News Release
[September 17, 2022 – Denver, Colo.]: Caring for Denver Foundation has received the Community Builder Award from Servicios de la Raza, an honor recognizing individuals and organizations who have provided incredible benefits to the Indigenous and Chicano/Latino community.
“It is a very proud and humbling experience for our team to accept this award,” said executive director Lorez Meinhold. “We are dedicated to building strong relationships in the community, being open to listening, and standing up for community needs. We’re grateful to Servicios for their leadership and voice in making our work possible.”
Servicios de la Raza shared “The foundation is dedicated to making mental health and substance misuse care easy to access in trusted spaces. They prioritize listening and learning from communities to focus, guide, and improve their approach to address mental health and substance misuse needs, and that’s exactly what they’ve done for our agency.” Read more from Servicios de la Raza.
Caring for Denver program officer Juan Escobedo and Board Chair Leslie Herod accepted the award at Servicios de la Raza’s 50th-anniversary fiesta cookout in the park on September 17.
About Caring for Denver Foundation
Caring for Denver Foundation was founded and funded with overwhelming voter support to address Denver’s mental health and substance misuse needs by growing community-informed solutions, dismantling stigma, and turning the community’s desire to help into action.
About Lorez Meinhold
Lorez Meinhold serves as the Executive Director of Caring for Denver Foundation. She brings over twenty years of implementation and policy experience as a director of multilateral initiatives involving the public, private, and civic sectors, working at the local, state, and national levels. Lorez has worked in many capacities integrating health programs addressing mental health and substance misuse needs, connecting early childhood and health communities, delivery and payment system reforms, and efforts that required statewide stakeholder engagement.
About Rep. Leslie Herod
Colorado State Representative Leslie Herod (D-Denver) was elected in 2016 as the first LGBTQ African American in the Colorado General Assembly. Since then, she has passed 52 bills, addressing criminal justice reform, mental health, addiction, youth homelessness, education, and civil rights protections. Herod championed the Caring for Denver Ballot measure and now serves as Chair of the Caring for Denver Foundation Board.