We receive most of our referrals from social workers and oncology office navigators in area hospitals and medical offices. Some applicants are referred by former grantees, directly from the web site, through support groups, and by word of mouth from family and friends.

We founded the organization based on the experience of one woman, Donna Rogers. You can read more about this story under "About Us: History."

There are no organizations in Colorado that currently provide the breadth of services that Sense of Security provides for breast cancer patients. Some organizations in Colorado do exist to provide transitional housing, emergency assistance, housekeeping, support for alternative treatments, pleasurable outings, one-time stipends of aid, or prepared food if you are unable to cook for yourself. Visit findhelp.org and you can search for all forms of assistance available to you by zip code and type of assistance.

Sense of Security defines active treatment as conventional chemotherapy treatments, and/or radiation treatments. We also assist patients who are within 2 months of a cancer-related surgery (reconstruction and related complications do not qualify). Hormonal therapies when administered alone do not qualify for our program, except Herceptin. However, if they are administered in conjunction with a qualified treatment, one could medically qualify for our program.

As of December 2022, Sense of Security provided aid to nearly 2,200 grantees who finished the program. We maintain a wait-list which is addressed as quickly as possible.

As of December 2022, Sense of Security has provided more than $2,200,000 in funding. Support levels depend on the specific individual circumstances and needs of each applicant. See "Programs: Statistics" for additional information on applicants and grantee statistics.

We make every attempt to dedicate at least 80 percent of our budget to grantee services; this includes moneys paid directly for grantee needs, staff and administrative time and resources, and expenses related to fundraising for programmatic needs.

Grantees qualify for assistance as long as they remain eligible for treatment and financial criteria. The maximum duration of support for any grantee is 6 months per stage of diagnosis for a total grant of $3,000. We allow one full grant per person and cannot offer more than the maximum grant.

Sense of Security will assist ANY resident of Colorado. Our service is not dependent upon a physical location; you do not need to come into an office for an interview or have any face-to-face meeting with our staff and you do not have to reside in a metropolitan area of the state to qualify for aid.

Most communication is done by telephone and everything a grantee needs can be sent in the mail, found on this website or faxed. Our criteria has been established to be county specific, so your personal situation will be compared to those who reside in your home county, not to the state as a whole or to others in a metropolitan county.

Sense of Security has provided the majority of its aid for housing assistance (mortgage and rent payments) - over 74 percent.

Sense of Security is a provider of last resort. This means that we expect you to explore and exhaust all other forms of financial assistance-including but not limited to state and federal government aid programs-before we can process your application. However, we can help you with this!

You are encouraged to apply early in your treatment protocol because we maintain a waitlist for applicants that can run anywhere from 6 to 10 months. Applying earlier may enable you to qualify for funding before the end of your treatment cycle, waiting may disqualify you.

The reason we have this requirement is that we believe everyone eligible should seek out all the aid they could qualify for, whether public aid or community aid. Keep in mind that we only require you apply to these programs before applying to Sense of Security; as long as you document your applications to the aid programs, Sense of Security can begin processing your application.

You must meet our criteria: be a resident of Colorado, be in a qualified treatment for breast cancer, and have a household income less than the median per capita personal income for the county in which you reside (Sense of Security has this information, don't worry!).

After that, we do an analysis of your actual income and expenses and determine if there is a reduction in income and an income shortfall. In other words, if your income is greater than your expenses, you have no need for financial assistance. However, if your expenses are greater than your income, we will consider providing assistance based on the amount of your shortfall.

Of course this varies from person to person, so every applicant will be confidentially interviewed by telephone to determine his/her financial need. If you are requesting assistance with your mortgage payments, you need to meet one additional criteria: the value of your home cannot exceed the median value for the county in which you reside (Sense of Security has this information). If you would like assistance with your mortgage payment, you are required to submit with your application a copy of your current year's property tax assessment.

Sense of Security provides its aid in the form of payments made directly to your vendors that we will mail to you to disperse. For example, if we are paying toward your monthly rent and utility bills, you are responsible for sending complete invoices/bills to us and we will issue checks to those vendors and send the checks to you to remit to the vendor with any remaining balance (ie your rent is $1,000, we pay $500, you pay $500, send both payments to your landlord). Grantees are required to provide the full, original bill so that we can accurately make payments on their behalf.