Habitat House: the first day of work

Alyssa and I arrived at the Habitat House at 9AM this morning for the first day of volunteer work along with eight of our friends. The snow was coming down at a steady pace and the bitter cold had us anxious to get to work so we could stay warm. Some of the cement for the foundation had already been poured and the rest of the foundation is scheduled to be completed on Tuesday. Much of our day was spent clearing snow and moving building materials so construction can continue over the next week as planned.

Sorry, we forgot the camera this time so we don't have any proof of our hard work! We'll be sure to get some photos this Thursday when the whole staff volunteers on the house.

- Kyle

Notes from the Road: Children's Outreach Project

You can't miss the Children's Outreach Project (COP on 8000 Pecos) as it is a large blue and white igloo. Denver has its big blue bear and a big blue igloo. An igloo is a very appropo architectural design in Denver this year! The inside of COP is unique too. Executive Director Stephanie Baer leads a team working with a unique, mixed population of 50% kids with special needs and 50% typical children. There is a fantastic ratio of 3:1 (staff/pupil) at the COP. They need new board members, donated books for their library and a new building. I learned a lot about early childhood education by interviewing Stephanie.

- Jesse

Notes from the Road: Association for Senior Citizens

This morning I met with Tee Tanaka, associate ED at the Association for Senior Citizens (ASC). Tee has traveled all over the world as an international banker. He led trade missions to Asia for former Colorado governor Roy Romer. Today, Tee works on providing a variety of services to local senior citizens in need. ASC has a food bank serving over 200 people a week and they just purchased a facility for housing. It isn't sexy but it is an essential service for others at its very core. As our population ages, more and more seniors will need support for their basic living needs. Unfortunately, my experience has been that this can be a "forgotten" generation with little resource allocation. Liz Cahill, Executive Director, started the ASC 20 years ago and has often gone without pay for weeks at a time in order to keep the doors open... Click on link above to contact ASC if you want to help.

- Jesse

Notes from the Road: Centro Humanitario

2007 is here and I wanted to renew my commitment to learning more about the issues and challenges that face our 121 partner member nonprofits this year! I plan on hitting the road each week to visit 2-3 nonprofits and will post what I learn here. Hopefully it will provide you with some inspiration, ideas and calls to action.

Today I visited Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores and met with Harold Lasso, program & policy director, who has spent his life working on migrant worker issues. 90% of Centro clients are homeless at some point yet they want to work and learn new skills so they come to Centro Humanitario to help break the poverty cycle. The center serves over 1,000 people per year, placing them in jobs, providing skills training, and protecting their rights as legal citizens/workers. They work out of a converted garage that has almost no heating in the winter and no cooling in the summer. Check out my interview with Harold. Maybe there is something you can do to help.

- Jesse