Donna Mae BaukatPeer Support Professional President/Co-founder and Executive Director, Community Compassion Outreach, Inc.

Donna Mae Baukat is married 40 years to Stephen M. Baukat. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, (mid-1940s) until 1958 when (age 13) her American Filipino parents and three siblings relocated to Southern California. After graduating high school in Anaheim, California (1962) she immediately went to work as a stenographer at the contracts department of an aerospace manufacturing company (now known as Boeing Aerospace). She has three (3)  children from a previous marriage, seven (7) grandchildren and two (2) great-grandchildren.
 
While she raised three children, she worked as legal secretary and office manager for private businesses and electronic manufacturers in (1964-1975). In mid 1975, she became the first Pacific Islander woman in outside sales of printed circuit boards (PCB) for manufacturers and distributors in Orange & San Diego Counties, CA. She was the first woman Pacific Islander in the role of marketing and sales engineer for a chemical machining manufacturer in the U.S.A.  (1976-1979) that brought Vacco Industries new business in the semiconductor industry. Vacco produces propriety ‘quiet filters’ for nuclear submarines. Although a major illness caused permanent disability in 1991, Donna Mae used her marketing and professional communication skills when she was asked by a professor of civil engineering to market and sell his invention across the U.S.: Seismic Repair and Rehabilitation System for Bridges and Highways (SRRS) (1999-2005). Her customers were civil engineering professors at major universities between California and Florida, as well as public utility engineers in major cities. At the same time, she acquired a license to represent a British Fiber Optical Monitor manufacturer to offer as detecting strains in concrete piers of bridges and highways. Her upward climb in highly technical industries required comprehension of mechanical and electrical disciplines as she trained in the industries where she was employed. She retired early in 2005.
 
Having relocated with her husband to Durango (late 2013) and acclimating to the Southwest Colorado rural community, Donna Mae realized a great need to serve people experiencing homelessness in the Fall of 2016. At the church where the Baukat couple attends, she started the Community Compassion Outreach Program to provide services for the underserved. She collected online information from local, state and national associations serving homelessness with a passion to solve Durango’s homeless issues, and she took advantage of free and fee-paid webinars and training.
 
By February 2018, she held a Forum Ending Homelessness: Why we haven’t, how we can, with keynote Donald W. Burnes, Ph.D., and author of a book of the same name. The forum was a success with 100 attendees at the La Plata County Exhibit Hall including city and county officials on panels with services providers and people from nearby communities. Shortly after the forum, Ms. Baukat incorporated Community Compassion Outreach (CCO) (3/29/2018). The nonprofit 501(c)(3) status from the IRS was received a few months later effective the date of incorporation.
 
Donna Mae has led volunteers who joined CCO’s Board of Directors in various programs as she saw a need to form collaborations with local health, housing, shelter and food providers. At the above-mentioned forum, she introduced the Denver-based retired skyscraper architect Stuart Ohlson who designed a portable shelter, built and tested by a structural engineering class at Fort Lewis College under the tutelage of Professor Don May—the shelter failed snow-loads. With Ohlson, Donna Mae presented specifications for a permanent home unit for affordable low-income households, starting with a 365 square feet to the current 704 square feet unit. The Essential Home may be doubled in size to create a 4-bedroom home of 1408 sq.ft., including full kitchen, living room, washer/dryer and storage. The home is intended to be in a village setting fostering community first. The Village of Hope Development team was formed by Ms. Baukat which includes local contractors, builders, realtors, and volunteers. She is actively pursuing land and funding to build Essential Homes for low-income households and starting with sober-living housing for men, women, families, youth and Native Americans.
 
A catalyst for initiatives and advocacies serving people experiencing homelessness, Donna Mae brought retired psychologists together to interact with individuals having meals at Manna Soup Kitchen (1/2019-3/2020) two to three times a week. Volunteer Professionals Advocacy Service provided education monthly for staff, volunteers and people experiencing homelessness. Within a short period of time, behaviors during the meals improved and trauma to staff was notably reduced. MS. Baukat, on behalf of CCO, applied for and received two Covid Relief Funds (5/18/2020; 12/18/2020) totaling $35,000 for rental assistance, motel nights, groceries and utilities for clients through March 2021.
 
When Covid-19 hit La Plata County, Coffee & Conversations for People with Food-insecurity & the Homeless has continued by CCO’s volunteers and led by Donna Mae Baukat. Since sharing meals and distributing masks at Schneider Park on Saturdays (12/1/2018-Present)—except for five Saturdays per year due to weather and holidays—the program serves home-cooked meals to 10-20 individuals & children each week. In contrast to 20-50 meals distributed before the pandemic.
 
In late 2020, Donna Mae was introduced to the role of peer recovery supporter for people with substance use disorders and/or mental health conditions by Zero Suicide Initiative expert, Dr. Heather Indelicato. Recognizing the problem of addictions with most of CCO’s clients, Ms. Baukat began training and completed the SBIRT class (Screening Brief Intervention Referral to Treatment) in Spring 2021. She completed Addiction Recovery Coach training in June and the Peer Support Professional (PSP) training in October 2021; and, she is working toward the exam by the International Credentialing and Reciprocity Consortium (IC&RC) with additional training and 500 actual hours activities for the PSP certification.

The new CCO Recovery Empowerment Support Services (RESST) Program has 12 peers that Donna Mae is supporting since she completed her June training. CCO will be receiving from the West Slope Casa MSO a grant in mid-February for a $130,535 annual budget as La Plata County’s first Recovery Community Support Service Organization (February 2022 – June 30, 2022). The grant is to train and hire a peer recovery support workforce. She will be trained as peer workforce supervisor in February 2022 by the Colorado Mental Wellness Network (PSP trainers). Her lived experience with recovery from mental health conditions over two decades, and her training on substance use disorders (SUDs), expands CCO’s client services for new and previous clients.

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