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Connections That Matter
Connections That Matter is a business networking podcast featuring real stories of growth through relationships. Host Andrew Johnson interviews Northern Colorado entrepreneurs and small business owners who share how strategic networking, trust, and referrals shaped their journeys.
You’ll learn practical insights on networking, referral marketing, and relationship-based business growth—plus the mindsets and habits that help local leaders build communities and businesses that last.
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Connections That Matter
Episode 81: Healing After Child Abuse with Kathleen Baumgardner from Child Safe Colorado
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Most people never think about what it actually takes to help a family heal after child abuse, the therapy, the funding, and the years of trust-building behind it. In this episode of Connections That Matter, Andrew Johnson talks with Kathleen Baumgardner of Child Safe Colorado about how the nonprofit supports survivors from age 2 to 78, and how Northern Colorado's business community keeps that work funded.
Episode Highlights
🔹 Why Child Safe's clients range from age 2 to 78, including adult survivors who don't seek help until decades later, often around age 50.
🔹 How just 0.9% of Child Safe's revenue last year came directly from clients paying out of pocket, the rest comes from grants, donations, and events.
🔹 The range of therapies used, from play and art therapy to EMDR and neurofeedback, matched to each survivor's age and needs.
🔹 How a single coffee shop fundraiser raised $10,000 for Child Safe in one day, a dollar per drink sold.
🔹 Why Child Safe's new Loveland office shares a building with partner nonprofits, including on-site horticulture therapy with Loveland Youth Gardeners.
🔹 How the organization grew from 10 families served by a small group of therapists in 1986 to 641 survivors served last year.
🔹 Why group therapy for non-offending parents, helping them let go of guilt, matters as much as therapy for the child.
🔹 The everyday challenges of running a nonprofit: funding swings, a hard-to-fill workforce, and the need for bilingual and specialized clinicians.
Why You Should Listen
🔹 Learn what real support for child abuse survivors and their families actually looks like.
🔹 Understand how a nonprofit builds a funding model that keeps care accessible to everyone.
🔹 Discover how co-located nonprofits can serve families with fewer barriers.
🔹 Hear how a business can partner with a cause like this, from a percentage-of-sales night to a golf tournament.
How to Contact Child Safe Colorado
Website: childsafecolorado.org
Tours: childsafecolorado.org, look for "Visit Us" under Get Involved
Businesses/Partners Child Safe Works With
🔹 Teaching Tree Early Childhood Learning Center: shares Child Safe's Loveland building; children can go downstairs for therapy with parent permission and an MOU in place.
🔹 Loveland Youth Gardeners: Child Safe runs horticulture therapy sessions directly in their gardens.
Timestamps
00:00: Welcome and introduction to Kathleen Baumgardner and Child Safe Colorado.
01:00: What Child Safe does and who they serve.
02:57: What therapy and healing look like across a wide range of ages.
04:44: How referrals reach Child Safe, from case workers to other therapists.
07:34: The funding model: grants, donations, and why only 0.9% comes from clients.
09:25: How local businesses partner through third-party fundraisers.
13:37: The biggest challenges of running a nonprofit: funding and workforce.
15:41: Child Safe's history, from 10 families in 1986 to hundreds served today.
20:39: What family healing looks like, session by session.
23:03: Sharing a building with partner nonprofits in the new Loveland office.
24:03: Where Kathleen and Child Safe network across Northern Colorado.
25:13: How to reach Child Safe, volunteer, donate, or book a tour.
Mom likely needs help. Um, and we will really um try to make her realize that you know the guilt that she may be feeling because she wasn't aware this was happening, it's not her fault, and she needs to walk through that space too.
SPEAKER_00All right, everybody, welcome to another episode of Connections That Matter, where we share stories of Northern Colorado's best networkers and find out the tips that have made them successful. Today I have a really special guest. We have Kathleen Bumgartner from Child Safe Colorado on the show. Uh, some a cause that's near and dear to my heart, and uh uh one that we've supported a long time with Business Networking Dunright and the Connections of Matter. Kathleen, thanks so much for coming on the show.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having me, Andrew.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Well, uh unfortunately the need for your services exists. Um, but if people haven't heard of Child Safe, um share a little bit about what you do and the types of problems that you help with.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um well, we provide therapy and support for victims of child abuse, uh, mostly child sexual abuse, but all types of childhood trauma. So the types of problems that we solve, um we are helping families, you know, walk through this terrible time. So that is both with individualized therapy, group therapy, family therapy. So we're working with all the members of a family typically when they come to us. And then we also um have a small portion of our client base that are not there with a child. They were the child. So they are adult survivors of childhood abuse, and they've never received help before.
SPEAKER_00So they've just carried it to a point where they can't.
SPEAKER_01They felt like they can.
SPEAKER_00How does that manifest?
SPEAKER_01Well, for some people, um, we see a lot of people joining us around the age of 50 years old. So it's interesting. Perhaps their abuser is now passed away. Um, perhaps they're now the caregiver for their abuser, or maybe they're having grandchildren that are the age they were when they were abused. So there are many, many different things that can cause a person to go seek help. It could be that their memories are coming back even more strongly. Uh, it could be that they have carried this around and it's shaded their relationships for their whole life, and they're just ready to be done with that.
SPEAKER_00Well, I was just thinking a networking situation. You're meeting a lot of people, and you know, we lead with, hey, tell me about your business, and then underneath people dealing with all sorts of things, so either acutely or past traumas, and it shows up in a different way. Um I'm I'm curious, like, what does therapy look like? Um, what does healing look like? And what are some of those journey paths?
SPEAKER_01So our client base is very wide in terms of age. So our youngest clients are two years old. Um, the typical age of our child, child clients is seven years old. A lot of our kids, most of the kids that come to Child Safe are 12 or under. We do see teens, of course. We serve parents and guardians. Um, we also because because they need help too. And we also, of course, serve those adult victims. And um, you know, it really depends on the individual as to how we're gonna move forward with this. We'll do a treatment plan, and that would be between a clinician and the client themselves. So it could be that let's say it's a very young child, they're gonna have less to say about what happens, but we're likely going to use play therapy or other forms of therapy that are a fit for that particular age group. Um and, you know, when we get into older ages, we're gonna use talk therapy, but we also have art therapy. We are doing EMDR, eye movement, desensitization, and reprocessing. We're using neurofeedback, we're doing um brain maps, the neurosequential model of therapy. I mean, we're just using every tool in the box that we can um that fits that individual person.
SPEAKER_00And um you're expanding, right? So we started Fort Collins, now you're in in Loveland as well. And um how how do how do clients find you or how do uh do you get referrals for people? Because it's probably not something I'm out there talking about unless it's uh um, I don't know, I guess a criminal situation that they're stuck in. Right.
SPEAKER_01Um I think there's two ways we look at referrals. One is uh we're going to get c uh referrals from um the Department of Human Services, Child Protective Services, and um, or child and family services. And um there are other nonprofits that will re will refer to us, uh law enforcement may refer to us, school counselors. I mean, we get so many referrals. We actually receive referrals quite often from other therapists, and that is because um, you know, we are very specialized providing that age-appropriate care. Um, plus, we do that um in a cost um effective way. We're not gonna turn anyone away. We are a nonprofit organization who is focused on access. So um last year, 0.9% of our revenue came out of pocket from our clients.
SPEAKER_000.9. 0.9.
SPEAKER_010.9% of our budget or our revenue. And it is um that's that's why we exist, because we want it to be accessible for all people. So we're seeing other uh therapists refer to us because maybe they can't afford to take on uh someone who can't pay, or maybe they can't uh even accommodate a whole family at one time because we look at this very systemically, you know, because we need to break that cycle. Um, or they can't um treat a 40-year-old, you know. So so referrals come from all over. Someone could even walk into our offices and um just self-refer. So it doesn't require a referral. Um, and the other way I look at this is we have other types of what I would call referrals, and those are people who want to support us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it's people who come and take tours of our facility. It's people who are uh owning their own businesses and want to give back to their community and help make their communities stronger.
SPEAKER_00Well, I was gonna ask you because if 0.9 is getting paid for by the clients, that means is it grants, is it business donations, personal donations?
SPEAKER_01All of the above. Um, it is definitely uh grants, donations, uh event revenue. Um, it is also, we do have some reimbursement, that's about 10% of our revenue. That is like insurance payments and victims compensation, um, you know, other kinds of reimbursement options that we are able to bill, but that's only 10% of our revenue. So really we're out there building connections and you know, trying to get those grants coming in, those donations and inviting people to our events. You've been to one of the events.
SPEAKER_00I've been a great event. Definitely if you're watching this episode, uh please come to the next event. It's some really good, really good stuff. But I'm curious with the networking, right? So it sounds like constantly getting the word out about us, uh um inviting people to partner with Child Safe.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Um and so, yeah, as from a nonprofit perspective, what is your approach to networking and what have you found to be successful?
SPEAKER_01I think the more I I think I think in our particular space with child abuse and child sexual abuse, it is a topic that hasn't necessarily been something that people talk about and have normalized a conversation about. So um we're trying to change that because if we don't talk about it and it being an issue in our communities up here in northern Colorado, that we aren't going to make any headway there. So um, you know, I I think that I mean, I have done, I think, 64 tours this year. I only do them on Fridays. You know, so it's it's amazing. I I love to share our story um and the the importance of the work that we're doing. And um, I think the networking is so critical in that. Otherwise, how do we find those people who are really interested in and invested in community?
SPEAKER_00Well, I um you came to the daddy-daughter doll-up, which was so cool. And uh but one thing that touched me from that event um is there was a gentleman, I think he had a roofing company, and he was like, Hey, I would like to just give a portion of sales in this month to that. And it was very, a very generous thing to do. So if a business owner wants to partner with you, um what what kind of things could that look like? And what do you how do you feel it's a win-win for both sides?
SPEAKER_01Right. We have had a lot of third-party, what we would call third-party fundraisers where someone else is raising money for us. It could look like a restaurant that's just taking an evening worth of sales and giving us a 10 or 20% cut of it, right? It could look like that roofer who wants to give us a percentage of sales in a certain period of time. Um, there are just so many ways. Um, there have been companies who have actually staged golf tournaments to benefit us. Um, and that's amazing. Um, we've had a coffee company who had a day where every uh cup of coffee and drink that they sold, a dollar came to Child Safe. And in one day, we that was $10,000. Wow. I know it's amazing. Um, so we have partners all over um who are interested in making a difference.
SPEAKER_00Well, and it sounds like some of your strategies get out of the way of let people contribute. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01In the way that fits them the best. Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Is it co-created though? I mean, uh the people I'm sure just come to you, hey, I would love to help, and they don't quite figure out what that might look like.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, there have been people who have gone who have actually approached us and said, How can we help? You know, and you know, we'll brainstorm ideas with them and tell them of our past successes and they can pick up from there. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I was at your celebration healing, and there was some people super generous, you know. And so, you know, I'm curious of like that level of contribution and and obviously you wouldn't be able to fulfill your mission without you know the your your your people who really are financially supporting you in that way. But um how have you been able to cultivate that level of loyalty and and I'm sure it's not the that what I saw, the not the only time that gentlemen's ever uh donated how do you get them to come back and uh create it as part of their their the way that they do business?
SPEAKER_01Right. I think that um you know a lot of people are are in business to make their community stronger, whether it's through the services that they provide or how they interact with nonprofits and other organizations that they're involved with. So it's finding those wonderful people out there, and that's not always easy. You don't know how to start that conversation sometimes, you know, but uh a lot of times they start it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Do they surprise you? Like who's gonna sometimes, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, one of our golf tournaments this year actually came from um I uh outside, so they called and said, Hey, we're going to have this golf tournament. Um we'd like it to benefit you. And we didn't know how that happened until later when we found out that one of their folks was friends with a former board member of ours. And you know what I mean? And there are all of these things that happen in the background sometimes that you don't know too. And a lot of that is just keeping those relationships um active and continuing to tell the story.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell Well, I'm just thinking about all the people who are advocating for you between uh you know paid positions like what you have or or the board, the people who are serving on that, um your providers, the people who are um part of the cause, part of the solution, and then also your survivors or people who have gotten stuff. But in a referral sense, people who are like on the board and now they're talking about you uh or Child Safe and creating those connections, how are you empowering them to be, I don't know, like into your community and get the word out?
SPEAKER_01So, I mean, we ask about their connections. Who do you who do you know that you think should come and take a tour of Child Safe and find out more? And people bring us folks all the time that are interested in learning more and interested in getting involved in making a difference for children and families.
SPEAKER_00What has been some of the biggest challenges in the nonprofit space?
SPEAKER_01There's a variety of challenges. Funding is always a challenge, of course. Um and funding does come and go at various times, and or a funder might change course and do something else. You know, there are always those things that you have to be prepared for. Um, workforce is always a challenge because we're looking for people who are passionate to help children. This is not easy work. We see and hear some very ugly things about what has happened to our clients. And uh it's not an easy job to do for one. And um, you know, we're a nonprofit. We also probably do not pay. I actually I know we do not pay the amount that people could make in a different uh for-profit practice. So there's that. Uh and workforce, you know, it is we have very specialized needs. We want people who are uh either trained in play therapy or willing to be trained in. Um we do because we serve such a wide age range, that two to our oldest client right now is 78. Um, so two to seventy-eight, we're asking for a lot of different types of expertise because we do have a wait list and we're always trying to find the right um clinician to put someone with. And our um uh therapists are very, very gifted. Um and we have to have Spanish-speaking therapists, and we want to make sure that we have um, you know, both male and female therapists. And, you know, so there are a lot of things. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, you know. We're looking for the right piece when we're hiring, you know, uh a new therapist because uh we have so many different needs.
SPEAKER_00Well, and you've been around 40 years, right? 40 years, yeah. Been around a long time. But and I I got a little bit of the story at the celebration of healing, but where did it start out of those humble beginnings? And then um where do you really need to be? Uh like where are you growing to? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
SPEAKER_01Well, in 1986, a c uh a gr a small group of uh several therapists got together and were sharing about some of the issues that they were seeing, especially with the lack of any uh support for and therapy for children and survivors of child sexual abuse in particular. And they got together and they started this in their own practices. So it was 10 families to start with, and that was it. And now last year we served, I believe it's 641 survivors. So it has really, really grown. Um and we've had to adapt and you know, change our programming slightly as as the needs changed within the community. And we've come up, I mean, we've been doing now parenting classes. So we're not just doing the therapy and support, we're also really supporting parents in tr in uh parenting their traumatized child. So so um so now we have two offices as of 2025. Um we have an office in Loveland, that's our second office. Uh our very first one was located in Fort Collins. And Loveland has been really fascinating. It's a collaborative campus with other nonprofits under one roof. We have common clients with at least five of our partners there, which really helps families who are already financially stressed. Um they may have it it could very well be that someone in their household was the abuser, and so they have uh lack of income that was there before, um, perhaps uh transportation issues now. Um they may have they what they thought was safe childcare was not. You know, there are all of these um circumstances that come up, and uh so um we opened up Loveland in this environment where we all work together to serve families. It's it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Super cool.
SPEAKER_01And uh yeah, uh Loveland is now serving 19 cities in northern Colorado.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Yeah. Because it's such a hub and yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, that's just us.
SPEAKER_00Jeez.
SPEAKER_01Our clients. I don't know what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00They're driving to Loveland from from everywhere.
SPEAKER_01Because they can't find those age appropriate and financially accessible services elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Ross Powell Wow. Well, how do you keep yourself fresh? Uh because it's a heavy conversation probably daily, and uh obviously what you're doing is putting some good into a dark place, but how do you keep yourself fresh through the day in, day out of all the news that you get?
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell I think we have to focus on the successes. Um we have kids who are thriving now, you know, who came to us in a dark place. And um it's really wonderful to see children and families turn that around. I mean, even if a parent was not the abuser, because we don't we do not serve offenders. We serve non-offending parents and guardians. And um even if uh you know it wasn't that particular parent who may have done the damage, um, there may be attachment issues, and it's it's wonderful to see families come back together. Yeah. Um, it's also wonderful to see um kids like we have uh a recent uh client who's heading off to college and she is just thriving, you know, it's amazing to see the growth, and academics weren't always the plus for this particular client because her abuse actually happened by a teacher. So um, you know, this is not the kind of situation that uh, you know, a child can navigate cleanly, you know, and so school was always a very charged atmosphere for this particular client. And now we're seeing incredible growth.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Yeah. Yeah, the those stories has got to be absolutely incredible. And I love the way you put it, like we work on the families as a whole. Like, what is healing as a family? Uh I guess explore that a little bit more for you.
SPEAKER_01We may have, let's just say it's a mom and two children, and we have a primary victim and maybe a secondary victim too. Mom likely needs help. Um, and we will really um try to make her realize that you know the guilt that she may be feeling because she wasn't aware this was happening is not her fault, and she needs to walk through that space too. So we have a um group therapy session for moms whose um abusers were their significant other. And that is a really powerful space to be in because who else is a person going to talk to about this? You know, that has a common experience or the compassion for what they've been through. So that's amazing. Um, so that parent will get their own individual therapist to work with, and each child will get their own individual therapist as well. And the children can take advantage of uh group therapy as well. Um, in Loveland, the first group that we actually formed because of the critical need that we saw within our client base was children who were or had just experienced domestic violence and contentious divorce. So another Another really powerful space because kids often get put in the middle of those situations. So it's wonderful to have group therapy in addition to individualized therapy. It's definitely within the realm of possibility that there will be some family therapy as well. That maybe all the parties will come together and talk through some issues and work through things as well. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Kathleen, uh the you you said in the level and location there's other nonprofit agencies there, and you you share clients and and uh refer to each other. Um is is there any nuance between networking and collaborating with the nonprofit community versus the for-profit um business owner community?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it can be very similar. You know, I mean we're learning about them, they're learning about us because we haven't necessarily worked in the same space. Um there is uh let's take, for example, Teaching Tree Early Childhood Learning Center is on the first floor right below us. And um, you know, we work with them. We can actually go downstairs with uh parent permission and an MOU in place, get a child, do therapy, take them back downstairs.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01I mean, that's really powerful and really uh valuable for families to have that act to have that happening without yet another trip to another office, you know. Uh we work very closely too with Loveland Youth Gardeners. We're doing therapy within their gardens, horticulture therapy, which is really fun. We've had some huge breakthroughs with uh clients in the gardens.
SPEAKER_00Plus, you get yummy produce from it too. It's true.
SPEAKER_01There's a refrigerator on the first floor where they put produce and anyone can take produce. It's really awesome. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right on. Well, um, where are all the places where you're networking, Child Safe is networking, where they can someone find you and collaborate with you?
SPEAKER_01Oh my goodness. There are so many. Well, first, there are a lot of professional committees that we sit on, you know, in terms of like domestic violence and child abuse and things like that, where our clinicians are very busy in those spaces. Um, for more of our administrators, we're part of the nonprofit sector partnership up here in northern Colorado, which is really an amazing organization where you can build these relationships with other nonprofits and um get a better understanding of what everyone's doing in all the different nonprofit spaces up here. Um and um, you know, we're members of the um uh the chamber of both Loveland and Fort Collins. We're BBB members as well, accredited. And so, of course, NIA, um that's my go-to with the Luminaries group.
SPEAKER_00So right on. Yeah. Well, Kathleen, there might be somebody who's watching this and you know, things are speaking to them. Maybe they haven't told anybody they want to reach out for help, or they want to get behind a really meaningful cause. What are some ways that people can get in touch with either you or Child Safe?
SPEAKER_01Yes, please um they can go to our website, ChildSafecolorado.org. Uh, give us a phone call. Um we regularly, if it's a referral, if they want to actually come in or talk to someone, I mean, we're there. Um if they're interested in getting involved, like to volunteer, um, we definitely have volunteer opportunities. Um, those big party venues and things like that don't set themselves up by themselves. And we have a big uh uh uh Halloween trivia night coming up in October, and there are a lot of uh inflatable ghosts that need to be inflated. And um so there are lots of, I mean, even answering phones at our front desk and uh coming in. We have a lot of groups that will come in just to do toy cleaning. I mean, the typical age of our kids is seven. There are so many toys, and they need to be cleaned regularly. So there's that. Um, and then of course, there are, if they were interested in a third-party event, just give me a call and let's talk. And, you know, you if people want to make a donation, we have a donate button right on the front of our website. They're welcome to do that, or come and take a tour.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because you can really find out a lot about our organization through the tour and you know, how it speaks to you and how um, you know, when you're taking a tour, you can show people things and they become very interested or or latch on to one particular thing and find the thing that that speaks to them.
SPEAKER_00How can people set up a tour?
SPEAKER_01Oh, so uh on our website that I believe there is a tab that says get involved, and there is a link to visit us. Okay. So it's Child Safe Colorado backslash visit us.
SPEAKER_00Right up. Well, we'll include all of that in the show notes. So you know, if you're watching this or listening to this, check out the podcast description. We'll make the links as easy as possible. But Kathleen, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thanks uh so much for the work that Child Safe is doing around Northern Colorado. And it's been an absolute pleasure to be able to network with you, to be you know, be on the front lines, watching all the goodwill uh that you and your organization are doing. And it's amazing. Um, we really appreciate it. And uh if people are watching this, just know that there's really special people in northern Colorado who are making it uh making it a better place. So, Kathleen, thanks for coming on the show, and we'll see you around Northern Colorado.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Hey all, thanks for watching. I love networking and building relationships with other Northern Colorado business leaders. So if you want to come meet some of these podcast guests, meet me, or meet some other amazing entrepreneurs in Northern Colorado, I would love to have you attend one of our next events. Uh, go in the podcast description. There's a way so that you can see our upcoming schedule. And maybe you could be a future podcast guest as well. Thanks.