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 shape policy together, the result is something none of them could have built alone — centered around one question: does this policy support the people?
Every role
at one table — providers, payers, and advocates
Statewide
regional reach across Front Range, Mountain, Western Slope, and Eastern Plains
Culturally-specific
Spanish-language and lived-experience perspective built into the membership, not bolted on
The Coalition
Cross-sector by design.
Each member organization brings a distinct vantage point on Colorado behavioral health. Cards link to each org's site.
Payer / RAE
Colorado Access
Colorado-based nonprofit health plan and Regional Accountable Entity — managing Medicaid behavioral health benefits for hundreds of thousands of Coloradans across Denver-metro and surrounding regions.
Serves: Front Range · Mountain
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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
Visit website
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
Visit website
Culturally-Specific Provider
Servicios de la Raza
Federally Qualified Health Center providing culturally and linguistically grounded behavioral health, primary care, and social services to Latino and Spanish-speaking communities across Denver and the Front Range.
Serves: Front Range
Visit website
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
Visit website
Advocacy
Mental Health Colorado
Statewide advocacy organization for mental and behavioral health policy in Colorado — advancing equitable access, parity, and lived-experience leadership across the system.
Serves: Statewide
Visit website
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
Visit website
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
Visit website
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 People First 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.