Homeless teens, seniors, people with disabilities benefit from grants to Colorado Springs area organizations

Several Colorado Springs-area organizations that help homeless teens, seniors and those with disabilities will benefit from recently received grants.

Silver Key Senior Services

A $75,000 federal grant Silver Key Senior Services received from AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program) will pay for recruiting and training an additional 200 volunteers to meet the growing demand for services, said Derek Wilson, chief strategy officer.

That will bring the organization’s volunteer force to 850, he said.

“Through the pandemic, seniors have been disproportionately impacted, as high risk, and sadly, they were already a marginalized group,” Wilson said.

Demand for Silver Key’s food pantry, home-delivered meals program, check-in calls, transportation, health and wellness services and other work has doubled and tripled over the past year, he said.

The organization’s kitchen went from preparing 7,500 meals a month to 15,000 per month, Wilson said.

“Calls of reassurance” to chat with and check on socially isolated and homebound seniors have increased from 50 a week to 180 a week, he said.

And Silver Key’s food pantry is now distributing to some 2,000 people per month, up from 1,500.

“The demand hasn’t plateaued or decreased — it continues to go up,” Wilson said.

While donations, grants and volunteer efforts have been able to meet the need, the concern is what will happen when coronavirus relief money stops being distributed to frontline agencies.

“Many older adults continue to struggle with healthcare, transportation and rising food costs,” Wilson said.

The organization’s tagline, he reminds everyone, is, “Aging is all of us.”

The Place

A $400,000 grant, one of the largest The Place has ever received, will help the Pikes Peak region’s only homeless shelter for teens hire more staff and expand its work, particularly with marginalized populations, according to Executive Director Shawna Kemppainen.

“This grant will support each of our core programs and the infrastructure that makes the programs happen,” she said.

The money is part of a $30 million donation Rocky Mountain Health Plans, a UnitedHealth Group company, announced Wednesday to increase access to healthcare across Colorado.

The majority — $25 million — is earmarked for the Rocky Mountain Health Foundation to fund STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education for young women and people of color.

The remaining $5 million establishes the “Healthy Youth/Strong Colorado Fund” in conjunction with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. The fund supports nonprofit organizations such as The Place that provide mental health services and opportunities for youth.

The Attorney General’s Office invited The Place to apply, Kemppainen said.

“As a nonprofit trying to help youth who are so vulnerable, it’s a really great day when you get that kind of phone call,” she said.

The most pressing community need for homeless youths is a drop-in day center, where they can take showers, do laundry, rest and find out about assistance, Kemppainen said.

The Place tested the concept with a temporary winter drop-in center that closed March 31 and was successful, she said.

Setting up a permanent drop-in site is one of several goals. Others include expanding street outreach and shelter capacity, forming a peer advisory board, and helping teens transitioning out of correctional facilities and foster care, homeless youth of color, those with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ clients.

From 100 to 200 teens are living on the streets in Colorado Springs in any given month, Kemppainen said, yet the teen shelter only has 20 beds.

Between 30% and 40% of clients self-identify as LGBTQ+, and about 30% are youth of color, she said, figures that mirror national trends.

And 20% of the 600 clients the organization works with each year are coming out of juvenile justice or correctional centers.

Family conflict is the top reason teens become homeless, Kemppainen said. Economic problems in families is another main driver for youth homelessness.

The grant also will help the organization hire three new employees, pay for additional training for staff and working more closely with other agencies.

Other awardees

The Place is also one of 50 organizations in El Paso and Teller counties to get a cut of $3.9 million in grants the Colorado Springs Health Foundation recently awarded.

The Place received $45,000 to provide healthcare support services homeless youths.

Colorado Springs Health Foundation funds requests that address access to care for those in the greatest need, healthcare workforce shortages, preventing suicide, building healthy environments, handling trauma and improving resilience.

Safe Passage, which helps children and intellectually and developmentally disabled adults who have been sexually or physically abused or witnessed domestic violence or homicide, received $500,000 for a capital campaign for a new facility.

Other large awards included $436,000 over three years to Community of Caring for a new approach to complex, multiple-needs clients, $325,000 to The Trust for Public Land Parks, Trails and Schoolyards for the Outdoor Access for All project in southeast Colorado Springs, and $300,000 over two years to Peak Vista Community Health Centers for advancing health equity through customized care management.

School-based programs, neighborhood projects, assistance for people with disabilities, police foundation needs, bicycles for children and a host of other initiatives received funding in this sixth year of the organization’s grant making.