In case you missed it, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper recently visited Pueblo and Colorado Springs to hear about local issues, tour a community health nonprofit that supports Pueblo’s Latino community, and attend a community event to support unhoused veterans.
In Colorado Springs, Hickenlooper attended the Stand Down for Homeless Vets event at Weidner Field. He met with Colorado veterans and staff from Mt. Carmel Veteran Service Center to raise awareness about the resources and services available for vets experiencing homelessness. While in the Springs, he discussed his recent letter calling on the Department of Defense to fix the rule hurting Colorado Children’s hospitals serving defense communities and undermining their ability to provide care.
Hickenlooper also traveled to Pueblo to tour Servicios de la Raza, a nonprofit that provides bilingual mental health care and other wraparound services for the Latino community. He celebrated the $2 million in Congressionally Directed Spending he helped secure for Servicios and participated in their El Arte Cura program, which celebrates Hispanic heritage and promotes mental health through community art.
Later, Hickenlooper hosted a town hall in Pueblo where he discussed top-of-mind issues with Coloradans, answered questions about our clean energy transition, and highlighted federal investments in the community, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and his PUEBLO Act.
Check out the headlines below:
WATCH: KKTV/CBS: Hickenlooper attends Stand Down
About 30 organizations stepped up to help them stand down.
“Every veteran understands when you’re using the term stand down, it’s everybody stopping and focusing on a specific activity. In this case, it’s to support homeless veterans.”
Senator Hickenlooper started a program here in Colorado when he was governor called the veterans service career program. Today he continues to work to help veterans through events like these.
WATCH: KXRM: Colorado lawmakers write letter to DHA regarding change in TRICARE reimbursement
Pueblo Chieftain: Hickenlooper stops by Servicios de La Raza after Colorado nonprofit gets $2 million
Servicios de la Raza, a nonprofit with a Pueblo location at 805 W. Fourth St., received a special visit from U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper prior to the senator’s evening town hall at the Rawlings Library on Oct. 15.
In 2022, Hickenlooper helped secure $2 million from Congress for Servicios de La Raza’s umbrella organization.
Hickenlooper stopped by the Pueblo location to celebrate the $2 million given to the umbrella organization and tour the facility that expanded to the Steel City just over two years ago.
Following his tour, Hickenlooper expressed a desire to advocate for additional funds specific to Servicios de La Raza’s Pueblo facility in Congress. He also praised the Pueblo staff’s efforts to address behavioral health issues and reduce recidivism by helping ex-offenders gain employment.
“Servicios needs more space, so we are trying to make sure that we know about it… You don’t get a nickel if you can’t get other senators involved, being able to say, ‘I have been to Servicios de La Raza in Pueblo. I have seen what they do. The community is involved and engaged.”
WATCH: Fox 21: Hickenlooper visits Servicios de La Raza
Senator John Hickenlooper was down in Pueblo today. The lawmaker toured Servicios de la Raza, a nonprofit dedicated to closing healthcare gaps for the latino community in public county. They provide wrap-around care, including post incarceration and behavioral health services, a food pantry and housing workforce development and victims services programming. Hickenlooper helped secure 2 million dollars in federal aid to support the newly-opened site.
“Money is always important to nonprofits. As you know nonprofits tend to operate on a shoestring budgets as well as this love and passion from the people that are serving in those nonprofits, so when it is direct given to us, it means that a lot more dollars go into that programs and a lot more guys going to the nonprofits that are serving clients directly.”
Hickenlooper also held a public town hall following the tour to hear directly from coloradans about top of my issues and discuss updates from washington.
WATCH: KKTV: Sen. Hickenlooper visits Pueblo Latino non-profit
Servicios de la Raza, a health care facility providing important services to a lot of people, got a visit from U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper on Tuesday.
Hickenlooper was there to see the Pueblo location’s day-to-day operations.
…On Tuesday, Hickenlooper toured the facility to see where the $2 million funds he secured back in 2022 are going towards right now.
…Hickenlooper also tells 11 News seeing this organization in action will help him advocate for more funding in the future. Hickenlooper also says, “I think the key is to recognize that many of these nonprofits do a better job than government can do, in terms of reaching out and getting people in the community to acknowledge they need help and to take that aid, and that assistance, to learn the skills to become part of the community.”
WATCH: KOAA: Senator John Hickenlooper visits Pueblo non-profit Tuesday
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