AREA SERVED

Summit County is in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, about 70 miles west of Denver. A tourism destination for four world-class ski resorts and the towns of Breckenridge, Copper, Dillon, Frisco, Keystone and Silverthorne, Summit is also home to 31,011 full time residents. With beautiful scenery and an incredibly high cost of living, Summit residents experience both the challenges and rewards of mountain living.

BACKGROUND

The One Degree partnership was born out of a challenge to implement “one big idea” to serve Summit County’s at-risk families. Donor Paul Finkel brought together key partners from several nonprofit organizations, including the Education Foundation of the Summit, Family & Intercultural Resource Center, Keystone Science School, Summit Community Care Clinic, Summit Habitat for Humanity, St. Anthony Summit Medical Center and The Summit Foundation. 

Together, the group discussed community needs and viable, innovative solutions. In many cases, while the resources were there, it was access that stood out as a barrier: there was no single place where families could find assistance for the services that exist in Summit County. Paper manuals and patient navigators with brains full of information existed in the community. However, the prospect of an online, user-friendly access point to housing, food assistance, childcare, mental health services and more was the missing link.

After many years in the making, we are proud to see that “one big idea” come to reality in the form of a centralized online resource network available in English and Spanish to everyone who lives and works in Summit County. We are grateful for the partners and donors who brought the project to reality and confident that One Degree will connect life-improving opportunities with our community members in need.