Made with
Your session has expired. Please start again, and enter your payment information within 60 minutes to continue.
Since 1983, Colorado Health Network (CHN) has sought to innovatively and equitably meet the evolving needs of individuals in Colorado living with and at risk of acquiring HIV and other health conditions. Colorado Health Network is a statewide organization and currently serves over 5,250 individuals living with HIV by providing a broad spectrum of holistic support services including medical and oral health care, case management, behavioral health services, housing assistance, nutrition services, and emergency financial assistance. Each service CHN provides is strategically designed to help empower people eliminate barriers to treatment and care and to make healthy choices leading to increased stability and healthier lives.
CHN also works to prevent the spread of HIV through testing, promoting treatment as prevention and providing PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis) services. CHN utilizes a spectrum of education and prevention services with a focus on meeting clients where they are in an effort to help decrease their risk over time. CHN serves a diverse population reaching them through media, community outreach and referrals. Additionally, CHN provides other health-related services including a sterile needle access/exchange program and insurance and medical enrollment services. CHN is a member of several advocacy organizations working to advance social and health care equity within Colorado.
In 1985 Gloria Latimer and Lynn Plumber Plunkett, employees of the El Paso County Health Department worked with then director, Doctor John Muth to organize a meeting of community leaders to discuss whether Colorado Springs would start an organization similar to the Colorado AIDS Project.
In addition to staff from the Health Department, members at that first meeting included Martha Barton, Executive Director of Pikes Peak Hospice, Therapist’s Laurie Picus and Ellen Levy, as well as Chuck Amos, a therapist who worked at Fort Carson. Other organizations represented at the meeting included The American Red Cross, the owner of the Hide and Seek Club and several community members.
According to Gloria Latimer, “it was a quick decision to establish a local AIDS organization. Not so quick to settle upon a name for it and a location to house it.”
Once the name, Southern Colorado AIDS Project (SCAP) was adopted, the group created articles of incorporation and by-laws and was recognized in 1986 as a charitable organization by the IRS.
SCAP’s first office space was donated and was located above two retail shops kiddy-corner across the street from Poor Richards coffee shop on North Tejon. There, the group created an information phone line which volunteers manned. Unfortunately the SCAP office was forced to move after a short period of time. “The owner said we had to leave due to concerns about AIDS transmission to others in the building and reduced business in the shop below our space”, Gloria recounted.
SCAP then moved into a donated space at the Myron Stratton Home for a few months until they were asked to leave. The next move was to a small office in the American Red Cross Building on North Nevada.
In 1988 SCAP placed a classified ad in the local newspaper with details on a support group available to people living with HIV/AIDS. The group met at the All Souls Unitarian Church. During this period the organization gathered small donations and a grant of $3,000 for direct support to clients. Volunteers continued to manage the telephone information line seven days a week.
In the early 1990s the SCAP Board of Directors spent months preparing the organization to receive funding from the Ryan White Care Act. Over a several month period, the board voted to sign a lease for office space and to hire a part-time case manager.
The new space was located in the 500 block of South Tejon. Due to the fear and stigma of AIDS, and the community fight over Amendment two, the organization did not have a visible sign in the front.
SCAP formed a formal consortium of local organizations to distribute Ryan White Part B funds. Initial members included the El Paso County Health Department, Pikes Peak Hospice, Visiting Nurses Association and several community housing advocates.
Over the following years, SCAP experience tremendous growth in the number of individuals living with HIV/AIDS requesting assistance. Sometimes assistance was in the form of attending a support group, meeting with a case manager, requesting financial assistance and often just help dealing with family and social challenges.
A notable achievement in the mid-90s, was when SCAP collaborated with the health department to hire HIV nurse specialist Susan Janty, who spent 50 percent of her time at SCAP and the other 50 percent at the health department. During her time at SCAP Susan provided clients medical updates, treatment options and feedback on dealing with AIDS related complications. The doctors at the Infectious Disease Specialists also became integral partners in meeting client needs. Doctor’s Dinny Weber and Jesse Hofflin provided care in a compassionate, and nonjudgmental fashion and regularly referred patients to SCAP.
A unique and unplanned activity within the organization was the formation of the “Moms Group.” The group consisted of moms who had lost a child or a mom whose child was living with HIV/AIDS. The group of moms grew into more than just a support group. For a period of time, they provided programs and outreach to inmates at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City.
Additionally, in the mid-90s, SCAP opened an office in Pueblo Colorado in response to the growing number of individuals in the Pueblo area and southern Colorado being identified as HIV positive. The office space was donated by the Pueblo Red Cross with support of the Pueblo County Health Department. Also about this time SCAP collaborated with the staff at the San Luis Valley Behavioral Health Group and Valley-Wide Health Systems to provide support to individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the San Luis Valley.
In the late 90s, SCAP faced the issue of running out of office space and formed a search committee of staff, volunteers and clients to establish priorities for new location. In 1998 SCAP moved into its current location at 1301 South 8th street. The space, according to the Executive Director Karen Arndt fit the bill with “lots more privacy for clients, on a bus route, decent parking… plus being clean and shiny.”
SCAP continued to expand programs and services along with fundraising opportunities in the early 2000s. In addition to the annual Red Ribbon Ball, hundreds of volunteers worked to produce a multi-day bicycle fundraiser, which became an annual event for several years.
In 2008, SCAP staff collaborated with the Doctors from the Infectious Disease Group and Peak Vista Health Center to create Colorado Springs’s first HIV medical clinic providing wrap-around care.
During the clinic, clients meet with a primary provider from Peak Vista, followed by meeting with a doctor from Infectious Disease Specialists and then with a case manager from SCAP. Today, the clinic supports more than 400 patients.
Also in 2008 SCAP joined staff and board members from the other five AIDS Service Organizations in Colorado to discuss how services might be provided to the HIV community if funding were to disappear. As discussions evolved over the next three years, organizational leaders began to see the benefits of merging, and in October 2011 the merger of SCAP, WCAP, NCAP, and CAP was official and SCAP became the Southern Colorado Health Network (SCHN). Today, the combined offices make up the Colorado Health Network and serve over 6,000 individuals statewide.
Programs are strategically designed to help empower people eliminate barriers to treatment and care and to make healthy choices leading to increased stability and healthier lives.
Local programs are also designed to prevent the spread of HIV through testing, promoting treatment as prevention and providing PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis) services. Additionally, health-related services including a sterile needle access/exchange program and insurance and medical enrollment services.
Today, the Southern Colorado Health Network continues to provide innovated programs and services in the Pikes Peak region.