By NATHAN DEAL Nathan.Deal@gjsentinel.com May 12, 2023
When moving into its new Center for Philanthropy in downtown Grand Junction, the Western Colorado Community Foundation (WCCF) hoped that the building would serve as the perfect place to connect the local business community with nonprofit organizations tackling various issues.
It served that exact purpose Thursday, as the WCCF, along with the Bray Cares Foundation, hosted housing industry representatives, Realtors, lenders and community leaders to meet with and hear from their non-profit partners who are focused on homelessness and a housing crisis that is only worsening.
The Bray Cares Foundation is a donor-advised fund at WCCF that was founded in 2019 and funds projects addressing housing and homelessness in Mesa County. The foundation has granted $120,000 to more than a dozen nonprofit organizations in that time and has 100% Bray Real Estate employee and agent participation.
“What’s great about our partnership is that the Community Foundation works to manage and invest the dollars for Bray and the whole point is to grow that fund for good forever so that we’re not just making grants every year to the nonprofits addressing this issue but well into the future,” WCCF Grants and Community Outreach Director Tedi Gillespie said. “We know those needs change over time, so it’s not a static thing.”
“We decided to have a foundation that’s focused on housing because that’s how we make a living — we provide those services to people who have the means — and it was just natural for us to give back in a good way to people who don’t have the means,” added Bray Real Estate Development Coordinator Kevin Bray, who also said that a sign of the foundation’s strength is that the owner of one of their regional real estate competitors, Darin Carei of Senergy Builders, once sent a check to their foundation because he trusted their commitment to their mission.
JOSEPH CENTER
Mona Highline, the founder of the Joseph Center, spoke about her organization’s programs that provide food, laundry, housing and job-searching assistance.
The Joseph Center was established in 2015 to provide daytime housing for homeless women and families with children, and then it started a representative payee program so that those with Social Security benefits could receive them with the center serving as their payee. That program has a 98% success rate among its more than 120 members, as these people are now housed and cases managed.
In 2020, Highline noticed more elderly women were seeking help, leading to the Golden Girls project for homeless women over 50. She said they’ve helped women as old as 84 with their housing woes.
“Since October 2020, we’ve had 60 women go through this program. We were able through a grant to put in a kitchen and put in a shower, it’s a huge apartment where they can stay while they get all of their benefits, and we help them to transition into affordable housing,” Highline said.
“Right now, we’re seeing an influx of women who are being referred from oncology. We have three now who are doing radiation and chemo, and we have 15 on the waiting list. We can now house eight. So our dream is to expand our Golden Girls project. It is a need. It’s one of the fastest growing populations in that area.”
Highline was chosen as Nexstar’s 2023 Remarkable Woman of the Year out of more than a thousand candidates, receiving $1,000 from Nexstar for representing the Western Slope and then $10,000 for winning the award over candidates from around the nation. While she requested the $10,000 go to the Joseph Center, she decided to use the other $1,000 to help a fellow nonprofit organization, so after she spoke at the Center for Philanthropy, she presented a check to Grand Valley Peace and Justice Chairman Dave Murphy.
OTHER SPEAKERS
After Highline’s address, attendees split into groups in the various meeting rooms throughout the Center for Philanthropy, hearing the perspectives of other guest speakers who went from room-to-room to speak to each group.
The other speakers were Housing Resources of Western Colorado Executive Director Emilee Powell, who spoke about a new down payment assistance loan program for low-income home purchases; Foster Alumni Mentors Founder and Executive Director Kim Raff, who spoke about inspiring change and creating hope for young people who will soon age out of foster care; Karis, Inc., Executive Director Cydnie LaCour and Senior Director of Operations Lorraine Call, who spoke about the organization’s plans to expand housing opportunities; and Grand Valley Catholic Outreach Director Karen Bland and Director of Development Bev Lampley, who provided an update on their organization’s upcoming projects.
Bland and Lampley revealed that they hope to break ground on the Mother Teresa Place in August, as they’re waiting on grant funding from the state before beginning work on the project.
Mother Teresa Place will be a 40-unit apartment facility that will house those who are chronically houseless.
Bland said the Mother Teresa Place will help “build community” in Grand Valley, particularly among the region’s most vulnerable people.
“We did almost 700 rental assistance (services) last year, which means those families stayed housed,” Lampley said. “We have a housing crisis with children. We have 811 children in School District 51 that are homeless. When children are homeless during their formative years, it damages them for life, educationally, socially, mentally. Keeping people housed is such an important thing.”
LaCour’s organization, Karis, Inc. — also known as The House — provides services for housing-insecure youth between the ages of 13 and 21.
She provided attendees with an anecdote about the importance of Karis’ work: a young couple, including a pregnant girl, where one person was in foster care and the other had a woeful family life. LaCour said that, since they started participating in House programs, they’ve been able to move into an apartment, become sober, secure employment and raise their child.
“We served 235 youth last year. Our initiative is really to try to do prevention, so long-term prevention of homelessness, really intervening young so youth have the opportunity to grow in their self-sufficiency and well-being,” LaCour said. “I know transitioning age was an awkward time for me and I really had to rely on the support of my community and mentors and different people who really helped form who I’ve become as an adult. It’s kind of the same concept for these youth.”
