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History
In 2000, Rose Community Foundation convened national experts and consumer-based advocacy groups in Denver. Rose Community Foundation was seeking to learn from the experience of others who had increased public awareness of growing health care disparities, and who had mobilized consumers as advocates for systemic public health improvements. The national experts and consumer-based advocacy groups decided that the creation of a unified, coordinated consumer voice was essential to make systemic, long-term changes in Colorado’s health care system. The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative (CCHI or the Initiative) was the result. The Initiative quickly came to fruition, assuming the assets, federal identification number and 501(c)(3) status of a nonprofit corporation that had been dormant for over two years. The Rose Community Foundation provided a grant of $260,000 towards start-up. Today, CCHI is a membership-based organization with over 300 individual and organizational members, and partners from across the entire state. It is viewed by many in the political arena and the media as the “go to” source on health care issues.
CCHI’s core strategies have been community organizing, sponsoring educational forums on health care issues, research and public policy advocacy. These strategies were furthered refined and expanded during the business planning process. |
