November Peak News
Colorado Gives Day is almost here!
Urban Peak ignites the potential in youth to exit homelessness and lead self-determined, fulfilled lives. To continue this critical work and one day end youth homelessness, we need your support on Colorado Gives Day.
Taking place Tuesday, December 6th, Colorado Gives Day is our biggest fundraising day of the year. Last year, we raised an incredible $270,000 from 774 unique donors! We’re excited to top those numbers this year with your help, and you can #bethespark by scheduling your donation today. All gifts made to Urban Peak between today and December 6th will help Urban Peak receive a portion of the $1.4+ million incentive fund and support our vision that all Colorado youth have safe housing, supportive relationships and the opportunity for self-sufficiency and success.
If you’re planning to donate through a donor-advised fund, contact us for detailed instructions. These gifts must be made by Tuesday, November 22nd to be counted toward Colorado Gives Day. This holiday season, give where you live and schedule your gift today.
Thank You for the Immense Support!
We’re overwhelmed and grateful for the incredible support shown by our community this month. Since we launched the new meal shift volunteering calendar at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/urbanpeak_meals, you all have shown up for our youth and signed up for almost every single available volunteer shift in November!
THANK YOU for being the spark and supporting our efforts to provide three healthy and delicious meals to youth, every day of the year. We’re looking forward to another awesome December!
Fierce45 and the Gratitude Challenge
November is a time to focus on gratitude, and we are extremely grateful for our community partnerships with organizations like Fierce45, a local fitness studio that offers high-intensity and low-impact reformer pilates classes.
Throughout this month, Fierce45 is hosting their 2nd annual gratitude challenge in support of Urban Peak and will be donating all proceeds to our programs! It’s $10 to participate, and for those who complete 12 classes before the end of the month, Fierce45 will match your donation! Additionally, for every donation of $10, you’ll receive a raffle entry to win two free months of classes.
Huge thanks to everyone in the Fierce45 family using your physical fitness journeys to spread the good around! Visit https://www.fierce45.com/gratitude-challenge for more information about how you can support Urban Peak with your own fitness journey.
Peak Spotlight
This week, Urban Peak youth and staff joined Kree and Holly with Art from Ashes for the second in an eight-week series of creative art workshops.
Art from Ashes staff member Kree recites some poetry during the creative workshop.
Art from Ashes (AfA) is a local nonprofit that encourages creative empowerment, personal resiliency and self-determination through artistic expression for at-risk youth ages 9 to 24. Urban Peak also believes that art and creativity empower young people, which is exactly why we opened our music studio last year and why our support services team continues to partner with organizations like AfA.
Kree and Holly (who is a former Urban Peak employee herself!) come to The Spot every week to run a creative workshop that focuses on written art and poetry. In the first session, Kree recited local and nationally renowned poetry and then led youth in a writing response. Youth had the option to share their work from their seat or standing at a microphone, if they chose to share.
Because of the judgment-free safe space that Kree and Holly created, many of our youth chose to express themselves and their experiences up at the mic. They shared poetry about a variety of topics and experiences -- such as feeling "translucent," moving from Mexico to the U.S., and grappling with extreme health scares and homelessness.
It was great to see so many of our youth enjoy themselves and use this time for creativity and expression. Huge thanks to Art from Ashes, Kree and Holly. We’re looking forward to the next session!
Partner Highlight
Snooze, an A.M. Eatery, started right here in Denver, near the Urban Peak Drop-In Center, 16 years ago, and we’ve been honored and grateful to partner with them for the majority of that time, since at least 2010 when Snooze generously donated Thanksgiving Day brunch to our youth at the Shelter. We are likewise honored to have their Chief People and Culture Officer, Brianna Borin, on our Board of Directors for the past 5 years.
Staff members Christina (and family), Daniel and Carter at the Urban Peak table during Snooze's soft opening.
Snooze and Urban Peak share a belief in the importance of community and welcoming everyone who walks through our doors into the larger family.
Not only do they serve delicious brunch, but Snooze has continually shown up and demonstrated their commitment to our youth over the years through monetary gifts, meal donations and even by donating portions of their sales to our programs.
This past Sunday, November 13th, Snooze hosted a soft-opening celebration for their newest location on First and Broadway to benefit Urban Peak, and all proceeds from the event went directly to our programs. Snooze and Urban Peak invited staff, friends and family to enjoy their delicious brunch offerings. When all was said and done, we’d raised over $1,400 for the youth we serve!
We want to give a huge thank you to everyone who came out on Sunday to support Urban Peak and an extra special thank you to Snooze for being such an invaluable partner to us over the years. Go check out their brand-new location at 101 N Broadway and say hi from us!
Time to Break the Cycle of Homelessness
November is National Youth Homelessness Awareness Month.
Unfortunately, 1 in 10 young adults ages 18 to 24 will experience some form of homelessness in the United States. Additionally, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community are vastly overrepresented in youth homeless populations.
To address these disparities, it’s imperative to raise awareness that this problem exists, put a face to it and ultimately take steps to mitigate it, such as through the programs and services Urban Peak provides. We are happy to partner with Breaktime, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit working to break the cycle of young adult homelessness, in their efforts to raise awareness of this issue and ultimately eradicate it.
Learn more about how you can support their efforts to end youth homelessness here, and #bethespark by supporting Urban Peak here.
Youth Spotlight
Meet Ricki! He has been accessing the Drop-in Center for about three months now.
He regularly meets with his case manager to work on his goals and has already successfully obtained a photo ID for himself. With that in hand, his next steps are to get a passport, find housing and find a job. In the future, Ricki really wants to travel once he saves up a little bit.
He loves music and enjoys producing it in his spare time, so he’s been having a great time recording and mixing in our music studio!
At Urban Peak we have so much to be grateful for, including the leadership of our board. Urban Peak’s board of directors is made up of a fierce group of steadfast advocates and champions.
They give of their time, treasure, talent and testimony relentlessly. These leaders are mission centric and take their jobs as board members as a privilege and honor.
Over the years countless members of our community have sat on our board, and as they roll off, they continue to be strong advocates, donors and members of the Urban Peak family. With that in mind I would like to take the opportunity to thank Todd Fredrickson, Regina Jackson, Grant Muller and Terri Taylor for their many, many years of board service! They have all played leadership roles on the board from leading or participating on committees, to being board chairs and to leading the hiring committee that brought me to Urban Peak.
Generosity shows itself in many ways. As we round the corner toward a holiday where we celebrate gratitude, family, friends and food, I would be remiss if I did not express our deep gratitude to our current board and these extraordinary board members who will remain leaders among the Urban Peak family. Please join me in thanking them for their tireless service and community leadership!
Gratefully,
Christina Carlson
Urban Peak CEO
