Colorado Resilience: Strengthening the Well-Being of Children

The Mission of Colorado Resilience is to strengthen child and family resilience by helping parents reach positive co- parenting and support agreements that keep both parents actively engaged in their children’s lives.  Research shows that children are emotionally and psychologically healthier, physically safer, do better in school, have more financial resources available to them, and are less likely to engage in drugs and crime when parents work together to love, care, and provide for their children.

Systems promote parental separation instead of co-parenting

Current policies and system practices in Colorado diminish child safety and well-being by pushing their parents apart and often denying them the nurturing, protections, and resources of two loving parents. This disproportionately impacts low-income families of color and places their children at greater risks of most every societal ill, making their communities less safe, and exponentially increasing the costs to society.

When parental incomes are higher, resources that should go towards education, healthcare, and extracurriculars are lost to a legal system that exacerbates conflict rather than child well-being. The results are often children who are impaired in their psychological, emotional, behavioral, and social development, and parents who are at greater mental health risks because they lose healthy relationships with their children. Except in cases of proven abuse, mom and dad are equally important to their children.

Education and early intervention triage programs are designed to empower parents with the services and resources they need to reach positive co-parenting and support agreements that minimize child endangerment, parental conflict, and system involvement. Instead of financial incentives that work against child well-being and family resilience, incentives need to reward families who have limited resources for maintaining peaceful, co-parenting relationships where children thrive with two caring and involved parents.

Colorado Resilience, a 501.c.3 non-profit, is dedicated to strengthening family relationships by replacing systemic practices that reduce resources for children with programs that promote parental cooperation for healthier, happier, and more resilient children.

Children in Single Parent Homes are at Greater Risks

  • 63% of suicides
  • 71% of high school dropouts
  • 70% of juvenile detentions
  • 90% of homeless/runaways
  • 238% more likely to deal drugs or carry a gun
  • 4x greater risk of poverty
  • 7x more likely to become a pregnant teen
  • 10x more likely to be in a substance/abuse center
  • 14x more likely to commit rape