulnerable, every single one of us,\u201d Sand said. \u201cIt\u2019s one big community, and the more we think about it that way, in terms of service and relationships, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tamara Tormohlen is executive director of Aspen Community Foundation.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen Community Foundation, Lauder event, Aug. 13, 2018.Steve Mundinger As students are settling into a new school year, it\u2019s an opportunity to take a look at how schools throughout the Aspen-to-Parachute region are supporting students and families. Educators know that kids are more successful at school when the situation at home is stable and secure. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 17:19:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2448032,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448011\/revisions\/2448032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}