More and more healthcare professionals are discovering the educational and netowrking opportunities at the Community Forum's monthly meetings.

July Community Forum Highlights

Second Wind Fund of Metro Denver

This September, the Second Wind Fund will host its 8^th annual Walk/Run/Ride to raise funds for teen suicide prevention.

Second Wind strives to remove the financial barriers to counseling faced by some at-risk teens, thus reducing the rate of teen suicide in Colorado. Since 2002, referrals have been made by school counselors, and more than 1,400 at-risk teenagers have received counseling with the financial assistance of Second Wind.

This year's Walk/Run/Ride takes place Sept. 12 at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. To get involved or for more information about Second Wind, visit http://www.swfmd.org/ or call (303) 763-1775.

Rape Awareness and Assistance Program (RAAP)

The Rape Awareness and Assistance Program helps victims of sexual assault, as well as raising community awareness and providing tools to prevent sexual assault throughout the community.

RAAP runs a 24-hour rape crisis hotline and also offers no-to-low-cost counseling to survivors of sexual assault throughout the metro area.

In addition to helping victims, RAAP proactively takes on the issue of sexual violence by offering women's self-protection and empowerment training to women and girls as young as nine.

For more information, visit http://www.raap.org/, or to get involved in an empowerment class, contact Prevention Education Coordinator Kim Flory at (303) 329-9922 ext. 317 or kflory@raap.org.   

Colorado Consumer Health Initiative

Colorado Consumer Health Initiative seeks to be the unifying voice of healthcare reform in Colorado, according to Chloe Benson, a spokeswoman for CCHI.

"We believe heath care is a right for everyone. Based on that belief, we want to address heath care as a whole," Benson said.

CCHI focuses its efforts on community organizing and coalition building - with the help of more than 200 local and statewide organizations - in order to make quality, affordable health care available to all Coloradans.  

Colorado Consumer Health Initiative also works with the media to shine a light on cases where the current health care system has failed and is currently collecting the stories of residents who are struggling to afford health insurance.

To get involved or tell your story, contact Benson at chloe@cohealthinitiative.org, or visit CCHI's Web site at http://www.cohealthinitiative.org/.

Howard Dental Center

For the last 15 years, Howard Dental has offered comprehensive oral health care services to residents living with HIV/AIDS, according to Mary Salsich, the clinic's development director.

Rather than operate on only an "emergency treatment" basis, Howard Dental takes a comprehensive approach to treating patients and often consults with their primary physicians, Salsich said.

Denver area patients are charged according to their income, with more than 90 percent of clients paying nothing for routine oral health care.

Each year, the Center treats roughly 450 patients and performs 6,000 dental procedures.

For more information, call (303) 863-0772 or visit http://www.howarddental.org/.

Senior Helpers

Senior Helpers originally started in 2001 in Baltimore as an in-home companion service for senior residents but has grown to include 200 offices, including four Colorado locations that offer non-medical home care to senior citizens. 

"We encourage and enable people's independence," said Sheila Middendorf, Senior Helpers' community relations coordinator.

Caregivers stop by as often as needed and offer help with personal hygiene, errands, housekeeping, cooking and general companionship and conversation.

"A service like ours can come in and just provide comfort to the person, the family," Middendorf said.

For more information, visit http://www.seniorhelpers.com/ or call (303) 452-6500.