Secure Attachment Initiative

Bring Mental Health Care to Young People Before Crisis

A child should not have to reach a crisis before receiving help. Yet many Colorado families cannot access mental health care because they are uninsured, face unaffordable deductibles or copays, lack transportation, or cannot leave work to take a child to weekly appointments.

The Secure Attachment Initiative is working to change that by bringing attachment-based, trauma-informed mental health care directly into local middle and high schools.

School-based care reaches students where they already spend their days. It removes practical barriers, makes earlier intervention possible, and creates a coordinated network of support among clinicians, families, counselors, teachers, and school administrators.

During our seven-month school-based pilot, four clinicians provided 124.5 hours of support to students. Building on that foundation, we are working to establish partnerships with four local middle and high schools, and a fifth school has already expressed interest in participating.

Our goal is not simply to place clinicians on school campuses. We are building a sustainable system that includes financial assistance, qualified clinical supervision, developmentally responsive resources, coordination with school personnel, and continued training for our clinical team.

Our 2026 Goal: $150,000

Our Colorado Gives goal is to raise $150,000 to establish and strengthen school-based mental health partnerships, remove financial barriers to care, and equip our clinical team to respond effectively to the needs of Colorado’s young people.

Reaching this goal will help us build the infrastructure required to serve multiple schools responsibly while remaining prepared to respond as additional schools request support.

Your Colorado Gives donation will support three essential areas.

1. Expanding School-Based Access to Care

Insurance status and family income should not determine whether a young person receives mental health support.

Although insurance may cover part of a student’s care, it does not fund everything required to make school-based services possible. Insurance does not reliably cover coordination with schools, clinical supervision, program development, referral management, outreach, missed appointments, or care for students who are uninsured or face unaffordable deductibles and copays.

Philanthropic funding allows The Secure Attachment Initiative to bridge these gaps. It helps students begin or continue receiving care when insurance is unavailable, insufficient, or temporarily interrupted. It also supports the operational foundation needed to establish responsible and sustainable partnerships with local schools.

We will bill insurance whenever services are eligible for reimbursement. Donations allow us to reach beyond what insurance will fund and ensure that financial circumstances do not prevent a young person from receiving meaningful support.

2. Providing Developmentally Responsive Clinical Resources

Children and teens do not always process painful or overwhelming experiences through conversation alone.

Our clinicians use art, sensory materials, therapeutic games, journals, storytelling, and other experiential approaches to help young people express emotions, process difficult experiences, strengthen relationships, and develop healthier ways of coping.

These resources are not recreational extras. They are developmentally responsive clinical tools used in individual, family, group, and school-based services.

Campaign funding will help keep our school and office-based therapy spaces equipped with appropriate, high-quality materials so that young people can participate in therapy in ways that feel accessible, engaging, and meaningful.

3. Investing in Clinical Excellence and Workforce Sustainability

Skilled and well-supported clinicians are the foundation of effective mental health care.

Our clinicians work with young people experiencing trauma, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, family conflict, relationship difficulties, and other serious concerns. Placing clinicians in schools is only one part of providing responsible care. They must also receive strong supervision, specialized training, clinical consultation, and ongoing opportunities to develop their skills.

Four provisionally licensed clinicians and four graduate-level interns will participate in our school-based work. Campaign funding will help provide the supervision, training, and consultation they need to respond effectively to the complex needs of children, teens, and families.

Investing in clinical development strengthens the quality and consistency of care, helps emerging clinicians grow into skilled professionals, and builds a more sustainable mental health workforce for our community.