Community Update May 13, 2021

Dear Tennyson Supporter,

As we ease into summer and complete another year in our K-12 School and Day Treatment Program, we want to share additional updates on our progress forward. Tennyson has made great strides to enhance existing programs and our Rewiring strategy. We continue to assess the needs within child welfare and evaluate future programming opportunities to best serve children and families. In addition, we are excited to announce that our early childhood program, Child First, will launch in July after a year of planning. The nine professionals staffing this program are in the midst of extensive, in-depth training. Through our work supporting children and families healing from extreme trauma for 117 years, we know support, prevention, and intervention during early childhood is critical. This is one way we are supporting the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities.

School and Day Treatment students have been working hard in their therapeutic classrooms while still saving time for fun and life skills development! At the end of April, students and staff from across the agency teamed for our second annual Chalk Walk! They were challenged to cover as much of the sidewalk on campus as possible with positive messages, images, and creativity. As the school year ends, students will welcome summer with a school-wide field day, complete with a staff dunk tank!

Additionally, we continue to have many conversations with child welfare experts, the community, and state regulatory agencies about the challenges and opportunities of operating residential programs under the Family First Prevention Services Act. We are aware that Jeremy Jojola from 9News/KUSA is working with Jen Brown from The Colorado Sun on a four-part series on residential facilities in Colorado, which may include Tennyson. While we will not know the specifics before it airs, we believe the series will focus on the many challenges faced within residential programs. We hope it will also highlight efforts to improve child welfare. Tennyson, along with child welfare leaders, continues to work to provide perspective, offer facts, and identify solutions that we as a community can get behind to ensure we do what is best for Colorado’s vulnerable children and families and fulfill their unmet needs.

Thank you for the care you take in staying informed about Tennyson Center for Children and your interest in supporting the wellbeing of Colorado’s children and families.

James Young, Interim President & CEO