How does behavioral health contribute to homelessness, and how does Homeward Pikes Peak help people facing this obstacle? Homelessness is quite complex – often multiple contributing factors such as the cost of living, the cost of housing in our community, and then the complexities of broken family relationships, compounded by mental health and substance misuse by people. When someone has untreated mental health issues or substance use turns into misuse and addiction it has a negative impact on everything – housing, employment, and overall health. Homeward Pikes Peak has an outpatient treatment clinic and today we speak to its director Katie Edelson Milo.

Resources:

Homeward Pikes Peak http://www.homewardpp.org/

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: https://www.samhsa.gov/

National Healthcare for the Homeless Council: https://nhchc.org/

a Place for everyone is produced by Homeward Pikes Peak. We empower individuals and families to access stable housing, increase mental health, increase recovery and achieve economic stability. Learn more at http://homewardpp.org/. You can reach us at (719) 473-5557. Street Outreach, housing, and clinical services are provided.

The Place offers housing, a drop-in center, and supportive services for youth up to age 24 years old. CEO Becky Treece shares details about The Place. Their mission is to empower Colorado youth to break the cycle of homelessness and forge supportive relationships and have self-sufficient, successful lives.

The Place website - https://theplacecos.org/

Telephone - (719) 338-9257

a Place for everyone is produced by Homeward Pikes Peak. We empower individuals and families to access stable housing, increase mental health, increase recovery and achieve economic stability. Learn more at http://homewardpp.org/. You can reach us at (719) 473-5557. Street Outreach, housing, and clinical services are provided.

Learn about valuable housing resources for working families provided by Greccio Housing. Homeward Pikes Peak Executive Director Beth Roalstad sits down for this conversation with Lee Patke, Executive Director of Greccio Housing. Greccio's mission is to provide stable, safe, and affordable housing, to offer resources for residents to achieve stability, and to promote solutions to the affordable housing needs of our community.

Greccio currently serves over 1,000 residents per year through properties across Colorado Springs. Beyond providing affordable housing to lower their cost of living, they offer access to a variety of services, guidance, community events, educational workshops, and ongoing assistance that helps on their path toward self-sufficiency and financial independence.

Greccio Housing https://www.greccio.org/

Homeward Pikes Peak https://www.homewardpikespeak.org 719-473-5557

a Place for everyone, and Studio 809 Podcasts, appreciate the generous support of Gold Hill Mesa https://www.goldhillmesa.com/

Homeward Pikes Peak brings you a Place for everyone with interviews on different dimensions of substance abuse, homelessness, and housing.

Why a surge in downtown housing isn’t causing costs to drop, plus the story behind a new affordable live/work space for artists. Host Beth Roalstad discusses these issues with Susan Edmondson, President and CEO of Downtown Partnership.

Susan explains the structure and activities of the Downtown Partnership, and she provides details about an exciting project to break ground in early 2023 – Artspace, an affordable live/work space for artists with rent priced for artisans earning up to 60% of average median income.

Downtown Partnershiphttps://downtowncs.com/

Downtown Ventureshttps://downtowncs.com/ventures/

Artspacehttps://www.artspace.org/

a Place for everyone, and Studio 809 Podcasts, appreciate the generous support of Gold Hill Mesa https://www.goldhillmesa.com/

Homeward Pikes Peak brings you a Place for everyone with interviews on different dimensions of substance abuse, homelessness, and housing.

Homeward Pikes Peak https://www.homewardpikespeak.org 719-473-5557

Matthew Ayres, CEO of Dream Centers, joins host Beth Roalstad to share how the Dream Centers and Mary’s Home serve women of low income in our community and provides women and families with services ranging from health care to housing. They also discuss resources for men, and the longtime collaboration between Dream Center and Homeward Pikes Peak.

LINKS:

Dream Centers

https://www.dreamcenters.com/

Learn how Springs Recovery Connection is helping individuals enter recovery and build skills to stay sober, thrive as adults and be active in our community. Trudy Hodges, CEO of Springs Recovery Connection, discusses the growth of her organization, its dreams for the community and how important being involved with others in Recovery contributes to lifelong sobriety. Trudy and host Beth Roalstad (executive director of Homeward Pikes Peak) compare notes on this vital work that engages both organizations.

Recovery community organizations (RCOs) are the heart and soul of the recovery movement. In the last ten years, RCOs have proliferated throughout the US. They are demonstrating leadership in their towns, cities and states as well as on the national landscape. They have become major hubs for recovery-focused policy advocacy activities, carrying out recovery-focused community education and outreach programs, and becoming players in systems change initiatives. Many are also providing peer-based recovery support services. RCOs share a recovery vision, authenticity of voice and are independent, serving as a bridge between diverse communities of recovery, the addiction treatment community, governmental agencies, the criminal justice system, the larger network of health and human services providers and systems and the broader recovery support resources of the extended community.

MORE INFO:

Springs Recovery Connectionhttps://srchope.org/ (719) 465-2295.

New Recovery Community985 W. Fillmore St.

Faces & Voices of Recovery https://www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/

a Place for everyone, and Studio 809 Podcasts, appreciate the generous support of Gold Hill Mesa https://www.goldhillmesa.com/

Homeward Pikes Peak brings you a Place for Everyone with interviews on different dimensions of substance abuse, homelessness, and housing. Homeward Pikes Peak provides re-entry housing for men and women who have had a history of substance abuse and are at risk of becoming homeless. Learn more at our website. https://homewardpp.org/

Help for children experiencing abuse is discussed, since April is child abuse prevention month. Host Beth Roalstad notes there’s an intersection between families facing multiple barriers or facing homelessness, and child abuse. Stacie Kwitek Russell, executive director of El Paso County’s Department of Human Service discusses the issues with Beth.

They are joined by El Paso County Public Information Specialist Kristina Iodice.

LINKS:

DHS helped to create Family Treatment Drug Court: https://www.courts.state.co.us/Administration/Custom.cfm?Unit=prbsolcrt&Page_ID=448

El Paso County Department of Human Serviceshttps://humanservices.elpasoco.com/

Additional resources to receive training on the prevention of child abuse and neglect. https://www.peacefulhouseholds.org/

Homeward Pikes Peak https://www.homewardpikespeak.org 719-473-5557

a Place for everyone, and Studio 809 Podcasts, appreciate the generous support of Gold Hill Mesa https://www.goldhillmesa.com/

and the support of the MeadowGrass Music Festival 2022, coming up this Memorial Day weekend. https://rockymountainhighway.org/index.php/information/

Homeward Pikes Peak brings you a Place for Everyone with interviews on different dimensions of substance abuse, homelessness, and housing.

We speak with a dynamic leader who not only knows how hard the transition is from prison to community at a community level, he knows it from a personal level. too. After serving 20 years in a Colorado prison for what was deemed a “hate crime,” Howie Close is now a leader in a movement to improve the pathway for men and women as they exit prison and return to our communities.

Howie leads the Woodmen Valley Chapel Prison Ministry https://woodmenvalley.org/prison.

This is a dynamic team of over 160 volunteers who work inside and outside of prisons around the state of Colorado. It is part of a statewide and national movement. Not only does it bring spiritual support to inmates, but it also assists in building life skills, setting up employment success and locating housing when these folks return to our cities and towns across the state.

More information about how organizations can become involved with the Colorado Dept. of Corrections: https://cdoc.colorado.gov/about/community-engagement

Homeward Pikes Peak provides re-entry housing for men and women who have had a history of substance abuse and are at risk of becoming homeless. Learn more at https://www.homewardpp.org

Homeward Pikes Peak brings you a Place for Everyone with interviews on different dimensions of substance abuse, homelessness, and housing.