May Peak News
Peak Spotlight
John Farnam, Maverick Thinker and 9News Leader of the Year.
Urban Peak is grateful to work with amazing partners across our community, and there are few as passionate as John Farnam, the managing director of the Morgridge Family Foundation. We’re excited to honor John as a Maverick Thinker, alongside his husband Paul Heitzenrater, at our upcoming Urban Nights Sneaker Ball on Saturday, September 7th.
John was recently chosen as the recipient of the 9NEWS Leader of the Year, an award recognizing outstanding community leadership in Metro Denver given by 9news and the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation.
Pictured above: John Farnam (left) and Paul Heitzenrater (right).
John shared an important message in response to receiving the award: “Inspiring those around us to see themselves as leaders is critical. A key takeaway that I would like you to have today is, how are you creating the space and the sightline to leadership for all of those that you surround yourself with?”
We are thrilled to see John get the recognition he deserves and we’re grateful to work closely with him as he continues to lead by example. Congratulations, John! Watch John and Urban Peak CEO Christina Carlson discuss this incredible honor as well as the upcoming move to The Mothership on 9news below.
Youth Spotlight
Tinashe is a motivated young man who is on a path to finding his purpose. He has high expectations for himself, a proactive personality and a proclivity for exploration.
Since coming to Urban Peak, he has devoted most of his attention to pursuing his education goals; he wants to “aim high to pass all the subjects and enjoy the journey while doing so.” He describes himself as a kind young adult who likes exploring and meeting new people.
In his free time, Tinashe enjoys reading books, playing video games, socializing with friends and scrolling TikTok. He expresses appreciation for finding a home with Urban Peak and said, “[they] love and give people a chance to grow and improve themselves without criticism.” We’re so glad to hear it. Keep up the great work, Tinashe! 😊
Partner Highlight
Urban Peak and our partners at CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen) have a mission in common: to meet folks where they’re at, establish a trusting relationship and support them in whatever ways they need.
📸: @photosbygus on Instagram
CLA is a wealth management firm that operates in more than 120 locations throughout the country. We partnered with them for their recent conference in Denver, where hundreds of attendees created snack packs and shelter move-in kits for the young people we serve.
Even more incredible, CLA generously donated more than $30,000 to Urban Peak to create even more move-in kits for youth moving into neighborhoods at The Mothership, in preparation for youth move-in day on Thursday, July 25th. The logistics involved with moving an entire shelter to a new location are challenging, but CLA’s incredible support makes it much less complicated. It truly takes a village, and we are so grateful for their partnership!
Will you join our village and support Urban Peak as we transition to our new campus?
Mothership Highlight
Make Room for The Mothership!
Urban Peak is reimagining what it means to break the cycle of homelessness and transform the lives of the young people we serve. That’s why our new shelter campus — affectionately called The Mothership — was intentionally designed to co-locate all our services under one roof, with flexible rooms and ample space for programming.
Looking at the differences between our old shelter and the upcoming campus clearly illustrates the massive scale of this next phase for Urban Peak. When the old shelter was built in 1998, the need for youth shelter was significantly smaller than it is today. The building itself was one floor, just over 8,000 square feet and had two congregate shelter spaces for male and female-identifying youth, with twenty beds per room.
Urban Peak's old shelter on Acoma St.
Fast forward to 2024 and the situation of youth homelessness in Denver has practically exploded. We now serve roughly 1,000 young people per year and with the increased numbers comes an increased need for space. The new Mothership campus is roughly 66,000 square feet, reflecting a significant step up from what has come before.
Urban Peak's new shelter "The Mothership" on Acoma St.
Our youth have much to get excited about with this new building. Separate shelter spaces for minors ages 12 to 17 and young adults ages 18 to 24 will allow for more appropriately targeted services, while the flexible neighborhoods on floors two and three will provide six additional community rooms and kitchens for our clients.
Our staff are looking forward to having offices and large, flexible meeting spaces in the same building as their clients, allowing for more direct access to resources (such as the medical clinics next to the two shelters). Similarly, volunteers will have access to much larger spaces for activities with youth, whether it’s cooking dinner in the large commercial kitchen, teaching GED classes or practicing yoga on the terrace.
Finally, there are plentiful outdoor spaces available throughout the building. Two outdoor courtyards featuring gorgeous greenery and a basketball court are located on the ground floor near the emergency shelters. Two more outdoor terraces on the fourth floor (both landscaped and equipped with solar panels) round out The Mothership’s natural spaces for a total of more than 2,800 square feet of beautiful and dignified outdoor space. After all, the most vulnerable deserve the most beautiful spaces.
Two terraces on the fourth floor give ample space for activities and hangouts
With such an incredible expansion of space available to our Urban Peak family in just two short months, we are preparing to enter a bold new chapter. And we need your help to ensure that youth like Tinashe can get the support they need during this transition. For $30/month, you can provide a hearty dinner for 70 young people. Will you commit to becoming a recurring donor and help support unhoused youth in our community?
