(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Throughout the month of March, FOX21 is honoring Remarkable Women of Southern Colorado.
This week, we introduce you to Jennifer Turner, a mother of two. She took a grant program and turned it into a statewide office, and she’s advocating for mental health in the criminal justice system.
“Passion, I think is my middle name,” said Turner.
Jennifer has a passion for showing compassion.
“Once, when my son was pretty young, like middle school, my oldest son, someone said to him, ‘what are three words that would define your mom?’ And he said, ‘Love, passion and integrity,'” said Turner. “So definitely just passion itself drives me. And I think for me, the passion is about recognizing one another’s humanity.”
At one time, Jennifer and her sons were homeless.
“My boys were 7 and 12, and it was the summer and we were camping and you know, they didn’t know that we didn’t have a place to live. And so what we were laughing about, is it was starting to be a little fishy when I was bringing out the lantern at the campsite so they could do homework,” said Turner.
With the love for her children, and a little humanity from a friend, it was only a few weeks before she got back on her feet.
“Knowing Jennifer the way I know her, and I saw your clip about Remarkable Women in Southern Colorado, I sat back and thought about it. It embodies the whole, the entire theme,” said Rafael Torres, Turner’s co-worker and friend.
Torres works alongside Turner within Bridges of Colorado, a statewide program started in 2018. In 2023, it became an independent office, all spearheaded by Turner.
“The idea was to get folks support, who are in the justice system with pretty significant levels of severe persistent mental illness and are actually going through the legal process,” Turner said. “Historically, those folks have gotten help either before they ever enter the justice system ideally or after, when they’re like incarcerated or something, and then somebody throws them into some kind of counseling group.”
Bridges of Colorado places court liaisons across the state’s 22 judicial districts to serve people in the criminal justice system with mental health needs.
“We had one liaison who started talking to a man and realized that he was really disoriented. He had found his way to Southern Colorado, wasn’t sure how he got there, and he was living unhoused. So the more she got to know him and got to know his information, she realized that he had family somewhere. And so she tracked down his family in the Denver metro area. The daughter was like, ‘Yes, absolutely. We’ll take dad here. He can live with me. We’ve been looking for him’,” said Turner.
That’s just one of the 4,000 people connected to housing, healthcare, and behavioral health through Bridges of Colorado.
“That was a success story that I love because it wasn’t about the system. It was about really getting to know a person,” Turner said.
Her team is bridging the gaps in the system by listening and learning, one human to another.
“One of the best compliments I received was from a colleague who said, ‘You took a statewide program and turned it into a grassroots movement.’ So that’s something that was really fun to do, and thrilling,” said Turner.
In April, Bridges of Colorado will begin hiring at least 40 additional court liaisons. You can find out how to apply by clicking here.
With three words Turner’s son once used to describe her–love, integrity, and passion–she’s spreading remarkable compassion to those who could use it the most.
“How does a person start a grant for the entire state of Colorado, and then five years later, we are a department within the judicial system,” said Torres. “If that’s not remarkable, I don’t know what is.”
