Just months after expanding bilingual behavioral health services to Pueblo, Denver-based Servicios de la Raza lost its second bid for funding through Health Colorado Inc., an agency that had asked Servicios staff to apply for the funding in the first place.

Pueblo’s center for Servicios de la Raza, or Services for the People, is located at 805 W. Fourth St., where it opened April 30 with nearly a half-million dollars in funding through Health Colorado, enabling the agency to set up the brick-and-mortar site in Pueblo.

Health Colorado is a private entity that manages the Medicaid funding for the region that covers southeastern Colorado. Lori Roberts, chief executive officer and program officer for Health Colorado Inc., said the $500,000 grant award to Servicios in January was "one of the largest grants we've ever given out and it was to support their goal of extending these culturally and linguistically competent services in Pueblo."

However, Neva Martinez Ortega, a Pueblo native and behavioral health co-director and therapist for Servicios, expressed disappointment the agency has not renewed for funding.

“We were verbally courted by Health Colorado to set up a shop (in Pueblo) in the first place. Servicios immediately worked to become Medicaid-credentialed in the catchment area and the agency has served thousands of Pueblo’s most vulnerable,” Martinez Ortega said. “It is such a behavioral health desert and it has been my dream to bring these services to Pueblo."

Since opening in Pueblo, 98 Servicios clients have received or are receiving licensed therapy or clinical case management, more than 500 community members were served with additional human needs services and 3,150 were served through education and outreach, Martinez Ortega said.

“All clients are identified as low-income," she said, and come from Latino or Chicano backgrounds. Many need substance misuse or mental health treatment services and delivery in Spanish is particularly important "as many community members are monolingual,” Martinez Ortega said.

More Servicios news:Bilingual service agency Servicio de la Raza expanding to Pueblo

Second grant application nets zero funding

When Servicios staff applied for a Fall 2022 Community Reinvestment Grant through Health Colorado, the agency received nothing. Servicios has no way to appeal the decision and has been unable to learn the reason why funding wasn’t available to the agency, Martinez Ortega said.

"They were not selected unfortunately in this last grant cycle," Roberts said. "It is a highly competitive process — we received 42 applications and were able to award 17 grants this round."

“We are significantly concerned by this disturbing and surprising news. We recognize that funding is never guaranteed and appreciate the first year of funding, but to go from almost $500,000 to zero leaves little to no time to adapt," Martinez Ortega said.

Roberts said although Health Colorado offers one-year grants, it does "encourage all previous applicants to reapply as well as other organizations."

Servicios programs for the Latinx community are “sorely needed in our Pueblo metro area,” Martinez Ortega said, noting that the loss of funding “puts our bilingual behavioral health services in jeopardy as we are only funded to continue services until April 30, 2023.”

Roberts said as grant winners share their excitement about receiving the Health Colorado grants, it raises awareness about the opportunity and more applicants come forward. Roberts said there are many organizations in Health Colorado's 19-county service area that are deserving nonprofits.

"We look forward to continuing to support (Servicios) in their mission as a provider, as they implement their existing grant and give them technical assistance in any way," Roberts said.

Services will continue, but agency seeks other grants

Despite not getting Health Colorado funding, Servicios is "committed to the Pueblo community," Martinez Ortega said.

"We have been working overtime to ensure that we can sustain all the programming and staff that provide services," she said. "We hired all our program staff in the Pueblo location right from Pueblo and we want to keep their jobs secure."

Servicios employs seven staff members including four behavioral health workers, one re-entry staffer and two benefits enrollment workers.

Servicios staff immediately started writing new grant applications totaling more than $500,000, Martinez Ortega said. The staff will continue to pursue funding so that "community members already receiving services have no interruption in their individual recovery journeys."

Since it opened, Servicios also worked with another agency to host an August school supply and food distribution event that drew more than 500 Pueblo families where it provided more than 5,000 free food items for 500 food boxes and also offered COVID-19 vaccinations and other services.

“We have worked very hard to establish relationships with our communities and partners. We are advocating for an answer and are mobilizing community members to speak up and take action to ensure that the Latinx population is prioritized as it is nearly half the population of this community,” Martinez Ortega said.

Under separate funding sources, the Servicios agency also offers community reentry case management for parolees recently released from prison and bilingual benefits enrollment services.

Servicios issues a call to action

Based on community needs data which "clearly demonstrates deep disparities when it comes to accessing treatment in a timely manner," Martinez Ortega said Servicios is asking Puebloans to speak up.

"We ask community members to share with local press, elected officials and Health Colorado their personal stories and barriers they face in seeking health services. A big disconnect is the human or personal element," Martinez Ortega said. "We have data, but our community members have experienced so many levels of discrimination and oppression, many are fearful of speaking up and sharing their needs."

More heritage news:Pueblo mural by Chicano artist one of dozens in Colorado added to endangered heritage list

Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at tharmon@chieftain.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/tracywumps.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Bilingual behavioral health agency loses funding for Pueblo services