{"id":131007,"date":"2026-05-28T18:09:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-family-wellness-program-comes-to-cortez-in-june\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T18:09:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:09:44","slug":"free-family-wellness-program-comes-to-cortez-in-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-family-wellness-program-comes-to-cortez-in-june\/","title":{"rendered":"Free family wellness program comes to Cortez in June"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1658fbe5-cb5c-5284-ba35-6ec7399ec15a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1658fbe5-cb5c-5284-ba35-6ec7399ec15a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1658fbe5-cb5c-5284-ba35-6ec7399ec15a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1658fbe5-cb5c-5284-ba35-6ec7399ec15a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"754\" height=\"512\" alt=\"During the Health Without Barriers program, families will participate in free cooking, exercise and mindfulness classes, receiving free dinners and passes to the Cortez Recreation Center. (Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">During the Health Without Barriers program, families will participate in free cooking, exercise and mindfulness classes, receiving free dinners and passes to the Cortez Recreation Center. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Colorado State University Extension is seeking the participation of families with teens in rural Southwest Colorado in its free six-week wellness program starting Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>From 5:30 to 7:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Montezuma-Cortez Middle School at 450 W. Second St, parents and kids aged 11 to 19 will convene for Health Without Barriers classes in English or Spanish, with free dinner offered each day. From July 8 through the program\u2019s end date July 16, the program will operate out of the Montezuma County Annex at 107 N. Chestnut St.<\/p>\n<p>Program Coordinator Elvia German-Palacios said the program emerged to help prevent chronic disease and encompasses both mental and physical health support for entire families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though it\u2019s aimed for that age group, it\u2019s a family inclusive program,\u201d German-Palacios said. \u201cWe provide holistic health and wellness education. So we do hands-on cooking and nutrition courses and (provide) resources for families to better navigate stress and support well being.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/b5uhkAEcWda6mEsqWDiVaqDmKMA.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd;\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/b5uhkAEcWda6mEsqWDiVaqDmKMA.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Health Without Barriers Flyer.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/b5uhkAEcWda6mEsqWDiVaqDmKMA.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Health Without Barriers Flyer.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Families from the Montezuma, Archuleta and La Plata counties are welcome. Teenagers will receive a water bottle, yoga mat, stretch bands and a knife and cutting board set to take home from the course. All participants will receive passes to the Cortez Recreation Center to engage in exercise during the course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a really beautiful way to remind us that we can do physical movement as a family and have a great time,\u201d German-Palacios said.<\/p>\n<p>This family-oriented learning and collaboration is conducive to sustaining healthy practices, German-Palacios said, and strengthens the family support network. Parents can lead by example and set the stage for their kids to follow, she added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have your family support and when you have community support, you\u2019re most likely to excel in the creation of those habits,\u201d German-Palacios said. \u201cBecause you have somebody who\u2019s right there, who can tell you, \u2018I got you, I\u2019m here with you, I\u2019m practicing this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CSU Extension staff will follow-up with participating families six months after the course to check in and provide any necessary wellness resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are constantly creating networks and collaboration with other organizations and businesses to see how they can continue supporting our families,\u201d German-Palacios said.<\/p>\n<p>To register, families must complete a form online at <a href=\"https:\/\/redcap.ucdenver.edu\/surveys\/?s=4XW7TNM8AFE3K3HL\" id=\"link-f556e80921d2de4f23c27a6bc6daefc4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bit.ly\/HWB2026<\/a> and attend an orientation. Questions can be directed to German-Palacios at 970-286-1866 or emailed to <a href=\"mailto:hwb-sw@colostate.edu\">hwb-sw@colostate.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-06c8b3078ac7f70851a7361a5c513161\"><a href=\"mailto:avanderveen@the-journal.com\">avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six-week course for teens and parents focuses on cooking, stress management<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,1972,28,61,624,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-131007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-family","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-lifestyle-and-leisure","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131007"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=131007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}