Mission

Our mission is to help people return to independent living and be self-sufficient.

The HWH model is partner based and encompasses housing, mental health services, workforce training and employment. This supportive structure and services helps people stabilize, develop a support network, become trained, gain experience, get a job, secure independent housing and ultimately become self-sufficient.

At Housed, Working and Healthy, we have many classes of students working together. From graduates now in the apprentice program, to a new cohort just getting started on their new future. They all have a common goal – learning new skills which will help them get employment.

Kitchen

Our Students and Interns operate a Commercial Kitchen – the Ft Logan Eatery – and create lunches, dinners and catered meals for people in the Ft Logan, Bear Creek and Sheridan area.

Our Food is Making an Impact

This isn’t just practice. This is not just a test kitchen. Our cooking is delighting mouths outside the walls of our facility. Kaladi Coffee and Zaidy’s Deli in Cherry Creek are both customers of our baked goods. And we are also serving lunches to the local businesses in the area to rave reviews. But don’t just take our word for it.

Come Work With Us

HWH is hiring. We need experienced people to work with us.

 View our Current Job Positions

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors provides strategic direction
and oversight for our Program.

Board of Directors

Housed

We are a Housing First model. This is a core component of our program, and everyone in our program has  housing while in the program. Our belief is that everyone needs a safe place to call home, and that is a prerequisite to stabilization and subsequent moving to self-sufficiency. Housing is the first step, and it is an integral part of our program.

We have a commercial kitchen and run groups of students through the kitchen every 6 weeks months of hands-on learning and curriculum. After successful completion of the curriculum the students enter our 6-14 week internship which we also run onsite. At the end of the training period, we facilitate getting them employment in the community, ideally at one of our Employment business partners.

Continued housing and support are provided for the next several months to provide stability during this transition period and to help ensure they keep their jobs. After students have been employed for 2-3 months through our program, we facilitate finding and securing independent housing for them. We continue to provide ongoing community and support. We measure how many are still employed and maintaining their housing at 12 and 18 months later.

Working

Earning a paycheck is a fundamental requirement to being self-sufficient. Without a job, it’s clearly not possible to maintain housing in the long term. Therefore, we are work focused, and all students in our program must be READY, WILLING and ABLE to Work. Applicants have to be:

Prepared: Explain how they are mentally prepared and free of substance abuse which makes them a good candidate for the Culinary Program.

Willing:  Explain how they are willing to commit to this 12 month culinary program.

Able: Please confirm that you are physically able to complete this program which requires physical work and standing for long periods of time.

We are making great progress in the culinary program at the the Ft Logan Eatery kitchen and have graduated many students from our program. As we grow, we plan to add additional work areas beyond culinary. Each work area must meet the following criteria: currently hiring in the metro area; F/T wage over $35,000/year; and career path available. We want to help people with a variety of interests.

Hire our Students

Healthy

Mental Health is a core component of our program.

If you are not self-sufficient, you need mental health services. It’s that simple. Imagine you don’t have housing. Many without housing do actually have a job, but it’s a major struggle to keep it. Either way, without housing, there’s a lot of stress! Not knowing where your next meal is – that’s anxiety inducing.

Many people struggling to become self -sufficient suffer from depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia and other illnesses. Sometimes as a precursor but also as a result of their situation, addiction is very common. Debating which came first doesn’t resolve the inevitable emotional pain and turmoil of what is years in the making.

We believe mental health services is a key component of successfully moving people to self-sufficiency. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. Rather, it needs to be dealt with in a caring and supportive manner, which many in our professional medical community know how to do.

The key is to bring existing mental health professionals to the person so that the treatment plan is actually delivered and received. Our program includes a dedicated Case Manager that works directly with each student. Additionally, our supportive community provides multiple touch points, so caregivers have a more accurate and consistent understanding of their student’s progress. Peer support further encourages individual responsibility and progress.

History

by Brad Volin, Founder:

Inspiration – Several years ago, back in 2017, I decided it was the right time to devote more of my energy to community service.

New Focus – Because of this, I had an opportunity to bring about – not a new model – but a new focus where we combine housing along with mental health services, workforce development and employment.

Bring Together Existing Programs – By bringing together this existing programming. “Let’s not reinvent the wheel. Let’s take advantage of existing programming.”

Training Curriculum – So we have put together a 3-7 month program for our students. We are using a curriculum provided by our partner, Emily Griffith Technical College.

Soft Skills – The students  also work on a lot of the soft skills which are so important in getting and keeping employment.

Volunteers and Partners – We also work with a number of volunteers and partners such as Kaladi Coffee Roasters and Awake Denver who resell our snacks and baked goods to their customers.

Read more…

HWH Student Pledge