A 'Word of Thanks' from Next: Taking mobile food banks to hard-to-reach places

Colorado is fortunate to be served by hundreds of wonderful food banks, big and small, urban, suburban and rural. Yet hunger persists, especially in pockets that are hard to reach.

Care and Share Food Bank's Mobile Markets roll out day after day to senior centers in Colorado Springs to mobile home parks in Pueblo, out to small map dots on the Eastern Plains and up into mountain towns. They stop in places miles away from grocery stores and food banks, offering a place for people to come out and stock up on essentials and fresh produce.

Care and Share Food Bank is to southern Colorado what Food Bank of the Rockies is for the Front Range. It's a big operation. The Mobile Markets are one piece of what they do, but they've had to cut the budget for it, fairly significantly, to stay within their means this year. But it's the kind of amount that you all together can raise, and that's where every dollar will go.

Since Kyle started Word of Thanks in 2020, this Next community has raised more than $13.6 million for nonprofits doing great work in our state. Like every week, we ask you to consider even a $5 donation – and Kyle will match the first fifty of those. 

As always, thank you.

If you're interested in giving to this week's cause, you can donate here.

Next is now offering a recurring donation option through the Word of Thanks Fund. You can read more about it below.

What is the Word of Thanks Fund? 

The Word of Thanks Fund is a way to simplify your giving with a recurring monthly donation. Your donations will support every Word of Thanks non-profit without having to re-enter your donation information every week. 
 
How does the Word of Thanks Fund work? 

The Colorado Gives Foundation will equally divide your recurring monthly donation among the featured Word of Thanks non-profits each month, at no additional cost to you or the non-profit. Administrative fees for the Word of Thanks Fund are paid by Kyle Clark. You will receive an email receipt for your tax-deductible donation to the Colorado Gives Foundation. 
 
Why was the Word of Thanks Fund created? 

The Word of Thanks Fund was created in response to requests from Next viewers seeking a way to make recurring donations to each week’s micro-giving campaign. Some Next viewers also requested a way to give weekly without joining the mailing lists of each featured non-profit. 
 
How do I sign up for recurring monthly donations to the Word of Thanks Fund? 

Click here: Word of Thanks Fund (every featured non-profit) | Donate | Colorado Gives 365
 
How do I change the amount of my monthly donation or cancel my monthly donation? 

Please click here to be redirected to Colorado Gives to change your donation amount or cancel your recurring donation. 
 
Have additional questions? Please email next@9news.com 

11/13/24: Advocates of Routt County

We've talked about how victims' services around Colorado are struggling with a significant cut in federal funding. It's especially difficult for groups in rural Colorado with fewer options for alternative funding.

Advocates of Routt County protects survivors in northwest Colorado through an emergency shelter for people escaping violence, a 24/7 crisis line and counseling services. They also help survivors through the legal process. 

We can help cover the cost of those shelter nights and supplies, the counseling and the crisis line so that survivors in the Steamboat Springs area have somewhere to turn.

You raised over $5,000 to protect survivors of domestic violence in northwest Colorado.

11/6/24: Struggle of Love Foundation |

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. There are so many wonderful efforts in Colorado to feed our neighbors a Thanksgiving meal. Kyle was thinking together we could pick up the tab for a community Thanksgiving with the nonprofit Struggle of Love's annual Thanksgiving dinner in Denver.

This is the 18th year for their Need to Feed event offering Thanksgiving dinner baskets to families in northeast Denver and Aurora. Hundreds of families have already signed up. They hope to serve two thousand families in need. Our donations get pumped back into the local economy as the nonprofit buys produce and other items for the Thanksgiving baskets from farms in the area.

Struggle of Love does exceptional work: preventing youth violence, mentoring young people and this is one way they reach out to whole families to give them a chance to gather around a Thanksgiving spread where memories are made.

You raised over $19,000 to offer Thanksgiving dinner baskets to families in need.

10/30/24: Ma Kaing Scholarship Fund |

It's been more than two years since Ma Kaing was killed in her neighborhood by a stray bullet. She was a beloved leader in Colorado's refugee and immigrant community. We again remember her legacy by helping the neighbors she would have helped if she was still here. 

The Ma Kaing Memorial Scholarships go to refugees and immigrants to pay for education costs as they work toward a career in our community. Sometimes they turn expertise from their home country into a credential to continue their career here. Sometimes they break ground for their families by going to college.

Kyle has had the opportunity to meet some of the previous year's scholarship recipients, and he can tell you, they are the hopes and dreams of not only their family, but truly, our community.

They've come here to build a better life and are building a better Colorado through their talents and determination in fields including medicine, computer science, accounting, social work and more.

You raised over $6,000 to provide scholarships to highly driven immigrants and refugees.

10/23/2024: Vindeket |

There's a nonprofit in northern Colorado that keeps tons of food, literally tons of food, from being thrown in landfills and wasted.

Vindeket rescues food that's still good to eat, but for some reason, it's no longer of use for grocery stores, bakeries, farms and even truckers. Vindeket's team picks it up, sorts out what's still good and offers the food at no cost to the public at its weekly market.

Vindeket also distributes that free food to other nonprofits that can use it. They don't buy food. They don't compete with food banks. They are a last line of defense against food waste and a way to feed our neighbors in northern Colorado, serving 120,000 people last year.

You raised over $11,000 to rescue food headed for landfills.

10/16/2024: WHALE Respite Center |

A relatively new nonprofit in northern Colorado is already a lifeline for families of children with disabilities and delays. WHALE Respite Center gives them a place for their children to go and play and learn while the families get done all the other things they need to do in a week.

WHALE stands for We Help and Love Everyone, and that's what they do, providing respite childcare every weekday in Weld County. It's a safe and fun place for kids with disabilities to go while giving their caregivers a chance to rest and recharge. Specialized staff offers full and part-time care, after-school care and a summer camp.

Few of the families they serve can afford the full cost of specialized respite care for their kids who have developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, behavioral issues and mental health issues. WHALE Respite Center's staff is trained for all of those challenges and ready to tailor lessons and play to the needs of each child. All the money we raise will go toward scholarships to help families afford respite care.

You raised over $9,000 to provide a lifeline for families of children with disabilities and delays.

10/9/2024: Rocky Mountain Refuge |

If a friend or family member has ever received hospice care, then you know what a blessing that end-of-life care can be in such a difficult situation. The Rocky Mountain Refuge is a first-of-its-kind nonprofit in Colorado, offering hospice care for the homeless. 

They rent rooms from Denver Rescue Mission, and it's there that their trained medical personnel not only provide that care but also compassion for folks who otherwise might be living out their last days and weeks on the street somewhere or in a hospital bed. That too shows the value of Rocky Mountain Refuge because they're able to take some of the strain off of the public health system that is not equipped to provide that hospice care. They can also do it at a fraction of the cost of the hospital setting, and they can do it with a type of warmth and love that is not seen elsewhere. 

You raised over $18,000 to provide hospice for people living on the streets.

10/2/24: Butt Savers Program |

Get comfortable, we are talking about colonoscopies. Don't worry, we won't talk about the details.  We are going to talk about how a nonprofit is using them to save lives.

The Butt Savers Program is a project started at Salud Family Health where most of the patients cannot afford colonoscopies. The staff started pooling their own money to essentially provide colonoscopy scholarships: a way to create a sliding scale that makes sure people are not delaying or skipping a procedure that can save their lives. Colorectal cancer caught early is highly treatable. If it is caught late, it can be deadly. 

When Salud's staff saw patients with symptoms, people who needed screening soon, those patients would often disappear for months while they saved up the money for the procedure. That is why they started Butt Savers, to reduce the out-of-pocket costs for the patients they serve from Commerce City to Weld County and out to the Eastern Plains. Doctors say one in 60 screenings saves a life.

You raised over $9,000 to help save lives with colonoscopies.

9/25/2024: Carin' Clinic |

There is a pediatrician's office in Jefferson County that will not turn away a family due to an inability to pay. A nonprofit pediatric clinic makes health care accessible and affordable for everyone.

For families without insurance, the Carin' Clinic is a godsend. For families with Medicaid, which are the vast majority of their patients, they can find themselves unable to get an appointment at other clinics, which limits the numbers of their Medicaid patients.

Since 1997, the Carin' Clinic has been serving families on the west side of town and hasn't turned anyone away. Carin' Clinic began with two school nurses who realized many of their students didn't have a place to go for health care. Decades later, their clinic is open five days a week, on-call 24/7 and providing thousands of clinic visits a year to keep kids healthy and keep the community healthy.

You raised over $10,000 to keep kids healthy. 

9/18/24: The Success Foundation |

There's an ambitious project to put a small food bank in every Greeley-Evans school building, 34 of them. The last ones go in this month. They're fighting hunger by getting food to families through students.

This is such a smart idea. It allows school cafeterias to repackage extra food that otherwise would be wasted by freezing it and sending it home for families to enjoy. It allows students whose parents work the overnight shift in Greeley's meatpacking plant to grab dinner for themselves and their siblings. And it keeps students and families fed through weekends and holidays.

The nonprofit The Success Foundation said putting food pantries in all 34 schools in the district has had an unexpected benefit. Family members coming in to utilize the food bank are building relationships at school and volunteering in classrooms. It truly is bringing the community together.   

You raised over $21,000 to fight hunger with school food pantries. 

9/11/24: The Empowerment Program |

For women in Colorado at their lowest point, feeling hopeless in the face of addiction or mental health issues, homelessness and unemployment, there is hope. It's called The Empowerment Program. The decades-old nonprofit in Denver helps people put their lives back together.

Some of their participants come from the criminal justice system, some from life on the streets. The Empowerment Program works with them across every area of their life: health, housing, education and employment. They help them build a future when success and stability might seem out of reach.

They turn no one away. There are no long wait times. There are no difficult qualifications for people who are sometimes at rock bottom and need that first step with personalized help from Coloradans who have lived experience coming back from the brink.

You raised over $6,000 to help people put their lives back together.

9/4/24: Special Olympics Colorado |

The Olympics is ending, but the games continue year-round for students in Colorado through the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools program.

The Unified Champion Schools program is nearly 700 schools is in Colorado, impacting more than half a million kids. It's a chance for classmates to be teammates, bringing together students with and without intellectual disabilities. This is pure goodness at work and is building community in schools across Colorado. Inclusion is disguised as teamwork, courage, pure joy and the roar of the crowd.

Through a special collaboration, your donations to Special Olympics Colorado will be doubled this month. Wednesday happened to be Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day when the Daniels Fund and other philanthropic partners offered a dollar-for-dollar match for gifts to youth sports nonprofits.

You raised over $15,000 to unify sports in schools across Colorado.

8/28/24: Showers For All |

There's a simple bit of dignity that is part of every day for most of us: the chance to take a shower in a safe and private place. For Coloradans living in their cars or elsewhere on the streets, it's not simple or every day.

Showers for All has provided 20,000 showers and loads of laundry for people in need in Denver and surrounding cities. Three years ago, your generosity helped pay for an entire new shower and laundry truck for that nonprofit. 

The challenge today is finding sites with the power hookups they need. We can help raise the funds to move Showers For All to fully renewable energy, which will let them set up anywhere they're welcome. Right now, that's in Denver and Arvada four days a week.

The nonprofit tells the story of a young man who had been accepted into a drug rehab and job training program out of state. When he emerged from the shower trailer, clean, beaming and showing off a new haircut, his friends from the street cheered. A shower and clean clothes can be the difference in getting a job, keeping a job, staying healthy and staying positive that tomorrow can be better than today.

You raised over $12,000 to provide dignity and hygiene to our unsheltered neighbors.

8/21/24: A to Z Fund |

Colorado's kids are back in school, and teachers are working hard to make this year special and productive. That too often means they're paying out of their own pockets to supplement the needs of their classrooms.

The A to Z Fund from the nonprofit Denver Public Schools Foundation offers classroom grants for teachers. It provides up to $3,000 to cover the costs of materials, resources and opportunities that otherwise would be out of reach of class budgets. They aim to fund as many worthwhile projects as possible that DPS teachers can dream up to give their kids memorable educational experiences that make a lasting impact. 

They spread the love all around the district. Each school or department can apply once a semester. These grants get out the door fast, within three weeks of when teachers apply. 

You raised over $6,000 to cover the cost of materials and resources in Denver schools.

8/14/24: Love for Lily |

There is lifesaving work being done for babies in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) up and down the Front Range, but sometimes those parents, those worried, exhausted, stressed beyond measure parents, can fall through the cracks.

That led to the creation of a nonprofit called Love for Lily. It supports the families and the medical teams in Colorado's NICUs. It was created by parents who literally have been there. Love For Lily supports the parents of NICU babies with the small things, like bags of essential items, to the bigger things, like group counseling sessions where parents can talk with some of the few people who understand what they're going through, to the really big things, like grants to help parents taking babies home, paying for oxygen for babies, therapies for the child not covered by insurance and counseling for the parents.

Love for Lily also offers grants for bereavement and funeral costs for parents whose babies don't make it. They aim to make a lifetime impact on NICU babies and their families. The organizers said preemie babies are being resuscitated at 22 weeks instead of 24 weeks. Those babies have a chance but a long road ahead. Love for Lily is there for them and their families for the long term.

You raised over $11,000 to support families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

8/7/24: Northern Colorado Disaster Recovery Fund |

There's a community-based effort in northern Colorado to create a disaster recovery fund to help neighbors bounce back from the Alexander Mountain Fire and help make the land safe and whole again.

The Northern Colorado Disaster Recovery Fund is a way for our donations to stay local to help Coloradans impacted by the Alexander Mountain Fire and other natural disasters in Northern Colorado. The new fund is a project of the nonprofit Community Foundation of Northern Colorado. They're not taking any fees or overhead.

First, they're ready to help the families impacted by the Alexander Mountain Fire, including the dozens who lost homes. Then they'll pivot to restoring the watershed and reforestation, which we know is key to preventing deadly floods in the years to come.

The fund will stand ready to help our neighbors in northern Colorado tackle the next natural disaster that comes their way. We're just four years removed from the catastrophic Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires, and this season is shaping up to be dangerously hot and dry for wildfires.

You raised over $14,000 to help Coloradans impacted by the Alexander Mountain Fire.

7/31/24: PorchLight |

Porchlight is a one-stop resource for survivors of violence and their families. 

For too long, Coloradans who had survived domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse or human trafficking had to go from place to place, organization to organization, reliving the horror of their experience to get help. 

That's why the Porchlight Family Justice Center was created. In one spot, people can get legal help, therapy and supportive services from a variety of government agencies, law enforcement, nonprofits and community groups. Victims and survivors can share their stories once and receive the help that's waiting for them.

Seventy-five partner agencies are represented at PorchLight. Childcare is on site because part of dealing with trauma is not creating more of it by forcing survivors to travel all over town, make childcare arrangements and take off work, only to be asked to relive their worst moment over and over again.

You raised over $10,000 to provide support for people experiencing trauma and abuse. 

7/24/24: Gracefull Foundation |

Litleton's Gracefull Cafe, run by the nonprofit Gracefull Foundation, is a place where anyone can go to get a meal, a cute little place in downtown Littleton. Folks can sit down, have a nutritious meal, and they pay if they can. If they can't pay, no worries. They'll be greeted with kindness, hospitality and a free "Grace in Action" meal.

They serve 89 of those meals a day. The woman in charge told Kyle, "We create a beautiful environment that feels like home. But there are changes that need to happen outside the cafe."

That's why the Gracefull Foundation has lived experience action teams: Coloradans who know the challenges of homelessness, mental health struggles, hunger.

These people who speak and lead throughout Arapahoe County put a name and face to some of our community's most persistent challenges. That conversation, those connections and that intentional inclusion of everyone begins with a meal. But it doesn't end there. Let's see if we can pay for a bunch of meals and create a bunch of new connections.

You raised over $22,000 to connect community members through pay-what-you-can meals.

7/17/24: Just Living Recovery |

By many measures, Colorado sees more substance abuse than most states, and the LGBTQ+ community tends to have substance abuse rates two to three times higher than the population as a whole. There's a nonprofit helping Coloradans recover, get sober and start fresh: Just Living Recovery. Its sober living community is where people in the Denver metro area can find support. It's also a place where they find acceptance for who they are.

Many of the Coloradans who come to Just Living Recovery have tried to get clean without being in an open and accepting environment, and it's incredibly difficult. The nonprofit understands the unique challenges of people in the LGBTQ+ community in recovery. 

The nonprofit prides itself on affordability, knowing that the longer someone is sober, the greater their chances of success. So, the longer they can afford to be in a program, the better chance they'll have to make lasting change. Their home in Jefferson County is an old youth facility. They need to replace old beds, often kid-sized, with new, adult beds. They could use help with scholarships to cover the initial cost for people coming in who don't have stable jobs yet.

They've also always wanted to be able to reward people who have worked to gain sobriety and are headed out on their own. They'd like to offer a rent deposit and a housewarming gift to help them furnish a new place.

You raised over $8,000 to help folks get the help they need.

7/10/24: Family Resource Center | A lot of young parents, perhaps those who didn't grow up in strong families themselves, need guidance on how to be strong parents to raise healthy kids. In far northeastern Colorado, there's one nonprofit that stands out as a tremendous resource for those families. 

This week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports the Family Resource Center in Sterling. For years, they have been the place to go for parenting classes for moms, dads and even for grandparents who find themselves raising their grandchildren, perhaps after the loss of one of their own children.

This nonprofit works to strengthen families and prepare at-risk kids for success in life. Through their Summer Adventure Club and year-long programs connecting kids with mentors, the goal is that everybody leaves in a better spot for success. For the parents, that often means one-on-one mentoring through an advocate who can connect them with resources and whatever they need to get past their challenges in life.

You raised over $4,000 to support families in Sterling. 

7/3/24: Una Mano, Una Esperanza | There are domestic violence survivors in Colorado who are afraid to come forward and seek justice because in their home countries, domestic violence victims are often the ones who are punished, or at the very least, they are not believed. 

That's why this week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports Una Mano, Una Esperanza. It's a small nonprofit that helps Latinas in the Denver metro area navigate the domestic violence criminal justice system by meeting with them ahead of time showing them how the process works, why they can trust it and why it will help them and their families get to a safer place. The nonprofit walks with them through the court system to help them find justice and assists them financially with whatever they need to start a new life in a better, safer place.

You raised over $5,000 to support domestic violence survivors.

6/26/24: Veterans Community Project | There's a village of small homes in Longmont, a place for veterans to live, as they're moving from homelessness to stability. The Veterans Community Project is already changing lives even though it's only partially complete.

That's why this week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports the nonprofit Veterans Community Project. They offer housing for homeless veterans and their families and wraparound services to address whatever challenges the veteran has to help them find a stable path forward in life. 

Veterans Community Project has built six small homes and has plans to build 20 more to help dozens of veterans a year stabilize their lives. The village opened last year, and the first veteran moved out ahead of schedule, which speaks to the impact of their programs. 

The nonprofit is launching a final fundraising push to build the rest of the homes to increase their impact with two big gifts from family foundations. Every dollar we raise through this micro-giving campaign will be doubled by a matching gift. The Morgridge Family Foundation donated $400,000. Then, the Knoph Family Foundation joined in the effort by making their own commitment of $200,000. 

You raised over $72,000 to support homeless veterans. 

6/19/24: Craig Hospital Foundation's Patient Assistance Fund | If you want to see courage and toughness, look at what happens inside the rehab clinics at Craig Hospital.

If you want to see hope, watch those spinal cord and brain injury patients walk or roll out of Craig to get back to their lives.

If you want to see pure frustration, look at how little insurance often does to help them get set back up at home.

The Craig Hospital Foundation's Patient Assistance Fund helps Craig patients buy specialized wheelchairs and lifts, helps them make modifications to their homes, covers the cost of transportation to and from appointments. It even chips in for scholarships to help patients go back to school to get a degree and find a new career compatible with their challenges.

It's not about dignity, because you can't take the dignity of someone who has had the courage and stamina to battle back from a brain or spinal cord injury.

But it is about doing right by our neighbors: Helping them get back to life with modifications and assistance that makes life doable again.

You raised over $20,000 to support spinal cord and brain injury patients. 

6/12/24: Center on Colfax | The recent anti-Pride rhetoric targeting the LGBTQ+ community including, the calls to burn all Pride flags and the echoes of the Westboro Baptist Church's hate, has people worried.

Kyle had heard from Next viewers who are concerned about what happens when words turn into actions targeting them. The worry alone does real harm, but there's an amazing resource to support our community. That's why we're supporting the nonprofit Center on Colfax and its free mental health program for LGBTQ+ Coloradans. 

Adults can get 12 free individual counseling sessions without insurance or a referral. The nonprofit also offers monthly peer support groups and social events. It's a place to feel welcome.

The Center on Colfax has been the anchor of Colorado's LGBTQ+ community for generations. They recently surveyed LGBTQ+ Denverites, and 7 in 10 of them reported having a mental health challenge in the last year. That was before the recent rise in anti-gay hate in Colorado.

Together we can do something to support our neighbors.

You raised over $15,000 to support our neighbors.

6/5/24: Metro Caring | In collaboration with the 9Cares Colorado Shares food drive, your 4th anniversary Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports Metro Caring.

Metro Caring often says, "Coloradans don't go hungry because of a lack of food. Coloradans go hungry because they can't afford to put food on the table." So, Metro Caring is much more than a food bank.

Yes, it has a fresh foods market where people in need can get free, healthy food in a grocery-store-style market, no questions asked. But Metro Caring also fights hunger at its roots, working on affordable housing, wage issues, and waste in our food system.

When someone walks into Metro Caring looking for food, they meet community connectors who find out about their other needs and link them up with support for rent, mental health, clothing whatever they need.

You raised over $9,000 to help end hunger at its roots. 

5/29/24: Cooperating Ministry of Logan County | Coloradans in every corner of our state deal with hunger. In the far northeast corner, in Logan County, one in 10 people live below the poverty line. In collaboration with our 9Cares Colorado Shares Drive, we're supporting Logan County's longtime food bank as it plans for the future.

The motto at the nonprofit Cooperating Ministry of Logan County is "serve those in need and give a hand up not a handout." Each weekday, their food bank is open to the public, and four times year families are able to stock up on food for the entire month. It's a small community there in the Sterling area. People know their neighbors, and they know people need help after the loss of a job, or an illness, or another family crisis. So, the food bank is there as a partner with Food Bank of the Rockies.

Here's where we come in: Logan County's food bank can have tens of thousands of dollars of food in refrigerators and freezers, and they're worried about what would happen during a sustained power outage. Organizers there told Kyle that they can't have a crisis when others are having a crisis.

So, let's buy Logan County's food bank a commercial-sized generator and get it installed. They're not cheap, but it will keep them running. If we happen to raise extra funds, they can certainly use them for the food bank.

You raised over $30,000 to help this foodbank prepare for the future.

5/22/24: Prodigy Ventures | There's a workforce development nonprofit that runs two coffee shops in town, and they have an unusual hiring strategy. They're looking to hire young people they think will have a hard time getting a job somewhere else. Those young people become the prodigies of Prodigy Ventures.

The nonprofit is changing lives for generations in some of Denver's most marginalized neighborhoods. Prodigy was founded on the idea that there is undiscovered talent in ignored neighborhoods.

Their paid apprenticeships give young people on the margins of society a launch pad into high demand jobs in hospitality. Their wages go back into the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods, sometimes as the main income for their families, creating a proven path to economic mobility.    

Prodigy pairs that job skill and leadership development with a willingness to help their apprentices work through the challenges in their lives. Taking young people with the toughest pathways to successful careers and giving them an intensive 12–18-month preparation for the working world.

You raised over $23,000 to propel kids into economic stability.

5/15/24: Brent's Place | Families come from across Colorado, and our region, to go to hospitals in the metro area for lifesaving medical care like organ transplants. The kinds of challenges that can be financially devastating and disruptive to family life if they're away from home for a long time for treatment.

There's a place where their whole family can stay for free. Hospitals refer patients in need to Brent's Place. They can stay with their families for as long as they need in what's called "Safe-Clean" housing, specially prepared and maintained for immunocompromised patients. It is, quite literally, a safe space. 

More than half of the patients at Brent's Place are children receiving bone marrow transplants. For all their families' worries, they don't have the stress about where they will stay, what it will cost, or whether it will be safe. Brent's Place takes care of that, plus their meals, plus fun outings for the whole family when the patient's health allows.

You raised over $10,000 to keep families together.

5/8/24: Reach Out and Read | There are pediatricians across Colorado prescribing books to their patients, using the doctor visits that every kid gets to intervene early so families will read together and kids will enter school prepared.

Reach Out and Read trains healthcare providers so they'll feel comfortable talking to families about something outside the usual health topics: the importance of reading aloud. It's the best chance for kids to gain the developmental skills they'll need so they don't enter school way behind.

Reach Out and Read provides books in English and bilingual books in a wide variety of languages so parents and caregivers who are more comfortable speaking another language can still help their kids develop early literacy skills.

With each well-visit from birth to age five, kids go home with developmentally appropriate books so families can build a little library to read together. It's something that many children have but no kid should be without. The nonprofit focuses on children living in poverty.

They worked with more than 300 medical offices around Colorado, giving out about 300,000 books a year, and there are more medical offices that want to participate than they have funding for. That's where we come in.

You raised over $13,000 to get books to kids early.

5/1/24: Foothills Animal Shelter | People in Colorado, people in Jefferson County, love animals and have no tolerance for people who mistreat them. If you ever doubt that, just walk in the doors of Foothills Animal Shelter.

Kyle wants to talk to you about the people who walk in the doors of Foothills with a pet they love but feel like they have to give up for economic reasons, and everything that nonprofit does to keep them together. Foothills goes to incredible lengths to keep people from being forced to give up their pets for financial reasons. Their Better Together program offers 10 days of emergency housing for pets whose people are in crisis.

They were the first animal shelter in Colorado to hire a social worker to help people through the struggles that lead them to surrender pets they love, connecting them with resources from Foothills and community partners.

The fact is people will often take care of their pets' needs before they take care of their own needs. How many of us have a story about a pet who helped us through the hardest time in our life? Keeping people and their pets together can save both of them.

You raised over $39,000 to keep people and their pets together.

4/24/24: CASA Colorado | Colorado's CASA volunteers operate in 46 counties across Colorado. These are Court Appointed Special Advocates who walk alongside kids in the court system who have been through abuse or neglect. The goal is to give kids a reliable adult who can change the trajectory of a child's life from tragedy to success.

This is tough volunteer work. The things these kids have been through and that their adult volunteers help them through is not for everyone. And volunteers aren't always up to make one multi-year commitment after another.

But there are people doing this life-changing work for kids who have been abused or neglected, and we can help.

Our donations will go to meet needs across the state: 

• In Jefferson County, it's a housing program for kids aging out of foster care. 
• In Northern Colorado, they need help recruiting male volunteers and Spanish speaking volunteers.
• Arapahoe County could use support for its Safe Baby Courts, a program helping mothers with substance use issues.
• Volunteers on the Western Slope need help with expenses as they often drive hours to see kids and go to court appointments.
• And in the San Luis Valley, they're just creating their CASA program to protect kids there.

The non-profit CASA Colorado will distribute the funds we raise to every corner of the state, without keeping any fees.

You raised over $18,000 to walk with kids the whole way through.

4/17/24: Alliance for Suicide Prevention | Advocates in Larimer County say they're seeing a reduction in the suicide rate there. Despite that progress, they're still losing too many neighbors to suicide. Which is why one non-profit is pivoting to help suicide loss survivors - knowing that those who are grieving that loss are at greater risk for suicide themselves.

The stars on the wall of their office bear the names of those lost and remembered. The non-profit's Survivor's Benefit Project covers the basic financial needs of Coloradans who lose someone to suicide, like paying for rent or a mortgage, groceries, childcare and more.

You raised almost $9,000 to help suicide survivors.

4/10/24: CrossPurpose | This is a no-cost program that helps hundreds of Coloradans a year break out of generational poverty and move into careers, not just jobs.

Cross Purpose understands that poverty is more than a lack of money. It's hopelessness, discrimination, trauma, and so they work to overcome all those things with coaching and even counseling.

Their leaders emerge stronger and more confident on a path out of poverty. The job is just part of their turnaround story.

Many of nonprofit leaders from the first four years of Word of Thanks raved about CrossPurpose and the transformational impact of that non-profit's work.

You raised almost $9,000 to help keep our neighbors out of generational poverty.

4/3/24: SAME Cafe | There's a place to eat on East Colfax where the special each day is the impact on the people who walk in the door. That place is SAME Cafe. SAME: So All May Eat.

People stopping in for a meal can pay for it, donate produce from their garden in exchange for the meal, or volunteer there in return for the meal. That's where the life changing impact can happen, because the volunteer hours in the kitchen are part of a formalized career training program called Cook to Eat. Almost 700 people got nearly 6,000 hours of job training there last year.

SAME Cafe welcomes everyone, but for people on the margins, a meal becomes an invitation to learn culinary skills that can help people land a job - and create stability in their lives. SAME Cafe builds community about one thing we all have in common: the need to sit down for a healthy meal. They served more than 20,000 meals last year.

You raised over $12,000 to keep up the cycle of good.

3/27/24: Bayaud Enterprises | Imagine your life without easy access to clean clothes or a shower. Trying to get a job, keeping a job. Going to school or work without worry or embarrassment. At some point, having showers and fresh, clean clothes becomes a health issue.

A nonprofit has mobile shower and laundry trailers crisscrossing the metro area each week, offering showers and doing hundreds of loads of laundry for people in need. They get more requests from community groups than they can meet.

Bayaud Enterprises plans to add a third mobile laundry and shower unit to meet demand. The current units keep a busy schedule: Denver to Lakewood to Westminster to Arvada to Northglenn. They get 5-10 requests a month to add more stops to their route.

They offer the dignity that comes with having fresh clean clothes and all that brings. The foundation to help get people from where they are in life to where they want to be. We often talk about necessities like food and shelter, but a shower and clean laundry are necessities, too, and often overlooked. They're not overlooked by the folks at Bayaud, and the teams running their shower and laundry units. They're ready to expand their reach to meet demand - with our help.

You raised over $30,000 to keep folks clean.

3/20/24: Colorado Hosting Asylum Network | So much of the conversation about asylum seekers in Colorado is focused on Venezuelan migrants who have come here in the last year.

Long before they arrived, a small nonprofit has been working one-on-one with asylum seekers, most from other parts of the world, with an 100% success rate getting them through the process with their claims approved.

The Colorado Hosting Asylum Network helps asylum seekers, and their families build stable lives, especially in the first six months, when they can't legally work because they're waiting on work permits. The nonprofit connects them with volunteers willing to share their homes, or for larger families, the Colorado Hosting Asylum Network helps with the cost of rent. Families from Afghanistan, various places in Africa.

They surround asylum seekers with support teams to guide them into every aspect of life in the United States, knowing that they're in for a long-haul, a personal relationship with someone fleeing violence and oppression in their home country.

Each asylum seeker they help comes referred by an immigration attorney who thinks they have a rock-solid case for asylum. They've never had a client denied for asylum, in large part because the support they provide keeps people from falling out of compliance with the very strict rules. They're prepared to bring more asylum seekers into their program with the dollars we raised.

You raised over $14,000 to help folks looking for a better life.

3/13/24: Colorado Search and Rescue Association | As the foothills and Front Range braced for the largest snowstorm in years, the search and rescue teams that work in those counties were prepared to be called out if people end up stuck in hard-to-reach places.

It's the work they do on a volunteer basis every week of the year... And it's why this week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign will pay for the equipment and training they need. In Lake County outside Leadville, that team needs a new snowmobile. In Huerfano County, their volunteers provide most of their own gear, but they need safer helmets for climbing rescues. Larimer County's team could use help with medical training for its volunteers.

Park County Search and Rescue almost has enough to afford a new off-road vehicle for rescues, and they hope we can help them over the finish line. A lot of these needs are a few thousand dollars in this county, a few thousand dollars in that county. So, the nonprofit Colorado Search and Rescue Association will take the dollars we raised and do microgrants for training and equipment for the volunteer teams working all over Colorado to keep people safe.

You raised over $55,000 to keep folks safe in extreme weather.

3/6/24: A Woman's Place | A Woman's Place is the only domestic violence safe house in Weld County, an area that's geographically almost as large as the state of Connecticut. That nonprofit serves that diverse community with a staff that speaks seven languages. 

Our Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports that nonprofit working to keep domestic violence survivors and their families safe. That begins with the essentials, like giving people a plan to get out safely, a place where they can stay free of fear and violence, a way to take care of their kids. 

And then it's long-term needs, like walking with them through the court system and eventually helping them find a new place to live. That's where we come in. No one wants to start over with nothing. 

So, A Woman's Place help survivors start out with the household essentials that they will need to rebuild their lives. It's the basics. It's bedsheets, and it's kitchen items, things like that. But there's an expense to setting each new survivor and their family up with those items. A Woman's Place does crucial work, saving lives in Weld County and then helping to rebuild lives for the long run.

Your raised over $16,000 to help rebuild survivors' lives.

2/28/24: Kendrick Castillo Memorial Fund | We remember heroes. We share their stories - mark their deeds - so everyone who comes after remembers what they did for all the rest of us. Kendrick Castillo was a Colorado hero.

He was killed rushing a school shooter at STEM School Highlands Ranch in 2019. Every one of his classmates survived. His community would like to mark his deeds with a memorial in a park near his school. His family is preparing to help lead a fundraising campaign, but the Castillos have been through a lot, so we hoped that we could just pay for it as a Next community.

Thanks to your overwhelming generosity, our micro-giving campaign has fully funded the Kendrick Castillo memorial in Civic Green Park and raised over $20,000 for a scholarship in his honor.

As a lasting tribute to Kendrick's bravery and heroism - the plan is to install a tall basalt pillar - and a plaque telling his story in the park where he spent time as a child. It's expected to cost $25-30,000. Next viewers covered that cost. 

All additional money we raised will be used to start the Kendrick Castillo Memorial Scholarship, which his family anticipates will be used for college scholarship for students involved in robotics, like Kendrick.

A memorial in the park where he played, and a scholarship to help students pursue the passion of his life cut short, are worthy tributes to a young man who saved the lives of his classmates.

You raised over $59,000 to honor a local hero and bring his family some peace.

2/21/24: RezDawg Animal Rescue | RezDawg Rescue saves homeless pets from the Four Corners Region and helps them find homes along the Front Range. And that nonprofit also supports communities in Southwestern Colorado to help pets stay with their people. We're supporting the nonprofit's work on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation.

RezDawg Rescue is raising money for two vet clinics on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation this year in April and October. They did one last year in Towaoc, and it was incredibly popular. Spay and neuter, vaccinations, surgeries... whatever the animals needed for whatever families could pay, even if that was nothing. The nonprofit found that many families had five or six animals, making the cost of vet care really difficult.

And there are community animals that roam around and are taken care of by several people in town but often had medical needs. There were also dozens of animals that were brought in as strays - or surrendered - so that RezDawg could find them forever homes on the Front Range.

RezDawg does impressive work, spaying and neutering thousands of pets a year, transporting more than a thousand up from the Four Corners region to be adopted.

You raised over $51,000 for pets to stay healthy.

2/14/24: Homeward Alliance's Mobile Laundry |

There are a couple of things that we tend to take for granted, but our lives would change without them. One of those is clean clothes.

Imagine going to work in the same dirty clothes day after day or being a kid and self-consciously wearing dirty clothes to school each day.

That's why this week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports the nonprofit Homeward Alliance's Mobile Laundry program. They serve Northern Colorado.

Often single parents without laundry at home, who are working and taking kids to school, are grateful to be able to drop dirty laundry and have it cleaned and dried and folded by the end of the day.

The mobile laundry van also serves the working poor and homeless. Having clean clothes can make the difference in getting a job and being able to keep it.

The nonprofit's Mobile Laundry truck was recently hit by another vehicle.

While it's getting repaired, and insurance isn't likely to cover all of it, their volunteers are taking the laundry to laundromats. They've been shelling out a decent amount of money so all those loads can still get cleaned, dried and folded in time to get it back to people who need it.

You raised over $20,000 to help our neighbors with the basics.

2/7/24: Sunshine Home Share | 191 weeks into your Word of Thanks micro-giving campaigns, and we featured a nonprofit unlike any we've supported before. A nonprofit that does extensive background checks, screening, and follow-up to match older Coloradans who want to share their homes with Coloradans who need an affordable place to live. That's Sunshine Home Share.

They take seniors who need help staying in their homes, help with some physical tasks, help paying the property tax bill or mortgage. Sunshine Home Share pairs them with a Coloradan willing to move in, share the home, and provide that help.

The screening process to find people who will make a good match is intense. Then come the meetings, often involving family, friends, and sometimes even clergy to make sure everyone feels comfortable.

Then Sunshine Home Share helps draw up the contract. Then comes the follow-up - sometimes lasting years - to make sure it's still a fit. And that's when it's a win-win: A senior stays in their home, and someone else gets an affordable place to live.

You raised over $10,000 to help Coloradans with housing.

1/31/24: Kids At Their Best | There are so many terrific organizations working to break through generational poverty in Colorado cities, and we've talked about many of them here. This week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports the nonprofit Kids At Their Best. 

Through tutoring, mentorship, leadership programs, summer activities, meal programs and years of one-on-one support, Kids At Their Best helps young people on the eastern plains imagine a different future than what they and their parents have experienced. Often, that means that they're the first in their family to go to college. 

When kids are old enough, they're paid to work in the nonprofit's programs to support their families as they learn and grow. Kids At Their Best is based in Morgan County, where one in five kids live in poverty. Some are immigrants. Some are from families who have been in Colorado for generations. 

The nonprofit's programs serve young people across the plains, from up in Sedgwick down to Rocky Ford from Hugo out to Yuma. The nonprofit's founder has said that people talk a lot about bootstraps, but there's nothing noble about children going hungry and without hope in life. Kids At Their Best Changes those lives.

You raised over $8,000 to help kids working towards brighter futures.

If you're interested in giving to this week's cause, you can donate here.

1/24/24: Loveland Community Kitchen | Feeding folks who are hungry a hot, nutritious meal goes a long way. But it does more than that, too. The folks at Loveland Community Kitchen know this. That's why their mission isn't just to provide food for those who are hungry, but also conversation for those who are lonely, rest for those who are struggling, and a voice for those in need. 

The Kitchen's goal is to provide people in need with a supportive community and easy access to nutritious, daily prepared meals. The Kitchen has been a staple of the community for over 25 years and is supported by over 350 volunteers and two staff members. They serve over 100,000 meals annually, and recently completed their 2,500th consecutive day of service, with days off for weekends or holidays, or even bad weather.

The Kitchen serves the homeless community as well as the working poor, and those struggling after losing a job. They provide meals onsite and package meals for take away. 

In a recent survey, their guests were asked what measures they took to stretch their food budget. 71% said they skipped a meal, 57% said they purchased inexpensive, unhealthy food, and 41% said they watered down food and drinks.

Donating the cost of a meal is just $3.45, and all donations go towards purchasing more food and supplies for the Kitchen.

You raised over $12,000 to keep a community fed.

1/17/24: Elevating Connections |

A relationship with a sibling is the longest relationship most people will have in their lives, which is why it's so heartbreaking when siblings are separated in the foster care system.

That's why this week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports Elevating Connections, a nonprofit that helps brothers and sisters separated in foster care stay connected through twice monthly meetups and activities and a summer camp. These are frequent chances to stay in each other's lives despite whatever other challenges they face.

Elevating Connections also has arts programs for kids in foster care, which help them find their voice and develop meaningful friendships. Think back to one of your favorite memories with a brother or sister. Almost certainly it involves a shared experience, something you did together.

That's what siblings in the foster care system can miss out on, years of relationship building through shared experiences. That's what Elevating Connections does.

You raised over $14,000 to keep sibling relationships meaningful.

1/10/24: The Reentry Initiative | It's a New Year. Let's talk about second chances, and the people who specialize in them. For Coloradans who are coming out of the criminal justice system and looking to be productive members of our community.

This week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports The Re-Entry Initiative, an organization that's had great success in helping people start fresh. 

The Re-Entry Initiative (also known as TRY) pairs people coming out of jail or prison with two-pronged help - from trained clinical staff with expertise and from peer mentors with lived experience building a life after incarceration.

They work to rebuild careers, relationships with family and friends, and mental health. They help with getting clothes and tools for work, help with education expenses, and housing.

The folks who run The Re-Entry Initiative say housing is where they'll use our donations. It will help lock in apartments where people coming out of the criminal justice system can stay, be safe, and be surrounded by positive influences. Colorado's recidivism rate, the rate of people going back in, is not good. It's upwards of 50%, but for people in The Re-Entry Initiative, it's in the single digits. What they do works.

You raised over $10,000 to help folks take their next steps forward.

1/3/24: Sun Valley Youth Center | Kids are headed back to school this week. And in Sun Valley, one of Denver's lowest income neighborhoods, students are headed to the Sun Valley Youth Center after school. They know they're having fun, but what they might not realize is that they're laying the groundwork to break through generational poverty.

That's why we're the Sun Valley Youth Center. The nonprofit uses a trauma-informed process to help kids handle whatever is going on in their lives. This could look like one-on-one tutoring to stay on top of schoolwork, nutritious food after school and on summer break, or field trips all over Colorado for a glimpse of life outside Sun Valley. It's a safe place to play and be a kid - whether they're five or 16.

Young people grow up in the Sun Valley Youth Center, then get hired to help the younger ones come along behind them. It's a place where kids develop their talents and the confidence that they can go anywhere in life.

You raised over $13,000 to help kids escape generational poverty.

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