September Peak News
A Great Way to Start the Morning
Every Wednesday we host Urban Peak’s community breakfast. It’s a chance for staff (and even community partners!) from across our programs to come together at The Spot and celebrate our youths’ successes.
After introductions and announcements, our staff present various youth with star shoutouts 🌟 for anything they did that week that brightened someone’s day, or because they’re working hard toward their goals, or maybe just for being a cool person. The point is, they’re all positive. 😊
A recent highlight was when Avriela shouted out The Spot staff for always being there for her as a resource or friendly face. That’s what we’re here for!
Additionally, each week we select a Youth of the Week, an honor that comes with a gift card, extra peak pounds (currency to buy things at The Spot) and the opportunity to take two staff members of their choosing out to lunch!
The smiles all around at community breakfast are contagious, and we love this regular chance to celebrate what makes Urban Peak an awesome place to ignite the potential in our youth. You can join us for the next one by volunteering to serve a meal (www.urbanpeak.org/volunteer)!
Peak Spotlight
We were honored to welcome members of the National Conference of State Legislatures, or NCSL, to The Spot recently to learn more about Urban Peak and youth homelessness. NCSL is a nonpartisan organization that represents all legislatures in the United States and its territories, and its members consist of all state legislators across the country. Their mission is to advance the effectiveness, independence and integrity of legislatures and to foster interstate cooperation and facilitate the exchange of information among legislatures.
(from left) Moderator Christina Carlson with panelists Eric Lazzari, Erica McIntire and support services supervisor Vanity.
Legislators from several states heard from two different panels:
Moving from Homelessness: An Innovative Partnership to Build Workforce Skills – Urban Peak CEO Christina Carlson moderated this panel that focused on a new workforce development program, Civic Center WORKS. Featured panelists Eric Lazzari, executive director at the Civic Center Conservancy, Erica McIntire with Bank of America and our own support services supervisor, Vanity, discussed strategies for supporting individuals as they transition out of homelessness.
Lived Expertise in Policy and Practice – Several members of our staff with lived experience of being unhoused discussed the importance of elevating the voices of people with real, personal experiences of homelessness and involving them in policymaking. It was moderated by David Jennings, a former Urban Peak youth and current board secretary (who was also honored as a Maverick Thinker in July!).
Legislators asked about barriers panelists had faced during homelessness as well as barriers facing our youth today. Panelists cited the difficulty of obtaining vital documents (IDs, social security cards, etc.), issues with trust, difficult family situations and financial insecurity.
“It’s like pulling teeth to get your vital documents, especially if you weren’t born in this state,” noted Xenny, an Urban Peak peer navigator. “It stops everything. And once they’re unable to continue, people usually just give up.”
Members of the NCSL and Urban Peak staff.
Despite the challenges that our youth and panelists have faced in their lives, they were excited for the opportunity to share their experiences. Housing Peer Navigator Celeste shared how speaking on the panel felt empowering. “It was nice to see how invested and determined state legislators are to make and be the change.”
Legislators also took a tour of Urban Peak’s facilities at The Spot with our Director of Shelter Services, Ben, and learned more about the challenging and important work we do every day. We are always ready to share our expertise in the complicated field of youth homelessness with the community and we’re grateful to NCSL for taking the time to hear directly from our youth and staff who actually know what it’s like.
Partner Highlight
Urban Peak staff are always working to make sure our youth have easy and affordable access to meals. We do this in a few different ways, primarily by working with local food banks and relying on volunteers for meal support.
A delicious-looking meal prepared by youth and staff in the "food bank eats" group.
This can also look like staff going shopping and holding cooking classes or activities with youth to help them learn life skills around food and nutrition. Housing life skills manager Vanessa frequently visits local food banks with our youth so they can pick out their own food, and she loves to cook with them in new and creative ways. For Cinco de Mayo this year, they made enchiladas from scratch!
One of our core partners in this work is Kaizen Food Rescue, the only refugee-led nonprofit food access organization in Colorado. Their mission is to prevent food waste and improve food justice and health equity in communities facing food apartheid. “Food apartheid” describes the systemic and structural inequalities in food access that disproportionately affect low-income and marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) populations.
Kaizen Food Rescue generously provides us with groceries each week, which not only allows us to keep our pantries stocked with healthy ingredients but also gives youth the opportunity to learn to cook healthy food for themselves on a budget. And they get to eat it! The “food bank eats” groups have proven quite successful among the youth in our housing programs. 😊
Field Day!
It’s always nice to get outside and soak up Colorado’s good rays. Even better when it involves games with friends! To close out this summer, our youth and staff had a wonderful day hanging out, playing games, loving the nice weather and enjoying a much-needed respite.
We’re grateful to volunteers from our partners at Xcel Energy for taking their Day of Service to help set up and play fun activities with our youth (including a hair dye station, corn hole, ice cream bar and chalk art), all of which made for such a memorable field day. The ice cream bar was very popular (and melty!). What a great sendoff to the summer. 😊☀️
Now, to start bundling up our youth in preparation for fall. With your support, our work continues. See how you can help at www.urbanpeak.org/support.
Pictured: Raziel gets his tips dyed a striking blond by an Xcel volunteer.
Youth Spotlight
CeCe is currently a certified nursing assistant (CNA) and a Qualified Medication Administration Person (QMAP). She recently returned to school and wants to become a registered nurse. Ultimately, CeCe hopes nursing will give her more opportunities to save lives and broaden her scope in the medical field. For now, she is loving her job as a CNA and is excited to be in school.
In her free time, CeCe enjoys going to the mountains to relax and loves going to the movies. Her favorite movie right now is Barbie, which she has seen twice. And she’s planning to go see it a third time (we’re right there with you)! CeCe is a leader in our space and encourages other youth to do their best. We are so proud of her for all her accomplishments!
Thanks to your generosity, we’re able to provide CeCe with access to the resources she needs to exit homelessness and create a self-determined, fulfilled life. With our fiscal year ending in just a few days, we’re asking you to consider becoming a recurring donor for $10/month. Over the course of a year, your gifts will allow us to provide hot breakfast to more than 50 youth! We couldn’t do this life-saving work without your help, and everything helps. Thank you for being the spark.
