Cash assistance by Women's Foundation of Colorado part of growing movement

CBS News Colorado is taking a closer look at what is considered a living wage in the state.

Many of the people who help keep our popular mountain resorts running struggle to make ends meet themselves.

The Women's Foundation of Colorado is one organization that's trying to help.

It's also part of a growing movement to give people direct cash assistance.

Belem Esparza works at a resort kitchen in Vail. She commutes there from Leadville, a community she loves.

"But it's expensive to live here," Belem tells us in Spanish. "At times I wish I could save more, but there's never enough left for savings. We are very grateful because it was a lot the help they gave us, to several families here in Leadville."

Esparza is one of 1,600 women who've received cash assistance from the Women's Foundation of Colorado.

"Since we live in mobile homes, we use gas to heat our home and water. It is very expensive. With two months of the cash I received, I was able to fill half the tank with gas and that will last me three or four months," Esparza said.

Esparza and her husband have three teenage children. They earn about $36,000 per year. 

According to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, a family of Esparza's size in Leadville's Lake County should make $66,000 per year to meet its Self-Sufficiency Standard.

U.S. Census data shows that one in four residents of Lake County do not make enough to meet the Self-Sufficiency Standard.

Esparza's family is falling far short of that measure of economic security, so the cash support has been much appreciated.

"A lot of the participants in the WINCome program are some of the hardest working people we've ever encountered," said Women's Foundation of Colorado Programs Manager Crystal Ayala-Goldstein.

The Women's Foundation program is one of 33 cash assistance programs in Colorado working to address the disparity between wages and the costs many families are facing.

"They don't have to worry about an emergency medical expense or funds to pay for tire repairs," Ayala-Goldstein said. "They can address those and pursue various economic opportunities whether that be job training or educational attainment. And have all of their needs covered."

Despite the high cost of living here, Belem Esparza couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

She says she enjoys working in Vail, which she says looks like a fairy tale, and living in Leadville - where more than one in four residents is Latino.

She added, "We all know each other, the majority of us do, and when someone goes through hard times, everyone steps in to help."

The Women's Foundation of Colorado worked with Full Circle of Lake County - to distribute the cash assistance.

The WINcome program's impact report cited benefits including women saying they feel valued, and less stress and anxiety about making ends meet. 

Learn more at https://www.wfco.org/wincome