Broomfield Human Services Department: Helping the Community Thrive

Veterans Priority of Service

By Kristen Beckman

The Broomfield Human Services Department’s overarching mission is to help the community thrive through critical services that ensure residents have access to food, shelter, and transportation, among other services. The Human Services Department and Broomfield Health Department used to be one department, but they split in early 2020 so each could focus on its core services.

Among the department’s strategic priorities are promoting individual and whole family success, employment and economic resiliency, childhood development and increased access to physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral health services. It does so through four divisions, each with a specific focus.

The Self Sufficiency Division provides public assistance and services to support individuals and families in the community with the goal of improving health, wellbeing and economic stability. This department determines eligibility for programs such as food assistance, Medicaid, Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF), and the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP).

The Workforce Center supports the community through no-cost services by connecting job seekers and businesses looking for employees. Resources for job seekers include workshops for self-directed job searches, one-on-one career coaching and career research. Business partners can make use of job postings, recruitment assistance, job fairs, and local labor market information.

The Child, Adult, and Family Services Division is responsible for intervention services for children and at-risk adults related to potential abuse and neglect. This includes child protection and foster care services for children and investigation of maltreatment of adults. The division has been focused on prevention rather than intervention during the past several years and has had great success in reducing the number of children in out-of-home placements by placing children temporarily with family and connecting families with wraparound services like food assistance, connecting with schools, and offering employment assistance.

The Operations Division provides direct support to all Human Services Department programs, including monitoring, fee collection, federal and state data reporting, accounting, budgeting, and oversight to ensure services comply with all state and federal laws.

Broomfield’s Human Services Department served nearly 8,000 unduplicated residents last year. That included 6,200 Medicaid recipients, food assistance for 1,900 residents, 68 TANF recipients, and 62 households in the CCAP program. The department has about 74 employees to serve Broomfield’s population of 78,000 people. Roughly 80 percent of its budget goes toward direct client benefits, said Broomfield Director of Human Services Dan Casey.

The department works closely with community partners to help meet the needs of residents who need it.

“We couldn’t serve our community without our nonprofit partners like FISH,” said Casey. “There’s things they can’t do without us and there are a lot of things we can’t do without them. We really collaborate quite a bit.”

Broomfield Workforce Center at Youth Work Experience, Precious Perks at A Precious Child.

The Human Services Department was a critical safety net for many residents during and after the pandemic. The need for food, rent and unemployment assistance increased during the past three years, and with the federal public health emergency now ending, some residents are having their food assistance allotments reduced to pre-pandemic levels. Casey said the department has seen a 20 percent increase in demand for food assistance during the first quarter of this year.

In addition, Medicaid is now in a redetermination phase, and Casey said about a quarter of residents who were eligible for Medicaid during the pandemic will no longer be eligible because they either have found a job or are earning more money. He encourages current Medicaid recipients to ensure their information is up to date in the system so they don’t lose benefits they are eligible for.

Broomfield’s Human Services Department was recently recognized by the Colorado Department of Human Services as one of 15 Distinguished Performance Award winners. The award goes to counties that meet or exceed state goals for timeliness, safety, and accuracy in their work. Broomfield met 82.8 percent of the goals last year.

“It was pretty cool for our team to be recognized,” said Casey.

To learn more visit: https://www. broomfield.org/260/Human-Services