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Assuring Better Child Health & Development

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Assuring Better Child Health & Development

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ABCD is a statewide nonprofit focused on ensuring all Colorado's children have access to services that promote healthy development.

Assuring Better Child Health & Development (ABCD) is a statewide nonprofit focused on improving the lives of Colorado children and families by working with local organizations that support children ages birth to five. We consult with early childhood professionals and primary care providers to enhance their support for young children and families. Working together, we make it easier for families to access developmental services and resources.

10/10/2026

Mental health begins in the earliest years of life. 💚

For young children, emotional well-being grows through everyday relationships and experiences, feeling safe and supported, having caring adults respond to their needs, and receiving help when challenges arise. Supporting the mental health and well-being of parents and caregivers is an important part of supporting young children, too.

At ABCD, we work alongside families, healthcare providers, and community partners to strengthen the systems that surround young children and help families connect with support early.

This , we’re celebrating the relationships, communities, and systems that help children and families thrive, because supporting mental health starts early.

10/07/2026

We’re wrapping up two years of co-design with families and health systems in Alamosa, CO, and there’s a lot to celebrate! 🎉

Over the past two years, we’ve had the privilege of partnering with families and local health system partners to better understand and improve families’ experiences accessing health services in the San Luis Valley.

Through co-design and open dialogue, families shared their experiences, identified barriers, and developed ideas around issues that mattered most to them, including: parent mental health, confidentiality, and individualized care.

Working together, families and health system staff turned those ideas into action, creating resources to help families better understand their confidentiality rights and what to expect during their visits, while also helping providers strengthen connections with families and make care feel more individualized. The resources were shared in clinics this summer and feedback from families showed promising results: families reported feeling more prepared for visits, care felt more personalized, and providers used information families shared to help guide the visit.

We’re incredibly proud of what families and health system partners accomplished together, and are grateful for the trust, openness, and commitment everyone brought to the process.

We can’t wait to see how what started in Alamosa helps inspire co-design in the next Colorado community!

Read more about the project: https://www.coloradoabcd.org/post/co-design-in-action-families-and-health-systems-creating-change-together-in-alamosa

10/05/2026

Whether you’re new to ABCD or have been part of our community for years, do you know the story of how we began?

We are excited to share this beautiful video celebrating ABCD’s journey – where we started, who we are today, and the work we’re doing alongside families and partners to strengthen early childhood systems across Colorado.

A huge thank you to Romeo and Jensen at Studio Equiterra for creating this incredible piece and bringing ABCD’s story, voice, and mission to life.

10/01/2026

Meet Megan, our new HealthySteps Program Manager!

With 20 years of experience supporting children and families, Megan is passionate about creating systems and communities where children and families can thrive. Megan was a special education teacher before transitioning into social work. Most recently, Megan advanced the statewide implementation of Family Connects Colorado, a universal nurse home visiting program for newborns and their families. Her work is grounded in a strengths-based approach with a commitment to community co-design and meaningful parent voice.

Born and raised in Colorado, Megan is proud to help make Colorado the best place in the country to raise children. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, weightlifting, and treating her dogs like they're actual children.

Megan will support primary care practices across Colorado through training and technical assistance, helping to ensure every family has access to high-quality developmental support right from the start.

We’re so excited to work with you, Megan! 💛

09/28/2026

Have you heard of HealthySteps but aren’t sure what it’s all about? We’ve got you covered.

There’s a lot to fit into a well-child visit - often in just 15 minutes. HealthySteps adds a child development expert to the pediatric primary care team, giving families and providers more time and support to focus on the many things that shape a young child’s healthy development. HealthySteps Specialists can help families navigate common and complex concerns like behavior, sleep, feeding, attachment, caregiver wellbeing, social needs, developmental concerns and adjusting to life with a baby or toddler.

Across Colorado HealthySteps reaches more than 46,000 children at 30+ sites, helping pediatric practices become an even stronger source of trusted support for families during the earliest years of life.

Wondering if HealthySteps is available near you? Visit our website to find a practice in your community: https://www.coloradoabcd.org/our-work/healthysteps

If there isn’t one nearby, you can still talk with your child’s healthcare provider about developmental concerns and available supports and learn more about ABCD’s work to expand HealthySteps to more Colorado communities.

For Families: Learn what HealthySteps can offer you and your child

For Providers: Explore how HealthySteps can strengthen your practice and support the families you serve.

Find a HealthySteps site and explore resources for families and providers: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yixOw12BA-HU5fgpqlNeJySmI5aDoaPI?usp=sharing

09/24/2026

Three Colorado communities are taking the next step in exploring what HealthySteps could look like in their regions!

This week, partners in Sterling, Walsenburg, and Durango came together for their first local HealthySteps Consortium planning events. These gatherings build on months of conversations, relationship-building, and outreach to families, healthcare providers, early childhood organizations, and other community partners.

Over the next year, each local consortium will deepen these partnerships, center family and community voice, explore local strengths and needs, and identify how HealthySteps could build on and strengthen what is already working.

We’re grateful to everyone helping shape this work and excited to see where these community-led conversations lead!

09/22/2026

Learning, connecting, and bringing new ideas back to Colorado!

Last week, members of our team traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for two full days of learning and connection at the 2026 Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Outreach & Northern Border Grantee Reverse Site Visit.

Hosted by the Georgia Health Policy Center in partnership with the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), the gathering brought together rural health grantees from across the country around this year’s theme: Empowering Communities to Transform Rural Health.

Through our HRSA Rural Health Outreach initiative, ABCD is working alongside families, healthcare providers, and community partners to strengthen access to HealthySteps and early childhood health and developmental supports in rural Colorado.

Opportunities like this allow us to learn from other rural communities, exchange ideas and strategies, and bring new thinking back to our partners here in Colorado.

We returned energized by the connections we made and the ideas we’ll carry forward as we continue this work together.

09/18/2026

We are still feeling the joy, connection, and incredible support from last night’s 20th Birthday Celebration! 🎉

Thank you to everyone who joined us, and to everyone who donated, sponsored and helped make the evening possible. Together we raised more than $32,000 to support ABCD’s work with children, families, and communities across Colorado!

The evening brought together current and former staff, board members, families, partners, funders, and friends to celebrate the relationships and progress that have shaped ABCD’s first 20 years, and look ahead to what comes next.

We were also excited to share two special reflections on our journey:

Read our new 20-Year Impact Report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QrQpL_lKlIFkV6i_DYjHUJLElI3nZAAF/view?ts=6aa99d2d

Watch our 20th Anniversary video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S_fEiOrlecDpOKhON_lutDD2n27Sa2U5/view?usp=sharing

We are deeply grateful to our event sponsors, whose generosity helped make this celebration possible:

The Auer and Bennett Families
Arapahoe County Early Childhood Council
Centennial Nonprofit Consulting, LLC
City Street Investors & Evans School
Colorado Access
Denver Health
Highlands Integrative Pediatrics
Meaningful Collaboration
PNC Bank
Sammy Emerson Photography
Shames Makovsky Realty Company
W.H.E.E. Preschool

Twenty years is worth celebrating – and we’re just as excited about what comes next. We look forward to continuing to work alongside families and partners across Colorado to strengthen connections, improve systems, and help ensure every young child has the opportunity to thrive.

We’re excited to share a few photos from this memorable evening, with more moments to come.

Thank you for being part of our first 20 years. Here’s to the next 20!

09/17/2026

Tonight is the night!

We’re so excited to come together tonight to celebrate 20 years of ABCD! We’ll see you at 6:00 p.m. for an evening of celebration, connection, community, and memories.

A special thank you to Sammy Emerson Photography for not only sponsoring our celebration, but also joining us as our on-site photographer to capture this milestone with us!

Here are the details:
📅Thursday, September 17
⏰6:00–8:30 p.m.
📍The Evans School Event Center

We can’t wait to celebrate 20 years of impact - and the people who made it possible.

See you tonight!

09/16/2026

20 years of building better systems together.

This year, ABCD is celebrating 20 years of working alongside families, healthcare providers, early childhood professionals, policymakers, and communities to strengthen the systems that support healthy child development.

To mark this milestone, we’re excited to share our new 20-Year Impact Report: Celebrating 20 Years of Building Better Systems Together.

The report looks back at how Colorado’s early childhood landscape has changed over the past two decades, and the role ABCD and our many partners have played along the way. From helping make developmental screening a routine part of pediatric care, to growing HealthySteps across the state, strengthening connections between families and services, advancing co-design and family leadership, and helping turn what we learn into lasting systems and policy change, our work has continued to evolve.

One thing has remained constant: lasting change is built together.

We are deeply grateful to the families, partners, providers, funders, staff, board members, and community leaders who have been part of ABCD’s story. This report belongs to all of you.

Read ABCD’s 20-Year Impact Report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QrQpL_lKlIFkV6i_DYjHUJLElI3nZAAF/view?ts=6aa99d2d

Here’s to the first 20 years, and to continuing to build a Colorado where every young child has the opportunity to thrive.

Address

P. O. Box 18770
Denver, CO
80218

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.coloradoabcd.org/

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