Children's Hospital Colorado and YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region Announce Partnership

Children’s Hospital Colorado and the YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region today announced a new partnership aimed at improving the health of children and teens in the Pikes Peak region. 

“Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs is excited to partner with the YMCA Pikes Peak region to work together to improve child health,” said Gil Peri, chief strategy officer for Children’s Colorado. “Together, we will create programs and support existing youth and teen health development initiatives. This unique partnership will further align two child-focused organizations in a meaningful way. It aligns with our focus on partnering with the community to prevent childhood injury and disease through prevention and early detection programming.”

The program-focused partnership will allow the two organizations to combine Children’s Colorado’s pediatric expertise with the Y’s youth-serving programs that nurture healthy, confident, connected and secure children and teens. There will be a special focus on key areas that were identified by a community health needs assessment conducted by Children’s Colorado in El Paso and Teller counties earlier this year. This assessment aligns with the priority priority areas for the YMCA, as well. Main areas of focus will include:

• Injury prevention
• Mental health 
• Nutrition, physical activity and obesity
• Prematurity
• Respiratory illness 

“This is an exciting time of growth for the Y, and our new partnership will allow us to deliver transformational change throughout our community,” said Boyd Williams, president and CEO of the YMCA. “Our goal is to build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all. With Children’s Colorado’s expertise in the health of young people ages 0 - 18 and our community roots, the possibilities for our two organizations to team together to improve the health and wellness in the community is limitless.” 

Key priorities of the partnership are to create a more seamless experience for families to address all of their children’s health needs, focus on overcoming child health challenges, and build on existing safety and injury prevention initiatives. The partnership will include the development of evidence-based programs – from camps to workshops – that will complement the holistic approach of Y programming in the social-emotional, cognitive and physical development of children and teens. Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs will also be the exclusive partner engaged with all youth and teen sports programming and leagues, providing protocols, education and expertise.

“This week we are breaking ground on the first pediatric hospital in the region – a hospital for kids and only kids – but we are not waiting until the hospital is built to build partnerships,” said Greg Raymond, regional vice president of Children’s Colorado’s southern region. “We don’t need a facility to move the needle on child health right now. Our goal is to improve child health in our community – period. That means reaching kids and parents where they are already at with tools like preventive care and injury prevention information to help keep them healthy and out of the hospital when we can.”