You have to know where you have been in order to know where you are going.
What do The Denver Board, Denver Options and Rocky Mountain Human Services have in common? How about a center board, community centered board and case management agency? The Denver Board was the center board for Denver. Denver Options and Rocky Mountain Human Services served as the community centered board for Denver. Over the course of some 60 years, each provided case management and services to individuals with intellectual disabilities. With the roll out of conflict free case management, Rocky Mountain Human Services became the Case Management Agency for Denver and Adams County (2024).
Let’s take a minute to step back in time. In 1963, Colorado created a community-centered system to manage and provide support and services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
The Denver Post
Aid for Retarded Gets 1st OK
House members passed the measure HB 1090 on a preliminary reading without a dissenting vote…
Purpose of the bill is to establish centers, to the fullest extent possible, at the community level, both to improve training programs for the mentally retarded and to reduce state expense by cutting down the numbers of patients who must be in an institute.
The bill provides for a contribution by the state of up to one half of the annual cost of training or $500 a person whichever is less.
Programs were initially focused on children, but with time, legislation and funding, the focus was on providing support and services for individuals birth through life.
By 1964 Arc chapters had been established in the metro area including Adams, Jefferson, and Arapahoe counties. Other agencies interested in the civil rights of marginalized communities opened their doors. In the 60’s, 70’s, and into the 80’s much of our focus was on deinstitutionalization. The Arc of Denver/ADVOCACYDENVER understood then and now, that in order to realize systemic and policy change at a local and national level we must stand in solidarity with other like thinking agencies.
