The Serenity Project Challenges Health Inequity Across Colorado

Colorado Equity Compass (CEC) Awardee, The Serenity Project (TSP), challenges health inequity across Colorado in a number of ways. Mental health, culture, social network, and justice are at the forefront of our nonprofit centered around empowering and building up women survivors after a life of trauma.

Colorado has among the highest increasing rates of suicides among at-risk women with a decreasing number of resources, shelters, and community-building tools for this vulnerable population. Mental health among survivors is particularly important because of how much it affects everyday life completely uniquely for every woman in the program. While survivors in our program have a wide range of backgrounds and hardships throughout their lives, we have found over the past six years that these women are deeply disadvantaged in healing because of three main factors:

1. The lack of community support, or social network,

2. Injustices in the justice system, and

3. Their religious, racial, and or gender identity mistreated and disrespected by our at-large institutions statewide.

TSP challenges the varying health equity issues this community of women experiences through a three-pillar yearlong program. Through TSP, women embark on a yearlong journey to build self-confidence through an annual charitable fashion show held on International Day of Self-Love, a 12-month curriculum with weekly guest speakers and exercises to cultivate confidence, community, and connections as well as provide therapeutic tools to help survivors grow through trauma and find where they need support, and a 1-1 women mentorship program for survivors to develop meaningful passion projects alongside fellow women leaders.