Overview

Boulder Town diverse community with a range of health and wellness needs. It is an active community that engages with the people and the land daily. The health and wellness opportunities for Boulder Wellness extend from youth activities to wilderness and medical skills to aging in place for the older generations. We are looking for community support for financial support and volunteer support for outreach and participation. It is essential to recognize that this small rural community requires much more personal interactions and does not rely on technology for communication and engagement.

The strength of the program will depend on the network of other programs and organizations, services and practitioners and established health and wellness organizations that can lend guidance and expertise in the development and implementation of the Boulder Wellness Network. Some of the leading programs that we look forward to working with are: University of Utah, Rural & Underserved Utah Experience Initiatives, Intermountain Health Care: Mammography Unit, Garfield County Public Health, and community based programs such as Boulder Community Alliance, Prevention Coalition of Escalante. Our vision is shared with surrounding communities such as Green River and Bluff and we will work together to support one another, share resources and leverage one anothers programming.

Boulder Wellness Projects (active)

Borrow Me Equipment Library

Telehealth Training for home assessments

Emergency Information Cards

Boulder Wellness Networks current goals and plans can be broken down into the following steps:

Identify core areas of community need, the community demographics, and where/how they are being served. Help prioritize needs and requests. These activities will be conducted by the Non-Profit’s President and will involve creating and taking surveys, talking to residents, attending town council meetings, etc.

Explore and assess the effectiveness of current care and options available to Boulder-area residents. Identify ways that the care and options could be improved. These activities will be conducted initially by the President, but will be expanded to other volunteers as they begin working with Boulder Wellness Network.

Utilize existing resources, current care providers, mobile health units, and volunteers from local community centers, schools, churches, or the community in general. This is the network creation phase where Boulder Wellness Network helps to facilitate interaction and the sharing of existing resources, such as a room in a building that is not being utilized that a doctor could use if the doctor came to the town once per month. These activities will be conducted initially by the President, but will be expanded to volunteers or other officers as the Non-Profit grows who are specifically tasked with coordinating existing resources.

Train, or provide training or access to existing training for community members to provide necessary services. Develop programs and resources that support residents in obtaining training/certification for EMT, Search & Rescue, Life Doula, Fire, Caregivers, etc. The goal would be to make training available to all residents, with a focus on those who are physically capable of performing the tasks and will live in the town for the foreseeable future. These activities and training will likely not be performed immediately by the Non-Profit and will take a little time to develop out as the Non-Profit grows. A volunteer Non-Profit officer will be specifically assigned the task of developing training or helping to make existing training more accessible to residents. It is anticipated that such efforts can be utilized or followed in other small towns as well.

Serve residents locally using nearby clinics’ resident auxiliary medical practitioners. This is an extension of the networking goals of the Non-Profit and will involve creating ways for medical personnel that support surrounding towns to have more direct involvement in Boulder or other applicable towns. These activities will be conducted initially by the President, but will be expanded to volunteers or other officers as the Non-Profit grows who are specifically tasked with coordinating existing resources.

Identify care options between residents and local providers/clinics. This extends from the work in #1 above as well as Boulder Wellness Networks’ networking goals. Boulder Wellness Network will work to serve an intermediary role of understanding community needs and proactively working to arrange for professionals who can help to meet those needs. Ideally, Boulder Wellness Network will work to have a strong communication structure with providers and professionals who live in or serve nearby communities, but, as necessary, Boulder Wellness Network will work to identify other professionals who may be able to assist, even if they are from further away. These activities will be conducted initially by the President, but will be expanded to volunteers or other officers as the Non-Profit grows who are specifically tasked with these coordination efforts.

Develop a local network of services, organizations, and businesses to support the community. With technology, some of these organizations may not have to be in physical proximity to Boulder or the other applicable small towns as video conferences may be an option (with legal or accounting services, for example). Boulder Wellness Network feels strongly that the health of the community can improve as more organizations support the community. These activities will be conducted by the President at the outset, and may be delegated to other officers as the Non-Profit grows.

Develop an organized volunteer network to communicate needs and available services, identify opportunities, and provide assistance to community members. In small towns, town members have to be able to rely on each other, and Boulder Health Services will work to facilitate volunteers and connect them with needs of individuals in the community. At the outset, these efforts will be coordinated by the President, but will ultimately be run by volunteers who are specifically tasked with helping to identify needs and direct other volunteers to fill those needs.

Create systems to share information with other small towns. Boulder Wellness Network will work to share its information, successes, and other programs with other small towns so that they can implement similar models and support services in their towns. These efforts will include the creation and maintenance of a website. These efforts will be headed by an officer identified by the President as the Non-Profit grows.