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Week of February 17, 2022
JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
JeffcoTranscript.com
VOLUME 38 | ISSUE 30
Jefferson Center partners with RTD for mental health and homelessness outreach New routes in extending social services explored as demand continues to grow BY BOB WOOLEY BWOOLEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
nearby Jefferson High School. In her early days student teaching, she’d worked at Columbine and become close friends with Dave Sanders, the teacher and coach who lost his life trying to save students. Immediately after the shootings she volunteered her time as a counselor, helping Columbine students get through what has become a defining event of the last 25 years. After the Columbine tragedy, Austin worked as a counselor at Green Mountain High School during a time when four students took their own lives within an 8-month timespan.
The Jefferson Center for Mental Health (JCMH) is partnering with RTD to provide a mental health professional on trains and at stations to help address people in need of care, people who are in crisis and people who are homeless with mental health needs. According to JCMH Spokesperson Stephanie Schiemann, in this new and unique role, a Navigator will make contact on RTD trains and in stations, offering assistance in the form of resource referrals. The Navigator also will develop trauma-informed standards of care for RTD, while acting as a liaison between RTD and the community. “Jefferson Center participated in a competitive bidding process to house this important role, and we are honored that RTD has recognized the high quality of care that we can offer,” Schiemann said. Steve Martingano, Deputy Chief, RTD Transit Police, said more than three years ago, RTD started a co-responder unit, where clinicians from Mental Health Center of Denver would accompany the District’s police officers on mental health related calls in the City and County of Denver. He said data captured from that program — what types of contacts and diagnoses they were making, and
SEE GRANT, P2
SEE HOMELESS, P4
The Carmody Middle School BIONIC Team stands for a portrait.
PHOTO BY BOB WOOLEY
BIONIC Team awarded grant to prevent trauma in schools Students and teachers support each other through local nonprofit BY BOB WOOLEY BWOOLEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
If the current news cycle, political climate, inflation, crime and global pandemic have you convinced there’s no good left in the world — read on. B.I.O.N.I.C. (Believe It Or Not, I Care), a nonprofit started by former Jeffco counselor and teacher Sandy Austin, was just awarded a $2,600 donation from
LifeChanger of the Year, a group that celebrates K-12 educators and school employees across the country who exemplify excellence, positive influence and leadership. Although the grant is definitely newsworthy, the real story is that of the impact one woman with an idea, and legions of students, teachers and counselors have had in Jeffco and beyond. Austin was a school counselor for 21 years and a teacher for 10 years before creating B.I.O.N.I.C. In that time, she saw students’ trials and tribulations, successes and even tragedies. Columbine happened while she was working as a counselor at
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 15 | SPORTS: PAGE 16
REACHING READERS
Book clubs are no longer just confined to living rooms
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