Healing Generations: In What Ways Tennyson Center for Children is Impacting Lives in Colorado
DENVER, Colorado – Students, parents, and staff are now welcomed back for the school year, and the Tennyson Center for Children is buzzing with the renewed energy in the air. At the Tennyson Center, the various classrooms and therapy offices create a blend that may appear like any conventional school. However, each room is filled with narratives of recovery, resilience, and hope.
“It’s always a wonderful experience when the children and their families return” said Tennyson Center’s Chief Program Officer, Vanessa Ross, welcoming parents and staff. “Tennyson has been doing this work for over 120 years. Every fall is a reminder of why we are here.” In the heart of Colorado, Tennyson Center has been operating for over a hundred years and serves countless children.
A Family’s Journey Through Darkness
Such as in the case of the Tennyson Center, the school is a refuge in the heart of Colorado. For countless children in Colorado, the Tennyson Center is deeper than a school. It is their place of refuge, their second chance, or sometimes their last hope to find peace in their life turned upside down by trauma.
That hope arrived during a very challenging time for Jenn along with her son, Nicholas.
“Nick was attending therapy sessions at AllHealth, a mental health nonprofit network,” Jenn shared. “It just got to the point where he needed more therapy. He was extremely withdrawn due to mental abuse he had gone through. As a parent, it was extremely difficult to watch him drift away.”
For Jenn, it was deeply painful to watch Nicholas, then just a teenager, retreat further inside himself. She was terrified that he was disappearing away from her. She managed to find the Tennyson Center through a referral.
Two and a half years of weekly sessions led by Tennyson therapists to Nicholas’s home followed. They started with the most fundamental measures of encouraging him to express himself, learn to name the emotions he was feeling, and slowly nurture his feeling of safety.
“Understanding and talking about feelings was the first step. I could see the therapists really started from the basics,” Jenn shared. “He began to thrive again, and he started to reintegrate into socializing.”
The pace of progress may have been slow, but the changes were tremendous. Nicholas reengaged with his friends, got his GED, and earned a welding certificate. He serves in the U.S. Army now.
“He has had a great trajectory,” Jenn said proudly. “I have no idea where he would be without the support we got.”
A Legacy of Service: From Orphanage to Modern Trauma Center
The Tennyson Center’s history traces back to 1904, when it was established as an orphanage for children orphaned by disease, poverty, or neglect. Named originally the Colorado Christian Home, the institution fed, housed, and educated the children.
Tennyson had to evolve as the understanding of childhood trauma improved, and this resulted in a major shift from orphan care to therapeutic services. The center had embraced a trauma-informed care model by the 1980s, which combined education with intensive specialized mental health treatment.
Tennyson’s center has evolved into a comprehensive treatment and education center, providing onsite schooling, outpatient psychotherapy, foster care, and community-based programs for families throughout Colorado.
“It’s not just teaching reading or writing,” Ross clarified. “It’s about making sure children feel safe, trust, and teaching them how to cope with various tools to manage the world around them.”
The Issues with Childhood Trauma
Like the rest of the United States, Colorado is dealing with a huge Increase in the amount of children’s mental health issues. In one report, the Colorado Health Institute claimed that about 20% of children in the state had undergone or encountered one form of trauma, ranging from violence to more severe cases of abuse and neglect.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more commonly known as the CDC, calls these events of trauma Adverse Childhood Experiences or (ACEs) and describes them as life threatening events that can alter one’s life, health, and general behavior. Children, who have a history of multiple ACEs, become susceptible to severe mental health complications, substance abuse and chronic illness down the line.
Dr. Emily Hernandez, a child psychologist based in Denver who works with Tennyson on some of the training programs, shared how essential trauma-informed care is alongside observing the child and the child’s behavior.
“Kids don’t just ‘grow out of’ trauma,” Hernandez remarked. “Without intervention, it rewires their brain, it changes their self-perception along with their worldview. Institutions like Tennyson are critical because they provide therapy and education together.”
Inside the Tennyson Approach
Walking through Tennyson, guests to their Denver campus may see classrooms equipped not only with books and desks, but also with sensory tools including bean bags, weighted blankets, and art supplies. These tools are more than decoration; they are therapeutic resources.
Teachers are equipped with trauma-informed education training. For a child who experienced abuse or neglect, being told “sit still” can trigger fear. Tennyson staff are trained to identify these reactions and respond appropriately.
“Every behavior is a form of communication,” Ross said. “A meltdown might look like defiance, but it’s really a child saying, ‘I don’t feel safe right now.’”
Children also receive therapy, both in groups and one-on-one, family therapy, and are counseled in their homes to provide assistance outside of the school setting.
Stories of Resilience
Jenn and Nicholas are not alone. There are thousands of families around Colorado who, like these two, have benefitted from Tennyson’s tailored programs.
Consider the case of Maria, a 9-year-old diagnosed with complex trauma who had not received care due to being neglected for years. When she first came to the program, she would not trust any adults and would often lash out in anger. After a few months of working with her teachers and therapists, she was able to begin to trust adults and was able to use drawing to articulate some of her feelings. Now, Maria dreams of becoming an art teacher and reads above her grade level.
Or think about James. He was a teenager in foster care with a reputation that often preceded him. He was known for ‘challenging authority’ and oftentimes would be switched from one school to another. While at Tennyson, he found an interest in mechanics and he has since been enrolled at a vocational school.
Ross Friedman explains, “These are the moments we live for. We do what we do to help kids go from being completely shut down to imagining a future for themselves.”
Community Collaborations and Reach to the Entire State
Tennyson does not focus solely on the Denver campus; the organization expands its reach to children and families in the rural and urban communities through collaborations with school districts, foster care, and nonprofit organizations.
One of the organization’s flagship initiatives is the Community-Based Programs in which they employ therapists who go to the families’ homes all over the state. This model understands that healing often has to happen in the environment where the trauma occurred.
In 2023, Tennyson has reported serving over 2,500 children and families throughout the state, demonstrating a significant impact through their programs.
Funding and Challenges
In common with a lot of nonprofits, Tennyson has to deal with an ongoing issue of obtaining funding. The center utilizes a blend of state contracts, federal grants, private donations as well as fundraising events.
Unfortunately, funding and resources often fall short. The Colorado state audit of 2022 revealed significant shortfalls and mounting issues related to workforce mental health services, mental health services, and long-standing waiting lists.
Ross has addressed these issues with the statement: “The need is overwhelming, but we are committed to meeting it. Every dollar we raise goes directly into programs that change lives.”
Looking Ahead: The Future of Child Mental Health Care
While the mental health of children and adolescents is a steadily growing concern throughout Colorado, state pediatricians have referred to it as a “state of emergency,” and as such, nonprofits and privates such as Tennyson are developing the care model for the future.
They intend to broaden the scope of community programs while increasing staff development, training, as well as advocating for policies that place a higher priority on the mental well-being of children.
In her discussion for the future, Ross firmly addressed the need to implement prevention strategies. “The need for a proactive approach is essential. Communities, teachers, and parents must have the resources and tools to detect trauma and take appropriate action to respond to it,” she mentioned.
Why It Matters
For Jenn, the most impactful part of the Tennyson Center is, “They gave me my son back.”
In Jenn’s case, we see the reason why the Tennyson Center for Children has, for 120 years, served as a beacon of hope in the state of Colorado. While its mission has evolved, the purpose of the Center has always remained the same: heal children, strengthen families, and provide every child the opportunity to build a brighter future.
As the school year starts, the Tennyson children’s laughter and the echoes of their lessons in the halls are a testament to the magic that happens when compassion paired with skill takes the lead. Every child that gets the opportunity to walk through the doors of Tennyson is reminded: you are safe, you are cherished, and you are not alone.
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