Emergency Funds

Emergency Funds

Even in the best of times, it can be hard to make ends meet living in rural southwest Colorado. That is why we are proud to administer a variety of emergency funds to help the members of our community cover essential expenses when other resources have been exhausted. TCHNetwork believes that to maintain equitable health outcomes in our community, we must provide community members with the support they need to thrive, in good and bad times alike.

Program History

TCHNetwork administers the Good Neighbor Fund, Ouray Community Response Fund, and Energy Assistance programming through Energy Outreach Colorado (EOC).

The Good Neighbor Fund(GNF), which falls under the umbrella of the Telluride Foundation but has been administered by TCHNetwork since 2012, exists to help promote a stable workforce in San Miguel County, Ouray County, and the Westend of Montrose County. The Fund can provide emergency financial assistance to qualified applicants for daily needs such as rent, mortgage, medical bills, car repair, food assistance, utility assistance, and more to allow individuals to continue to live and work in these communities.

We also administer the Ouray Community Response Fund (OCRF), a fund created by donors in Ouray County to help residents of Ouray County. Though started during the COVID-19 pandemic, the fund remains in place to provide emergency financial assistance to Ouray County residents who meet the criteria.

Since 2017, TCHNetwork has also administered Energy Outreach Colorado (EOC), an energy assistance program created to assist qualifying individuals in paying their bills for energy sources including electricity, natural gas, coal, firewood, kerosene, propane, oil, and pellets.

TCHNetwork is proud to be entrusted with the responsibility to disperse these emergency funds. In addition to administering these funds, our team can also assist clients with connecting to other community resources, including insurance assistance through Health First Colorado, Children’s Health Plan Plus, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and provide information about area resources such as food banks, temporary housing, and other vital resources to help individuals overcome challenging situations.

Click to learn more and apply:

Good Neighbor Fund Application

Energy Assistance

Recent Results

As of December, the Good Neighbor Fund has helped over 500 clients during the pandemic and distributed $765,000 in emergency funds throughout our service area. The Ouray Community Response Fund has provided over $223,000 in emergency funds to over 100 residents of Ouray County since March of 2020, while the San Miguel Behavioral Solutions fund has provided over 30 clients with over $42,000 in funding since May of 2020. In the 2020-21 year, our Energy Assistance Programming distributed more than $49,000 in energy bill relief for more than 150 clients.

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