About Us
An alliance built for the work.
An alliance whose first allegiance is to the person seeking care — not the structures that serve them.
What We Stand For
Putting people first — placing the interests of the people of Colorado ahead of our individual organizations' needs.
Colorado's behavioral health system touches every community in the state. The providers, payers, and advocates shaping that system should be working together — aligned around the people it serves, not competing from separate corners. That's what the People First Alliance is built to do.
See the policy workWhen providers, payers, and advocates come together to shape policy, we create something stronger than any one of us could build alone — grounded in a shared commitment to ask, every step of the way: Does this truly support the people we serve?
9
founding organizations — with room for more changemakers
Statewide
regional reach across Front Range, Mountain, Western Slope, and Eastern Plains
3
sectors at one table — providers, payers, and advocates
The Coalition
Cross-sector by design.
Each member organization brings a distinct vantage point on Colorado behavioral health. Most cards link out to the org's own site.
Payer / RAE
Colorado Access
Colorado-based nonprofit health plan — a public-sector plan for its entire 30-year history, and today the health plan for more than 500,000 Coloradans. Serves as the Regional Accountable Entity for Medicaid in four Denver-metro counties and as a Child Health Plan Plus managed care organization in 45 counties, mostly the Front Range, Mountains, and Eastern Plains — with Colorado Access Choice, a new individual-market plan, launching along the Front Range in 2027.
Serves: Front Range · Mountain · Eastern Plains · Western Slope
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Payer / Network Administrator
Signal Behavioral Health Network
Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization for a large region of Colorado — coordinating crisis services, care navigation, and provider networks across rural and urban communities.
Serves: Front Range · Eastern Plains · Mountain · Western Slope
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Provider
Paragon Behavioral Health Connections
A statewide cooperative of community behavioral health providers — joint contracting, shared infrastructure, and unified policy voice for Colorado's safety-net system.
Serves: Statewide · Front Range · Mountain · Eastern Plains
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Provider
Servicios de la Raza
A trusted essential provider of culturally and linguistically responsive behavioral health and human services, serving Latino and Spanish-speaking communities across Denver, the Front Range, and Pueblo.
Serves: Front Range
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Provider
AllHealth Network
Community mental-health center serving Arapahoe and Douglas counties — outpatient, crisis, residential, and integrated primary-care behavioral health services.
Serves: Front Range
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Advocacy
Mental Health Colorado
A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to pass laws, change practices, and build a movement — promoting healthier minds across the lifespan for all Coloradans. By advancing prevention, expanding access to care, strengthening families, and working to end health-based discrimination, they envision a Colorado where mental health is valued, supported, and protected at every stage of life.
Serves: Statewide
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Provider
Vail Health
Mountain-community health system serving Eagle, Pitkin, Garfield, and Lake counties — behavioral health services integrated with primary and acute care, with statewide policy reach.
Serves: Eagle Valley · Mountain Communities
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Advocacy
Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition
Colorado's leading disability-rights advocacy organization — run by and for people with all types of disabilities, advocating for social justice, access, and full participation for Coloradans with disabilities.
Serves: Statewide
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Advocacy
Innovela Consulting Group
Behavioral health consulting practice led by Nancy VanDeMark — policy advisory, system-design, and lived-experience-grounded leadership on Colorado mental and behavioral health.
Serves: Statewide
How We Work
Four operating principles.
·01
Person first
We put the interests of the people of Colorado ahead of our individual organizations' needs. The system should work for the person standing in front of it, regardless of their circumstance.
·02
Cross-sector
Providers, payers, and advocates at the same table — aligned around the people Colorado's behavioral health system is meant to serve.
·03
Systems-level
Members operate with a systems-level perspective and bring constructive engagement with state and local government. Position work addresses the structural layer, not the program level.
·04
Dependable across cycles
We work on reforms that extend beyond single budget years, election cycles, or administrations. Continuity is part of the structure.
Membership
What it actually means to be a member.
Membership in the alliance is by invitation, vetted, and approved by the Board. Member organizations bring their distinct perspective, their data, their political capital, and their willingness to compromise on org-level interests when the system needs it. In exchange, member organizations get a coalition voice that no single sector could speak with alone, and a forum where the work gets pressure-tested before it goes to the state.
How It Works
An invitation, not an application.
There is no application form. Membership begins as a conversation — about the alignment between an organization's work and the People First Alliance's, about what each side would bring, and about whether there's a fit. Recruitment is relationship-based and runs through the Board; if there's alignment, an invitation follows.
Start a conversation
Stay Informed
An occasional briefing, by email.
Updates on coalition policy work, what's moving in Colorado behavioral health, and what we're paying attention to. No more than once a month.
We'll only use your email to send you the briefing. Unsubscribe any time.