BROOMFIELD, Colo., Feb. 1, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Mental health access and support continues to be a
critical issue for mountain communities across North America. Today, the Katz Amsterdam
Charitable Trust announced that, Rob
Katz, Vail Resorts executive chairperson, and his wife,
Elana Amsterdam, New York Times
bestselling author and founder of Elana's Pantry, have made
significant contributions totaling more than $2.66 million to support mental and behavioral
health programs in 12 mountain communities, including 10 where Vail
Resorts operates.
For the past eight years, Katz and Amsterdam, co-founders
of the Katz Amsterdam Foundation and Katz Amsterdam Charitable
Trust, have led efforts to augment mental health resources in
mountain communities and have helped to shift the landscape of
behavioral health. Since 2016, contributions from Katz Amsterdam
now total over $56 million. Today's
13 grants issued by Katz Amsterdam will further enable
collaboration and innovation across 12 mountain communities in
Colorado, Utah, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Vermont, Washington, and British Columbia.
"Watching the acceptance and conversations surrounding
mental health continue to grow in our mountain communities is
inspiring," said Rob Katz,
co-founder and board president of the Katz Amsterdam Foundation.
"We feel incredibly lucky to be able to help these organizations
and support their collective missions to improve access to
much-needed health services and reduce the stigma surrounding
mental health."
Katz Amsterdam strives to be a catalyst for eliminating
inequities, increasing access to opportunity, and improving
outcomes for all. As a foundation, their priority is to support
community-driven work that meaningfully improves the lives of all
individuals and the social well-being of communities.
"The Katz Amsterdam Foundation has been an instrumental partner
in addressing our community's mental health needs," said
Stacy Caldwell, chief executive
officer of the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, a Katz Amsterdam
grant recipient. The Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation connects
people and opportunities to generate resources to build a more
caring, creative, and effective community.
"With Katz Amsterdam's investment, we have developed a regional
roadmap that identifies gaps and opportunities in our mental health
supports," continues Caldwell. "The Katz Amsterdam network acts as
an incubator in which mountain towns can gain invaluable insights
from one another and employ approaches that have been tested and
proven in similar environments. We are truly grateful for the
meaningful impact that this unique partnership brings to our
community."
The Katz Amsterdam grants are in addition to the annual
EpicPromise grants from Vail Resorts, which support more than 400
nonprofits across mountain communities where the company operates.
As reported in the recently released Environmental & Social
Responsibility Report, Vail Resorts donated $28.1 million in community grants during the
2022/23 season to support top priority needs including affordable
childcare, housing and food security.
In addition to their focus on mountain communities, Vail Resorts
provides mental health support for employees, including six free
counseling sessions per year for team members, their dependents,
and roommates. The company also offers convenient no-cost tools
including a wellness app, personal coaching, and virtual and
in-person therapy.
The Katz Amsterdam Charitable Trust grant recipients announced
today include:
CRESTED BUTTE,
COLORADO
- $60,000 to Gunnison Valley Health
Foundation – Hiring of a Spanish-speaking Certified Peer Support
Specialist for Gunnison Middle & High Schools and to expand the
Spanish-speaking peer health navigator role to support connection
to mental behavioral health services.
- $70,000 to CB State of Mind –
Providing therapy and substance abuse treatment scholarships for
Black and Indigenous People of Color communities.
EAGLE COUNTY,
COLORADO
- $545,000 to Eagle Valley
Behavioral Health – Supporting collaborative efforts of three
agencies in Eagle County as they
provide mental health, substance abuse, and peer support in
Spanish.
SUMMIT COUNTY,
COLORADO
- $500,000 to Building Hope –
Supporting the Summit County
community through five organizations that provide substance abuse
support and medically assisted treatment for adults and
adolescents, supervision for integrated care services, and mental
health scholarships and services in Spanish.
TELLURIDE, COLORADO
- $50,000 to Telluride Foundation –
Gathering Telluride community and provider survey data for upload
into the KAF Shared Measurement Framework data dashboard, where it
will be used to track community mental behavioral health
needs.
ASPEN, COLORADO
- $50,000 to Aspen Community
Foundation - Surveying the Aspen
community's mental behavioral health needs in order to inform
strategic decisions and improve the quality of life for
residents.
SUMMIT COUNTY, UTAH
- $500,000 to Park City Community
Foundation – Supporting hiring of bilingual mental health
professionals, expanding prevention, psychiatric, job training, and
sober living services for youth and adults.
TAHOE, TRUCKEE AND
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIFORNIA /
NEVADA
- $250,000 to Tahoe Truckee
Community Foundation – Supporting programs identified in the
Tahoe/Truckee community strategic
plan including those that focus on youth, bilingual and bicultural
mental health, substance use disorder, and more.
- $100,000 to El Dorado Community
Foundation – General mental behavioral health support.
VERMONT
- $250,000 to Vermont Community
Foundation – Support mental and behavioral health and substance
misuse prevention and treatment projects for seven subgrantees in
the Stowe, Ludlow, and Mt.
Snow communities of Vermont.
LEAVENWORTH, WA
- $35,000 to Upper Valley Cares -
General mental behavioral health support.
WHISTLER, BC,
CANADA
- $200,000 to Whistler Blackcomb
Foundation - General mental behavioral health support.
JACKSON HOLE,
WYOMING
- $50,000 to the Community
Foundation of Jackson Hole – To
gather Teton County community and
provider survey data about community mental and behavioral health
needs to help inform strategic decisions and to use in the KAF
Shared Measurement Framework data dashboard, where it will be
foundational for shared learning with other mountain
communities.
About Katz Amsterdam Foundation: The Katz Amsterdam
Foundation strives to be a catalyst for eliminating barriers to
health, increasing access to opportunity, and improving outcomes
for all. The Foundation believes that everyone benefits from living
in healthy and cohesive communities, but access to these benefits
is unequal. KAF works in partnership with communities to advance
just and equitable approaches to accessing mental, behavioral and
reproductive health care and protect civil rights by increasing
civic engagement and participation in a multiracial democracy. The
Foundation does this work by addressing systemic injustice, racial
and social disparities in mental health, reproductive health and
civic engagement. KAF's priority is to support community-driven
work that meaningfully improves the lives of individuals and the
social well-being of our communities. For more information, visit
www.katzamsterdam.org.
About Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) Vail Resorts is a
network of the best destination and close-to-home ski resorts in
the world including Vail Mountain, Breckenridge, Park City Mountain, Whistler
Blackcomb, Stowe, and 32
additional resorts across North
America; Andermatt-Sedrun in Switzerland; and Perisher, Hotham, and Falls
Creek in Australia – all available
on the company's industry-changing Epic Pass. We are passionate
about providing an Experience of a Lifetime to our team members and
guests, and our EpicPromise is to reach a zero net operating
footprint by 2030, support our employees and communities, and
broaden engagement in our sport. Our company owns and/or manages a
collection of elegant hotels under the RockResorts brand, a
portfolio of vacation rentals, condominiums and branded hotels
located in close proximity to our mountain destinations, as well as
the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson
Hole, Wyo. Vail Resorts Retail operates more than 250 retail
and rental locations across North
America. Learn more about our company at
www.VailResorts.com, or discover our resorts and pass options at
www.epicpass.com.
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SOURCE Vail Resorts, Inc.