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FOX21 News Feature: https://www.fox21news.com/news/partners-in-housing-detail-donation-needs/

If you would like to learn more about in-kind donations we accept, visit our Give Items page here.

Donation Drop-Off Information: Donations can be made Tuesdays from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at 450 Gold Pass Heights, or by appointment by calling 719-559-3286. Volunteers are also needed to help sort and distribute donations!

The post Donation Needs appeared first on Partners in Housing.

Check out the different ways you can make the holidays brighter for families working toward independence this holiday season!

Support Partners in Housing’s Family Self-Sufficiency Program 

Partners in Housing is the largest and longest-lasting transitional housing program serving families with children in the Pikes Peak Region. Of the families served FY 24-25, 88% attained long-term, stable housing post program. To learn more about our program or give today, please visit here. 

Partners in Housing Gift Card Drive

This annual drive ensures each household in our program has the ability to continue their traditions, choose gifts for their loved ones, and prioritize what matters most.

• • Gift Card Drive Information
  • Purchase Gift Cards for Families from our wish list
  • Donate funds specifically for Gift Cards 

Holiday Shopping Event Support

Each year, Partners in Housing hosts a free “Holiday Shopping Event” for families in the Self-Sufficiency program. Generous donors provide gifts for children and parents. During this event, parents and children in the program split up and pick out gifts for each other in separate rooms. Volunteers help families wrap the gifts, and they reconvene with presents ready to celebrate the holidays! This event provides financial relief to families, a fun outing, and a way for kiddos to give a gift to mom or dad.

Check out the links below to give gifts to parents and children this holiday season!

• • Gift Ideas for Adults
  • Gift Ideas for Kids
  • Amazon Wishlist for Shopping Event 

High Priority Food Needs: Volunteers and Partners in Housing staff have identified several foods that are routine #highpriority needs. 68 families in our program depend on the pantry to supplement breakfast, lunch, and dinner- your donations help parents stretch tight grocery budgets, ensure children have consistent, nutritious meals, and reduce the stress of choosing between food and other essentials like rent or childcare. If you, your office, school, club, or church would like to coordinate a #donationdrive to collect food for families, please contact Tarin Potter at tpotter@partnersinhousing.org or (719) 559-3286. To learn what High Priority Needs we have this season, please visit here.

Volunteer with us: Are you interested in giving time as a volunteer this holiday season? We are looking for support during our Holiday Shopping Event, along with many other opportunities!

Please visit here to learn more and get connected today!  

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season! 

The post Holiday Giving Information appeared first on Partners in Housing.

The Moving Families Forward event featured property tours and refreshments, along with a short program where Crystal Rodriguez, Partners in Housing board member and Advisory Council chair, shared her personal story while Mary Stegner, Partners in Housing Executive Director, highlighted Partners in Housing’s efforts to guide Colorado Springs families in housing crisis from insecurity to stability, self-reliance and prosperity. Sharon Tunson, Partners in Housing board chair, also spoke.

Bentley Commons, located at 2715 Bentley Point, offers 168 new units and 24 renovated units for those who fall within 30-60% of the Area Median Income. These affordable housing units also feature amenities like on-site management and open space. There are 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, including accessible units, available.

A special thanks to our sponsors

Lay the Foundation Sponsors: Frazee Construction, Myron Stratton Home, US Bank

Welcome Home Sponsors: FirstBank, Terra Nova Engineering, Palace Construction, Harris Group Realty, NES, El Pomar Foundation and PNC Bank

Thanks also to our other supporters: O’Briens Carpet One, HFS Flooring, Comparion Insurance, Diocese of Colorado Springs and The Gazette.

The post Moving Families Forward 2025 appeared first on Partners in Housing.

We use many methods of tracking Partners’ hard work and progress and are pleased to share these core outcomes with you!

What it all means:

Improved Housing – % of families that successfully moved on to their own stable housing after exiting our one-year Family Self-Sufficiency Program. (The national average for transitional housing is around 65%.)

Improved Self-Sufficiency – % of families that improved their overall self-sufficiency showing increased confidence, accountability, and the application of new life skills.

Improved Job Preparedness – % of adults that are more employable after attending our one-on-one Work It! Sessions. In these sessions, clients work on their resume, participate in mock job interviews, take career assessments, and work on building other skills that increase their likelihood of securing that next job opportunity.

Improved Income – % of families that have a higher income exiting our program than when they entered.

Improved Employment – % of families that improved their employment situation. This could be a higher wage, more benefits, and opportunity for advancement.

Improved Education – % of families that improved their formal education. This can range from getting their GED to receiving a college degree. This measure varies based on the families’ needs and ability to start a formal education program.

In March of 2024, Partners in Housing’s intake team reevaluated the onboarding process for families entering the Self-Sufficiency Program to better streamline access to services and housing support. Partners in Housing’s waitlist has been eliminated, and families are now accepted based on family size in conjunction with housing units available to meet their needs. This change has allowed parents and children to receive housing stability, childcare, healthcare, therapy, and other vital individualized service support at a much quicker rate, ensuring families have the best opportunity to achieve their financial and career goals during their time with us.

The post Measuring What We Value appeared first on Partners in Housing.

Lucy,* was down on her luck with a windshield crack estimated at $339 that deemed her vehicle undrivable. Because she had just started her year with Partners in Housing, Lucy had no savings and was unable to pay for the replacement. This windshield replacement was a large setback as Lucy had just started attending Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) courses across town and needed to care for her adult son.

With support from Partners in Housing’s Flat Tire Fund, all costs were covered to repair her car, allowing Lucy to continue nursing school and care for her family.

Flat Tire Fund helps partners with car trouble

The kind of support Lucy received is made possible through the monumental support of neighbors like you making contributions. The Flat Tire Fund was developed for families in need of emergency or preventative care for their vehicles, along with families who are in need of bus passes, taxi vouchers, and other means of transportation.

Winter seems to bring on the need for more car repairs and often that’s just one too many bills for our partners to take on.

Funds for the Flat Tire Fund have been depleted in 2024! Your help is needed to bring the fund back into action – the goal is to raise $3,500 to cover partner car repairs and transportation costs this winter.

If you can help reach this goal, please donate here online or mail your contribution to Partners in Housing, 455 Gold Pass Heights, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 and note “Flat Tire Fund” in the memo of your check.

Neighbors helping neighbors is a core belief here at Partners in Housing and you make that belief a reality – thank you!

Taking winter in stride,

Mary Stegner

Executive Director

The post Winter Car Repairs are Coming appeared first on Partners in Housing.

The 6 new building foundations are complete and, in sequence according to the development plan, each building has the framing, roofs, and windows rapidly being installed.

The first apartment building is slated to be ready for occupancy by April 2025 with each of the others following soon after. The entire project should be complete and occupied by households earning various levels all less than 60% AMI by October 2025.

We are grateful to be working with Palace Construction and many local subcontractors and vendors on this large project. Funding for the project came from partners to include City of Colorado Springs, El Paso County Housing Authority, and the State Division of Housing. The low-income housing tax credit investor is US Bank and the financing is through Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).

Updates on the project including video updates, articles, and press releases can be found at https://partnersinhousing.org/bentley-commons-development/

To read the full Fall Newsletter, please visit here! 

The post Great progress being made at Bentley Commons appeared first on Partners in Housing.

The Family Solutions Collaborative, which includes representatives from 56 local organizations, brings forth in monthly meetings the most difficult cases of families who have fallen into homelessness or are drowning in a sea of instability.

Those around the table brainstorm what the community has to offer these families, one at a time, so they can handle their crises or avoid impending disaster.

These are the people in the know, since collaborative members embody every sector involved in solving family homelessness, including judicial and legal services, schools, domestic violence prevention programs, housing providers, respite care for kids, health organizations, Head Start, overnight shelters, the library district and a host of other entities.

Clients never know the intense cooperative effort that goes into responding to their call for help.

For some cases, referrals pan out, a commitment for a personal recommendation makes a difference or general suggestions lead down the right path.

Other times, it’s hard to find available resources, said Michelle McNease, program manager for the Family Solutions Collaborative.

At last week’s August case-conferencing session, transitional housing providers with hundreds of units online had no immediate openings to place homeless families, outside of overnight emergency sheltering.

Housing is one of two issues that rise to the top of the needs’ list, McNease said. The city lacks on-the-spot, safe and secure general housing for homeless families, she said, calling it a noticeable gap.

Existing transitional housing programs including Partners in Housing, Family Life Services, Mary’s Home and Family Promise, operate different programs that carry requirements for clients — which sometimes can become a barrier, McNease said.

Other transitional programs such as Homeward Pikes Peak and Greccio Housing accept federal housing vouchers, which means waiting lists are typical.

The organizations “stay in their lane doing what they do, and it’s not a fit for everyone,” McNease said.

The other missing link in the community is transportation.

“Whether it’s needing their car to be fixed or losing transportation, that can really put a family into a crisis,” McNease said. “It’s a huge gap and it’s definitely increased or maybe just stands out because we don’t have the resources here.”

Bus passes are available from a few agencies, such as Westside Cares and Mercy’s Gate, but “that’s complicated and not realistic for a family that needs to get their kids to school or childcare or themselves to work,” she said.

Dealing with trauma

Five service providers formed the Family Solutions Collaborative in May 2019, with a goal of uniting organizations working on the front lines to zero in on the tough-to-crack cases of families who are about to be evicted, have spiraled into homelessness or are having difficulty providing necessities like food and transportation.

“We wanted to make sure they weren’t being lost off the radar,” said Mary Stegner, executive director of Partners in Housing, one of the collaborative’s founders. Her nonprofit offers a one-year of transitional housing program with support services for unmoored families.

In the industry, families are often called the hidden homeless — they typically aren’t the street people the public sees panhandling or hanging out in doorways, she said. Homeless families often live out of their cars or on couches and floors with relatives or friends, or they stay in temporary shelters.

Their needs are different and more complex than a single homeless individual, said Andy Barton, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, another founding partner.

“A lot has to do with the addition of kids,” he said. “You have one or two adults managing shelter, transportation, finances, childcare, school, the health of a child, the trauma they’re dealing with,” he said.

There are no firm numbers on how many homeless families live in El Paso County, McNease said, but she estimates thousands.

Times are tough, and many families are struggling with the increased cost of living, wages that haven’t matched inflation, and trauma and stress from their precarious circumstances, Stegner said.

It often just takes one bad thing — no child care, an out-of-commission car or a medical issue — to send a family into a tailspin that produces an eviction notice, said Tanya Lark, executive director of Family Life Services, another founding coalition member that provides a two-year residential program to self-sufficiency.

“And once you start down that path, it’s hard to go back,” she said.

More often, scenarios are complex with clients having multiple needs, said Matthew Ayers, CEO of Dream Centers, which runs programs for single-mother-led families exiting homelessness, including Mary’s Home, a long-term residential program.

“One of the most powerful things about this collaborative is when organizations come together, there’s immediate understanding if a family needs five or six supports,” he said.

To read the full article from the Colorado Springs Gazette, please visit here. 

This article was written by Debbie Kelly of the Gazette 

The post ‘Mission Impossible’ collective for Families in Deep Trouble appeared first on Partners in Housing.

This scenario happened to Christina when she faced car troubles. She transferred to self-pay for childcare but simultaneously lost her employment due to attendance issues from lack of transportation. This caused a snowball effect for Christina – without a job, the amounts owed for childcare self-pay were overwhelming, and she could no longer access it to then work toward securing employment.

Christina found support within the Partners in Housing “Work It! Program” where dedicated volunteers assisted her in developing a new plan to access employment and daycare for her child. Going back to the drawing board is a difficult choice to make, but thankfully with the support of Partners in Housing, Christina managed to readjust and make progress toward her career and financial goals.

Through our Child Enrichment Center, access to respite care for families drastically improves their ability to focus on work, school, certifications, housing navigation, or other appointments with Partners in Housing staff to access stable housing and brighter futures post program. By losing access to one piece of the puzzle, whether that is licensed childcare, transportation, or employment, this can develop into a setback that can feel insurmountable. At Partners in Housing, we work to remove barriers, improve circumstances, and work toward their financial and career goals.

If you would like to take part in removing barriers for families on their path to self-sufficiency, here are some ways you can contribute:

• Volunteer at the Child Enrichment Center
• Provide information on employment opportunities
• Donate items such as diapers and wipes
• Contribute to the Flat Tire Fund
• Host an in-kind or cash donation drive
• Sign up for King Soopers Community Rewards or Walmart’s Spark Good programs

*Partner’s name has been changed to protect her privacy.

To read the full 2024 Spring Newsletter, please visit HERE. 

The post Bridging the Gap: Child Care and Transportation appeared first on Partners in Housing.

5 reasons to donate monthly to Partners in Housing

1. Set it and forget it 

Monthly donations are automatic. That means once you sign up, you won’t have to worry about remembering to support Partners in Housing. Simply enter your credit card information once and you’re all set — the only thing you have to do from there is check in to see the great work that’s being done because of your support!

2. Join an exclusive community

Receive more insider information about the Partners in Housing mission than the general group of supporters, such as personalized impact stories or swag items! Here at Partners in Housing, our monthly donors — better known as Housing Heroes — are a dedicated community that’s a cherished extension of our family. With that comes exclusive perks, including:

• Quarterly updates on your impact through newsletters
• Behind-the-scenes details of Partners in Housing’s latest happenings
• Exclusive, pre-sale invitations to Partners in Housing events

Being a monthly donor gets you closer to the mission and allows you to be a part of one of the most important communities in Partners in Housing.

3. Make a little go a long way

No matter the amount, monthly donations can make more of a lasting impact than one-time donations. Every dollar counts for nonprofits, and a guaranteed dollar a month is always a comfort for organizations that run on the generosity of others. Bottom line: Never feel obligated to make a large donation!

More than offering your chosen nonprofit a steady stream of income, smaller donations that occur throughout the year are generally more manageable for the average donor, and can make the same impact as a one-time larger gift. Spreading out your donation may even allow you to contribute more than you originally thought. For example, spending $500 all at once might be too much for the monthly budget to handle, but if donating $50 every month is doable, you’ll actually donate $600 by the end of the year! A true win-win, monthly donations also offer an invaluable boost to the Partners in Housing budget each year.

4. Provide support during slower months

While nonprofits would love to consistently break donation records every month, the reality is that there will be quieter periods throughout the year. For instance, most nonprofits bank on a slower start to the year, mainly because so many donations come in during the holiday season. During these slower times, we rely on monthly donors for financial stability. So, while your reoccurring gift directly supports the mission like a one-time donation would, it can also contribute to a rainy-day fund that keeps Partners in Housing running smoothly throughout the year.

5. Allow Partners in Housing to run full speed ahead

From a high-level perspective, your guaranteed donation will also help Partners in Housing leaders develop a budget, goals, and overall plan for the year. Monthly donations live under a planned rather than estimated income bucket, which means budget and spending decisions can be made with more confidence.

At Partners in Housing, monthly donations give us the breathing room to think beyond the immediate partner support of our Family Self-Sufficiency Program, such as finding new ways to embrace our mission, introducing new initiatives, or expanding staff.

You can provide lasting support for families facing homelessness. 

Join our Housing Heroes program to set up your recurring donation today!

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