September Peak News
Gardening, Cooking and Growing
Urban Peak staff have recently begun organizing regular community dinners at our housing sites. These dinners provide youth with opportunities to get to know their neighbors better and come together as a community to celebrate the joy of cooking.
Often, dinners incorporate ingredients that youth helped to grow themselves (made possible by the gardening projects supported by Denver Urban Gardens). Additionally, some community dinners are focused on a specific theme or culture and allow youth to connect to their roots in their new homes.
Staff have also created a cooking club, Bread Buddies, where youth and staff can learn to make bread together, create connections and just talk about life. How is their week going, how can staff support them in accomplishing their goals? Because of the collaborative nature of Bread Buddies and the constant influx of new youth to our housing sites, it has already been the catalyst for many new friendships. We love to see it!
Recently, the group made bread to enjoy with baked brie and grapes. Youth and staff couldn’t stop giggling about how fancy they felt eating such a sophisticated snack. Of course, we had to remind them that they deserve fancy treats!
Expanding on the ideas of our Bread Buddies group, life skills manager Bobby created an Easy Eats group, helping to teach youth to make simple and tasty recipes with easily accessible ingredients, thereby avoiding excess food waste as well.
At Rox’s Place, we’ve grown tomatoes that turned into BLTs on homemade sandwich bread, and at STAR we’re growing peppers, brussels sprouts, tomatoes and something that will either become pumpkin or squash. The mystery is half the fun!
Youth at all our supportive housing sites have expressed how happy it makes them to grow their own food. Youth and staff alike take pride in their homes and communities knowing that they’re working together to care for the plants and, ultimately, enjoy the fruits of their labor at groups and community dinners.
Born from all these cooking groups and community dinners, staff have been busy putting together an Urban Peak cookbook! These recipes come from both youth and staff, some of which harken back to their cultural heritage and some of which are just good fun. Take a look for yourself, you might just be inspired!
Next on the to-do list is to create a fall and winter-themed cookbook full of comfort recipes (think hot chocolate, tomato soup, sloppy joes, and more).
You can help facilitate these awesome cooking clubs and community dinners by donating to Urban Peak. We ask that you consider donating a bread-making machine or gifts cards to Walmart, Kroger and Amazon. Links at the top of this newsletter.
Urban Peak Volunteering Updates
As our staff and youth continue acclimating to the new downtown location of our temporary Shelter, we’re revising our volunteer requirements to match. We now ask that meal volunteers looking to donate a meal include enough food to feed 50 people. Regardless of whether you’re donating, prepping or serving, volunteers can expect breakfast and lunch shifts to last 1.5 hours each and dinner shifts to last 2 hours.
We’re also working on expanding our list of preferred meal partners, so if you know an organization that would be a good fit to partner with us, reach out to our community engagement manager Andrea, andrea.alcala@urbanpeak.org.
Additionally, due to staffing and space limitations, we are unfortunately unable to accept clothing donations at this time. Check out our website for any future updates.
Thank you for your continued support during this transition period!
Peak Spotlight
Last Friday night, after a two-year hiatus, new and returning members of the community gathered together in support of Urban Peak at Urban Nights, presented by the Morgridge Family Foundation.
📸: Evan Semón
Featuring live musical guest Too Many Zooz, as well as the Runway for a Reason fashion show that included designs by six local artists, the evening was a smashing success. Zach Johnson, former Urban Peak youth and current UP life skills manager/videographer created the videos for the evening, showcasing Urban Peak's mission in action. Check out Zach's awesome video on our YouTube channel, featuring our Youth of the Month Big Raj, and try not to cry.
Because of the generous gifts of our corporate and nonprofit partners, community leaders and YOU, we raised more than $800,000 (the MOST ever raised at an Urban Peak event)! All funds go directly to our programs, and, more importantly, our youth.
We would not be where we are without every person’s dedication and drive to end youth homelessness. We hope that those who attended were excited and inspired by the evening’s speakers and the future of Urban Peak. We’re so grateful to our many sponsors and donors for making it possible for us to throw the premier evening of the year, and we look forward to continuing to provide innovative and life-changing care to Colorado’s most vulnerable young people. And remember, it's not too late to donate!
Thank You for Being the Spark!
Partner Highlight
Urban Peak’s partnership with arc Thrift Stores has been a cornerstone of our community relationships for decades, and throughout the years they’ve helped out our youth in a myriad of ways. Not only did they show up and support us at Urban Nights this year, but they also donate hundreds of dollars’ worth of vouchers to their thrift store locations for our youth to use freely, every single month.
Now that our thrift store Peak Thrift is closed, we really appreciate having another space in the city for our clients to shop for bargains on clothing and furniture. Those vouchers are especially helpful in conjunction with the new mattresses that Arc donates to our housing programs for youth moving into their first homes.
Without partners like arc Thrift Stores, Urban Peak would not be able to meet the massive demand for clothing and furniture, basic necessities that are so vital for our youth who are just starting their own lives. The feeling of ownership that comes with buying one’s own clothes and furniture is instrumental to leading a self-fulfilled life, and we couldn’t be more grateful to Arc for providing youth with the opportunity to choose their own adventure.
Urban Peak Youth Are Going Places
Our partners at Moov Financial recently made a generous donation of 15 Huffy cruiser bikes to Urban Peak! Our youth were overjoyed to receive their own personal mode of transport, complete with helmets and bike locks for safety.
Having access to reliable transportation, not to mention an opportunity for physical fitness, is paramount for our youth, many of whom have jobs and school to attend throughout Denver and beyond. We’re so grateful to Moov for helping to ensure our youth can get where they need to go and look stylish doing it!
Youth Spotlight
Raja, aka Big Raj, originally joined the Urban Peak family through our street outreach program. After that initial contact, he started coming to the Drop-In Center to work on his employment and housing goals, and once he discovered the music studio, he was hooked. Big Raj is wise beyond his years, with a kind heart and the uncanny ability to inspire others through his music.
In fact, Big Raj and his music were recently stars of the Urban Peak video that was shown at Urban Nights, which you can watch on our YouTube channel.
His journey at Urban Peak is a testament to the healing power of music and the importance of giving our youth a sense of ownership over their art that is so crucial to their sense of self. To know Raja is to feel lucky to have crossed paths with him.
