Bright Future Foundation is located in Eagle County, which is home to several picturesque Rocky Mountain communities with elevations ranging from 6,000-9,000 ft.  The mountains and rivers offer a plethora of outdoor adventures including: hiking, kayaking, fishing, rafting, biking, camping, backpacking, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice/rock climbing, and so much more. Eagle County is home to the world-class ski resorts of Vail and Beaver Creek. With a population of about 65,000, it is a resort-style tourist destination with plenty of shopping, exquisite restaurants, and community events. Eagle County is comprised of 12 towns that range in population from approximately 200 to 10,000. Over half of the county’s population identifies as Latinx/e. Approximately 30% of the population speak a language other than English in their home.

Bright Future Foundation provides outpatient services at a variety of settings including: our counseling offices, our safehouse/emergency shelter, Eagle County schools, law enforcement agencies, and the justice center. Bright Future Foundation maintains two office locations: 1) Executive Administrative Office-located in Avon, 2) Bright House Office and Shelter located in Gypsum. Interns are primarily based at our office in Gypsum; however, services may be provided at our Avon office as well. 

Although local transit options are available, Bright Future Foundation requires interns to have their own transportation. Local transportation options can be limited and time-consuming, especially given the geographical breadth of our service population. 

Incorporated in 1983, Bright Future Foundation has been serving victims and families impacted by interpersonal violence for over 40 years. As Eagle County’s only domestic violence and sexual assault survivor response agency, Bright Future Foundation strives to break the generational cycle of violence by delivering services that provide immediate relief to individuals and families in need. Specifically, we provide services to survivors and families impacted by interpersonal violence, which includes: Gender-Based Violence, Interpersonal Violence, Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Stalking, Child Maltreatment, Human Trafficking, Dating Violence, and Bullying. 

Bright Future Foundation utilizes proactive and culturally sensitive services that create sustainable emotional, behavioral, and community change. Core programs are available in both Spanish and English and include: 24/7 Crisis Hotline, FNE Co-Response, Counseling/Psychological Services, Emergency Shelter, Survivor Advocacy, Legal Advocacy, Transitional Housing Programs, Youth Advocacy, Buddy Mentorship Program, and School-based Violence Prevention. 

Survivors and Families Impacted by: 

  • Gender-Based Violence 
  • Interpersonal Violence 
  • Domestic Violence
  • Sexual Assault 
  • Stalking 
  • Human Trafficking
  • Dating Violence 
  • Bullying
  • Acute, Chronic, and Cyclical Abuse

Latinx/e 75%; African American 3%; Native American 0%; Asian American 1%; Euro-American 21%; Mid-Eastern American 1%; Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual 15%; Rural clients: 100%.

Eagle County provides a unique field placement opportunity, as a large number of clients are undocumented or temporary visa workers and often encounter gender-based violence in which their immigration status is directly threatened. Additionally, many of our clients experienced substantial, chronic trauma in their country of origin, including terrorism and genocide. Due to our site’s resort community location, we also have cases directly involving human trafficking

Interns placed at Bright Future Foundation are engaged in a variety of the services offered by our organization. The intern’s primary responsibilities are within our counseling and psychological services program. This includes individual and, occasionally, family therapy, as well as the completion of psychological assessments. Interns have the opportunity to create and facilitate therapy groups if they so choose. Interns participate in a multidisciplinary team and are thoroughly trained and supervised on therapy cases and psychological assessments to ensure a high level of competence. Interns receive a minimum of two (2) hours of individual supervision each week from their primary supervisor (licensed psychologist). Interns also participate in weekly group supervision and didactics with the CO-PIC intern cohort. Supplemental weekly individual supervision may be provided by other appropriately credentialed professionals, and by supervisors of elective focus area experiences as needed. Additionally, interns participate in our agency’s weekly multidisciplinary case consultation meetings.

Bright Future Foundation embraces an integrative view with regard to the therapeutic approach to clinical work that frequently incorporates modalities such as Feminist Theory, CBT, CPT, Mindfulness, Relational, Intergenerational Trauma Transmission Awareness, and Assertiveness Training. Bright Future Foundation strongly supports continuing education and training. 

In addition to direct client service, interns may have the opportunity to provide weekly individual clinical supervision to a masters or doctoral level extern. Interns will receive supervision on the provision of supervision and will be exposed to didactic discussions that focus on the theories of supervision, reflective supervision, and ethical responsibilities of supervisors. Additional intern responsibility includes providing coverage for our 24/7 crisis line, community-based consultation services, facilitating community trainings/workshops, and facilitating court-appointed workshops focusing on “Parenting through Divorce.”

Interns receive both clinical and assessment experience with both child and adult populations. Bright Future Foundation provides two types of assessment services:

  1. Psychological evaluations for asylum and immigrant populations seeking documentation status through VAWA Visa, U-Visa, or T-Visa.
  2. School-based threat assessments. 

Interns receive supervision and training on all assessments utilized at Bright Future Foundation which may include, but are not limited to: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-V), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-II), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory for Adolescents (MMPI-A), Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Projective Drawings, Sentence Completion (Johns), Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC), Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC), Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, PCL-5, PHQ-9, GAD-7, BAI, BDI, Full Clinical Interview, and Mental Status Exam.

The intern will have the opportunity to create and focus on at least 1-2 elective focus areas during the internship year. Elective focus areas are selected based on intern interest and community need. Examples of previously created specialty areas are:

  • School-based Intervention
  • Primary Prevention Campaigns/Social Norm Campaign/Youth Outreach Services
  • Crisis Counseling and Emergency Response
  • Grant Writing/Program Development
  • Trial Consultation/Expert-Witness Testimony/Legal Response
  • Law Enforcement Consultation/Training
  • Latinx/e Community Outreach
  • Suicide Prevention Training, Assessment, and Leadership
  • Legislative/Policy Development
  • Healing Trauma Through Activism Trainings
  • Anti-stigma Campaigns
  • LGBTQ+ Outreach

Additional opportunities include: Suicide Prevention Training/Leadership, Trauma-Focused Psychological Services, Court Advocacy, canine-assisted therapy, art therapy, and activism-oriented interventions.

All interns will have the opportunity to participate in coordinated community response meetings, as well as community outreach opportunities. Bright Future Foundation coordinates and provides leadership across a variety of community councils. These include Speak Up Reach Out (SURO)-suicide prevention coalition, Eagle County’s Sexual Offense Resource Team (SORT), Child Protective Team (CPT), Child Fatality Review Team, The Total Health Alliance Initiative, and Eagle County School’s Response to Intervention (RTI). Specific areas of focus will be determined based on community need and intern interest.

Interest and experience in social justice, trauma treatment, gender-based violence, and crisis intervention are strongly recommended. Bilingual students are strongly encouraged to apply.

Nina Campanile, Psy.D., LP

Primary Site Supervisor

Dr. Nina Campanile is a graduate of William James College, in Newton, MA and former Postdoctoral Fellow in Clinical Psychology at Bright Future Foundation (2021-2022). Dr. Campanile is now the Clinical Supervisor at Bright Future Foundation. She has been fortunate to treat a variety of populations with various presentations, including individual, family, and couples therapy, refugees and immigrants, crisis assessment and stabilization, substance abuse, complex trauma, mood disorders, and psychotic disorders. Dr. Campanile specializes in trauma-informed care and intervention, specifically Cognitive Processing Therapy. Her mission is to provide trauma-informed care while utilizing a culturally responsive approach. Dr. Campanile also received her BA/S from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is thrilled to live in the Eagle Valley, surrounded by mountains and nature. She also spends her time skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and playing with her dog, Rezzy. 

Email: nina@mybrightfuture.org

 

Sheri Mintz, MSW, LCSW

CEO

Sheri Mintz serves as CEO for the Bright Future Foundation. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Drew University in Madison New Jersey, and a Master’s of Science in Social Work degree from Columbia Graduate School. She has dedicated her professional life to serving diverse and vulnerable populations, including social work positions within hospital, community service, and private practice settings. Prior to beginning her position at Bright Future Foundation, Ms. Mintz served as Director of Adult, Family, and Volunteer Services within the Department of Health and Human Services in Eagle County, Colorado. In that position, she worked within the framework of the county’s mission using best practice models and in compliance with federal, state and local regulations to deliver quality services and attain positive social service outcomes.

In her current role at Bright Future Foundation, Ms. Mintz executes the mission, vision and values of Bright Future Foundation: to empower individuals and families to lead safe and productive lives through prevention, early intervention and advocacy for victims of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault. Specifically, her role has included such successes as: assessing organizational effectiveness and implementing financial and administrative changes for long term sustainability and greater accountability; redesigning position descriptions, compensation plans and personnel policies to ensure both cost-effectiveness and staff retention; initially reducing the annual budget by 18% with no reduction in client service delivery by streamlining operations, realigning resources and avoiding service duplication; increasing Federal and State grant revenue by 66%; Securing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding in 2009 to reinstate previously eliminated staff positions; and leading the organization to being recognized as the 2012 Non-Profit of the Year for Eagle County by the Vail Valley Partnership.

Email: sheri@mybrightfuture.org

Site Director: Dr. Nina Campanile, Licensed Psychologist

Email address: nina@mybrightfuture.org

Phone: 970-414-2571

Website: www.mybrightfuture.org

Mailing address:  PO Box 2558, Avon, Colorado 81620