Agency History

Turning Point Center for Youth and Family Development, Inc. (formerly known as LARICO) is a private, nonprofit 501(c)3 agency that has served Colorado youth and families for more than 40 years. In 1967, Kathy Winder of Larimer County Social Services and Jim Dooney of Larimer County Mental Health, with the assistance of the Honorable Arnaud Newton, formed a corporation "for the temporary housing and counseling of juveniles." Larimer County's first shelter care, LARICO, was born out of the community need identified by these forward thinking individuals.

Over the years, the agency has changed and expanded considerably in response to the needs of the communities in which we serve. Throughout this process, Turning Point has evolved from a shelter into a multi-service agency offering licensed residential care, out-patient and in-home treatment programs and therapies, tracking and aftercare services, Division of Behavioral Health (formerly ADAD) approved substance abuse programming, and state approved education programs that cater to each individual's needs.

This gradual progression of licensing classification and program development indicates improved standards of care, higher staff-to-client ratios, and reflects the ever changing landscape of state funding and requirements.

In 1997, LARICO began looking for a name that illustrated both what the agency was trying to accomplish with youth and their families, and the ever growing populations the agency was serving along the Front Range. A client at the time offered the following, "This is where I turned my life around. I think it should be called Turning Point."

In 1998, Turning Point opened the first female-only residential treatment program in Larimer County. The demand was so great for this type of program that within several months of its inception, Girls' Residential was full and on a waiting list.

Turning Point's Community Training Center, launched in 2003, was developed to meet current and future community needs for professional and public training in the areas of substance abuse, residential treatment, behavioral and physical health, and adolescent care.

Today, Community Training Center course offerings include Conversational Spanish, leadership skills training, Red Cross First Aid/CPR certification, True Colors, Domestic Violence, Diversity and all of the classes required to achieve Certified Addiction Counselor (CAC) levels I, II and III.

In 2005, Turning Point acquired a free-standing building to house the agency's education programs in Waverly, Colorado.

Northern Colorado has looked to Turning Point as a source for improving the lives of troubled youth for more than forty years. Today the agency works with children and their families throughout Northern Colorado, the Western slope, Southern Wyoming and communities along the Front Range.

Turning Point is nationally accredited by the Center for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and has been recognized as "Agency of the Year" two years in a row by the Colorado Juvenile Council.