This spring, AAI AmeriCorps Member Josh Krzywicki testified in front of the Colorado State Finance committee.
When Josh Krzywicki first arrived in Creede in 2023 to serve with Alpine Achievers Initiative, his focus was simple: show up for kids. Two years later, he’s doing that — and then some.
This spring, Josh took his story to the Colorado State Capitol, testifying in support of HB26-1418 — a landmark bill that would create a dedicated funding stream for youth mental health services across Colorado. Funded through fees on social media platform add-on transactions, the bill would expand access to peer navigator programs, crisis resolution services, and direct mental health sessions for youth — bringing meaningful support to communities, especially rural ones, that have long gone underserved. As a second-year AmeriCorps member and YMHC Leadership Fellows participant serving at the Creede Recreation Center, Josh brought something no policy brief can replicate: the real, lived experience of what this work looks like on the ground.
Josh spoke about students who had confided in him about anxiety, family challenges, and feeling like they don’t belong — things they hadn’t shared with anyone else. He credited YMHC’s behavioral health training with giving him the tools to meet those moments with confidence and described watching a student who once shut down when overwhelmed slowly build the trust and skills to ask for help. That kind of transformation, he told legislators, doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because someone is there — consistently — with the right skills and the will to stay.
This is exactly what AmeriCorps makes possible. It develops not just dedicated servants, but emerging leaders who carry their communities’ stories into rooms where decisions get made. Josh returned for a second term in 2025 because his work during his first service term changed him — and because the kids in Creede deserved that continuity.
HB26-1418 passed the Colorado House in May 2026. We are deeply grateful to Josh for his courage, his commitment, and his voice. AAI is proud to walk alongside members like him — and hopeful that this bill will ensure more communities across Colorado have access to the kind of support that is already transforming lives in the San Luis Valley.
