DU in the High Country

Each year, over 1 million visitors travel along Grand Avenue in Glenwood Springs, a four-lane artery linking the historic downtown to I-70 and neighboring mountain towns. Amid this busy stretch stands an unassuming 1970s-style log building with white trim, marked by a sign that reads: “University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.”

Despite its demure appearance, the program inside is anything but small. Over the past decade, DU’s Western Colorado Master of Social Work (MSW) Program has provided invaluable educational opportunities to rural regions across Colorado—covering Summit, Eagle, Garfield, Pitkin and Mesa counties, areas that make up 87% of the state’s counties experiencing a shortage of mental health professionals.

While the beauty of the surrounding landscape is undeniable, the need the program addresses is immense. Its superpower is preparing local students to understand and serve in diverse rural contexts. From schools and hospitals to clinics, rehabilitation centers, veteran’s affairs offices, hospice centers and youth counseling services, nearly every sector has ties to DU, a testament to the growing web of skilled workers the program has produced.

Students commute—sometimes for hours, in rain, snow, sleet or shine—every Friday to Glenwood Springs for classes, then spread out across the region for field education during the week. With a nearly 100% completion rate, graduates have rolled up their sleeves and helped to transform the regional social work landscape, building a network that is vital to the well-being and future of rural communities in Western Colorado.

In the community, for the community

Rachel Forbes, program director for the Western Colorado program, spent her first day on the job in 2013 building the program’s home base on Grand Avenue from scratch, ripping open IKEA boxes and tediously tightening screws. Her willingness to dive right in and get the job done exemplifies the program’s overall ethos and reputation.

Its decade-long success and support in the region stems from adapting to community needs, says Forbes, who spent countless hours on mountain roads cultivating relationships with regional partners when she started her position.

“We wanted the curriculum to be community-informed,” she says. “Somebody would say, ‘There’s an opioid crisis, and we don’t have enough clinicians who understand that practice area. It would be awesome if you could train your students in substance use and misuse disorders.’”

In turn, Forbes has kept the program responsive and relevant. Students have logged more than 100,000 field education hours at local organizations, planting the seeds for not only post-graduation career paths but also a pipeline of skilled workers ready to enter a talent- thirsty workforce.

“You can have all the academic training. You can read all the articles. But unless you’re able to transfer what you’re learning in the classroom into real-world scenarios with messy humans, nothing is going to make sense to the student,” says Jarid Rollins, a licensed clinical social worker at MidValley Family Practice in Basalt and adjunct instructor who has supervised several DU students.

Rollins says DU students have an exceptional level of passion and commitment, due to the quality of the students the program attracts. Cohorts are diverse, with students ranging from those in their early 20s to mid-career changers in their 50s, each bringing distinctive cultural and professional experiences.

“It feels like a collection of interesting and dynamic human beings coming together with very open hearts, trying to do our best to learn how to be helpful in our communities,” says Renee Prince, a current MSW student who chose the program during a career change because of its in-person learning.

For those who were born and raised in the area, the educational opportunity is especially meaningful. Cristina Andrade Guzman’s (MSW ’19) story has come full circle: She was a patient at Mountain Family Health Centers and has worked there as a licensed clinical social worker for the past six years.

“Growing up in this community, I always knew that I wanted to give back because my community gave back to me,” she says.

It wasn’t until she started the program that she realized the immense gap her work would fill, especially for Spanish-speaking clients, who make up 90% of her clientele. Andrade, who is bilingual in English and Spanish, is in high demand, and she’s risen to the occasion by working alongside medical and dental providers.

Though working with clients experiencing depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, chronic health issues, addiction and more can be draining, the reward for Andrade is witnessing the immediate impact her work has on her clients.

“You can see clients learning positive coping skills to help with whatever they’re going through, and over time, they get better. That progress is what has kept me going,” she says.

Retiring an old stereotype

For alumna Yesenia Silva Estrada (MSW ’17), the stereotype of an overworked social worker coming to take your child away is both tired and limiting when describing the impact MSWs have made in the Rocky Mountain region.

Silva Estrada, now the vice president of planning and chief of staff at Colorado Mountain College (CMC), explains that many people mistakenly believe social workers only assist low-income clients as part of a system focused solely on poverty. In practice, social workers are where you wouldn’t expect, addressing complex issues at a bird’s eye view by coordinating services in the area or using systems thinking to address root causes.

“We are all over the place. We are in big organizations, we're doing direct service to variety of different individuals, we're also planning programs, and we're directors of programs,” says Silva Estrada. “We're in very different places and spaces creating change.”

A fellow student from Silva Estrada’s cohort, Barbra Corcoran (MSW ’15), represents another non-stereotypical role as an integrated behavioral health provider at Valley View Hospital. Providers like Corcoran feel that if they can bring behavioral care into approachable and more affordable healthcare settings as opposed to siloed clinics, they will reach more people with the care they need.

“The goal is that we just meet people when they're in a moment of need and take the pressure off of primary care providers,” she says, “Then we get to work as a team to support that patient.”

DU’s program confirmed what Corcoran had observed as a licensed clinical social worker and addiction counselor: that life circumstances or experiences can have negative or positive outcomes on individuals. Social determinants of health can include stressors like transportation, housing, food and safety in one’s home. These stressors are intensified on the Western Slope, with long distances to services and a housing supply that competes with second home buyers and vacation rentals.

Paradise paradox

The mountainous regions where students and graduates serve exist in what Silva Estrada calls the “paradise paradox.”

“It’s beautiful to live here. It’s known for the outdoors, but statistically, we have a high rate of suicides, a high rate of mental health crisis and challenges that are exacerbated with the high cost of living,” she notes.

Therefore, how issues are addressed in rural areas can be different from their urban counterparts. “You can’t take an urban intervention or program and just plop it into a rural area. It has to look slightly different, sometimes significantly different,” says Cristina Gair, director of West Mountain Regional Health Alliance, one of the programs crucial to establishing DU’s presence in the community.

The “paradise paradox” is most obvious in the housing crisis, which hits rural communities hardest due to limited inventory and competition with second-home buyers. This issue permeates all aspects of life, shaping the future direction of the program’s curriculum and focus.

“The number of times I’ve heard a client say something like, ‘I don’t feel accepted by this valley’ because of their housing situation is more than a dozen times in the last two years,” says Rollins. “That feeling of disconnection and disenfranchisement from our communities is driven by the housing crisis, in some respects.”

To address the housing crisis, the Western Colorado program and its collaborators are working to harness the work done by the Graduate School of Social Work’s Center for Housing and Homelessness Research, led by Professor Daniel Brisson.

Another issue that’s unique to the area is the lack of lawyers representing plaintiffs in employment cases, making it what’s known as a “legal desert.” Lindsay Fallon (MSW ’15) received her degree on the Denver campus and, after running programming in Denver with Towards Justice, a nonprofit law firm that represents low-wage workers, she moved to Glenwood Springs to expand the program’s presence in the western part of the state.

Fallon has witnessed employers in the region blacklist and retaliate against workers who speak up about workplace safety or wage and hour violations. These intimidation tactics have an especially harmful impact on mountain town workers, where job opportunities are scarcer than in urban areas, she says. As a result, many employees stay silent, fearing retribution. Her goal is to level the playing field for workers.

“My hope is that workers—the lifeblood of our communities—have the kinds of protections and legal support to ensure that their participation in our economies is sustainable and dignified,” says Fallon. “We live in a community with considerable inequity. This is a problem that won’t go away without a continued fight.”

The close-knit nature of these communities can be a double-edged sword for social workers, too. Everyday tasks like grocery shopping or attending social events can be challenging when clients are around. At the same time, providing care locally and creating a sense of togetherness helps sustain a thriving workforce in a place they call home, and where millions vacation.

The long game

In rural communities, collaboration isn’t a buzzword for a LinkedIn post; it’s a necessary foundation for any successful initiative.

“This valley gets smaller and smaller the longer that you live here,” says Forbes. “People tend to play the long game and invest in relationships over time, which is important to building the social fabric of a place.”

That’s why DU’s program is building relationships with CMC and Colorado Mesa University to create a pipeline of MSW students. They’re also reaching out to high schools, telling students about the varied career paths a degree in social work can offer, with a particular emphasis on recruiting bilingual students.

The program’s leaders and graduates share a sense of accountability to their rural communities, driven by the desire to build more resilient towns through a legion of changemakers. Neighborly accountability shapes the program’s impact and ensures its future success. Students enroll not just for a degree but to care for the communities they call home.

“Just imagine if this program was not in existence,” says Gair. “There would be approximately 100 fewer people in the workforce. It’s been a game changer for this region.”

The frameworks and skills they’ve gained from the program are crucial to creating the world they envision: one that is compassionate and just and helps those in need. Although 100 graduates might not seem like a lot to urbanites, the ripple effect is transforming Colorado’s mountain communities from the inside out.

“Our profession is called to be in the service of others, to see everyone with dignity and worth, and to see them in their environment without judgment,” says Silva Estrada. “Imagine the type of community and environment that could bring in a world that’s super divisive right now.”