Colfax Community Network is 10!

Who’s Invited: You are!
When: The Whole Year
Where: At our multiple service delivery sites along Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, Denver and East Aurora

Are you wondering how you can share in the celebration? Here’s how:

This invitation is your pass to join CCN staff, volunteers and motel families at a monthly Family Night Dinner in 2009 (see days and times below). Come break bread with us and get to know the children and families you have supported over the years. Hear their stories, listen to their struggles, feel what it’s like to walk in their shoes endlessly looking for home…Then, take action! Make a donation that will change a life, possibly forever.

Make 2009 the year you ensure a hungry child has nutritious food to eat each day.
Make 2009 the year you help end the cycle of homelessness, poverty and despair for one family.
Make 2009 the year you ensure CCN is strong and delivering life saving services for another 10 years.
Make 2009 your best year ever! Help CCN bring safety, warmth, food, health care, access to vital services, hope for a way out of the motel trap, and the love of a neighbor to our most vulnerable—the often invisible children and families clinging to life on the dangerous streets of Colfax.

Visit www.colfaxcommunitynetwork.org every month to see where we are, what we are doing and how you can be involved. I want your skills and talents to good use in one of our seven programs or on our Board of Directors. Volunteer applications and BOD applications are available online. Please take advantage of my offer and experience the magic of Colfax Community Network with your own eyes!

Here’s to working together in 2009,

Brooke

“Martin” is just 9 years old, yet his poetry already tells a story of longing for wings to lift himself out of the despair and childhood anxiety that a life of homelessness and motel living offers. “Martin” wrote this poem during an art therapy component of our After School Program for children between the ages of 6 and 12 experiencing homelessness and living in Colfax motels.

Eagle
By “Martin”

I am an eagle.
Flying in the sky.
I am free.
I can go anywhere.
It is very exciting in the sky.
The wind is loud and tickles my feathers.
It makes me happy.
I am flying to the football game to say hi.

We are inspired by the spirit, gifts and dreams of our youth and their parents. Our seven programs are designed to help families realize these dreams by providing the right set of tools and connections so they may lift themselves out of poverty and the dangers of motel life. With your in-kind, financial and volunteer support CCN programs opened the doors of opportunity for over 2500 individuals and families last year.

Will you consider a donation to CCN at this time? We need your help more than ever! We have already provided our services and programs to more children and adults (45% more) than this time last year and we are doing it with fewer funds. If we are to keep up this pace we need your help now!
Sincerely,

Brooke Davidson

Conditions are often unsanitary, dangerous and overcrowded, leading to great distress for families, especially those with children.

Colfax Community Network advocates for and works on behalf of children and families residing in low-income, transient housing (primarily residential motels) along Colfax Avenue by providing information, services and programs to strengthen and improve family and community life.

How You Can Help Today!

Like many area non profit organizations, CCN is currently having difficulty meeting its basic operating needs such as rent, phone and Internet costs and staff salaries. Just over 80 new individuals responded with a cash gift to our plea to help those less fortunate during the past four months and over 200 people gave in-kind donations to support our programs. This wonderful outpouring of support has allowed us to continue providing services to those families living in motels along Colfax. Now we ask for the same kind of support to help us meet our basic operating needs to allow us the ability to drive the van to motel sites and provide emergency services to the people living there, bring health care professionals to children in need of medical attention, help a single mother find a job so she can provide for her children, offer a homeless family food assistance so their children don’t go hungry, and so much more. We have been incredibly moved by so many people’s rapid and generous response to our previous pleas. We are grateful to so many of you who have given so much, and we know that you will work with us to help us keep our doors open this Summer. On May 16, the Denver Post ran an article featuring CCN’s need for assistance.

You Can Help CCN’s Doors Stay Open By:

1) Making a cash donation or sending a check to the P.O. Box listed on the website. Your donation is tax deductible and you will receive a letter detailing your donation.

2) Donating gas cards to help cover the cost of gas for outreach services and children programming.

3) Donating Office Depot, Staples or Office Max gift cards to help cover the cost of office supplies.

4) Providing or paying for an oil change for both our 15 passenger van and our minivan. We are also in need of a new battery for our 15 passenger van.

5) As always, we are still accepting donations of personal care items and non-perishable food.

Thank you for your commitment to CCN’s vision and the families we serve!

Current Announcements:

The Winter 2009 Newsletter is Here! Check out the Winter 2009 newsletter by clicking on the ‘Newsletter’ tab above!

Interested in serving on the board? Please fill out the Board Application or call Mandie Birchem at 303-360-9175 for more information.

On December 31, 2007 I was appointed by the Board of Directors as the new Executive Director of Colfax Community Network, replacing Maggie Tidwell who had served in this position since founding the organization in 1999. I accepted the position with a sense of honor and humility, aware that responsibilities and challenges would be significant, and require the support of many individuals and groups in our community.

I am committed to ensuring the same high level of programming and service delivery that the agency has become known for, while working to develop new services that effectively respond to the changing needs of our fellow neighbors who primarily live in motels along the 40-mile stretch of Colfax Avenue.

CCN has been blessed with generous assistance and cooperation from the philanthropic community and network of steadfast volunteers and noble donors. I look forward to seeing these relationships prosper and grow in the future.

With your continued support, we will strengthen and enhance our programs and expand our outreach services so that we can be a strong resource and agent of change to every family and child in need who seek improved lives, a desire for community, and hope.

I look forward to meeting all of CCN’s friends and supporters. Please call or stop by to say hello and see our incredible staff and volunteers in action! I am available by phone at 303.360.9175 and email at brooke.ccn@gmail.com.

Warm Regards,

Brooke Davidson, MSW

Rocket by: Isaac

R ockets are fast
O bject that is fast
C heck out the rockets
K eep your
E ars peeled &
T oss

Bees by: JJ

B ees, Bees, Bees
E ver been stung?
E ees, Bees, Bees
S ummer

Diamonds by: CJ

D iamonds
I n my mind
A re worth
M ore
O pportunity for my eyes
N ice
D iamond dinosaurs

Tia by: CJ

T ime
I love her
A very lot

Rockets by: Olivia

R ockets with Danielle
O nce launched
C areful
K eep your
E yes on the
T arget

Rockets by: Danielle

R ockets with
O livia
C areful
K eep your
E yes on the
T arget

Diamond by: Brandon

D iamond was shining
I ce china people eat rice
A rt makes Donny want to fart
M oney smells just like honey
O n and his nickname is Ron
N ine makes me want to shine
D riven that’s why I’m climbing

A Hundred by: Theresa

A

H appy Day
U nder the blue sky
N ot impossible
D on’t tell me
R emember my rocket hit one hundred
E veryone was surprised
D ead people were too.

Ninety Feet by: Jaime

N inety feet
I mpossible, no way
N ot at all,
E veryone was surprised
T onight I broke the record
Y ou rock, Therea”, I said.

F ive, High five
E veryone shouted, “You Rock!”
E ven old people
T onight me and Theresa had fun

Jupiter by: Jerry

J upiter
U ranus
P luto
I n a planet
T rapped
E ither side
R ubber inside

Bees by: JJ

B ees
E at
E veryone
S orry

Rockets by: Donny

R ockets hit 80!
O nly 4 times
C an’t make it to the wall
K eep trying
E very
T ime

Rockets by: Angel

R ockets can be red
O nly sometime
C an you see the rocket
K icking in the air
E ating it would be gross
T aking it apart would be cool!

What a world this is…

-Maggie Tidwell

A few months later, my friend Francis asked me was I going to “Family Night?” She was another mother living in the motel that I felt accepted by. It was late in the month so I was out of food stamps and was wondering what to feed my kids.

“CCN’s Family Night,” she replied.

I looked at her bewildered and she said, “You’re coming with me. It’s great food and company. You won’t have to cook dinner.”

Well, anytime I don’t have to cook, I’m there. So when Matt pulled in the parking lot, Francis and I loaded up our kids and went to the church for dinner. I still remember what we ate that night, Tammy’s fried chicken. I don’t think I have missed a “Family Night” since. That was two and a half years ago.

I told Maggie a few months ago how important “Family Night” is me. I love the social aspect. It is a great place to acquire new information about services and to talk to all my favorite CCN people. The best part about “Family Night” is that I have never felt excluded or judged. All the people there are my community. Every month there is a mix of old timers, like myself, and a few new scared faces. After filling our bellies, getting new information, and possibly playing our own version of BINGO, new faces are no longer scared. They feel how strong our community is.

I’m now proud to be a resident of the motels. I know I have a purpose here. CCN played a major part in making my self and my children feel a part of something. Our community is what it is.

Amendment 42 passed. With the help of hundreds of volunteers and the understanding of 53% of Colorado voters, the minimum wage has been raised from $5.15 per hour to $6.85 with annual increases tied to inflation rates. It is a crucial first step in eradicating poverty in this state and one that calls for celebration. However, as we celebrate, we should not overlook the fact that while the new minimum wage provides a worker an annual income of $14,250 (for 52 weeks of work), the poverty threshold for a family of four is $19,875 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). There is still work to be done.

In America, we are taught from childhood that hard work and persistence is rewarded with prosperity. This belief is a cornerstone of our democracy and a major influence on our attitudes and policies concerning the poor. When we encounter someone who is not prosperous, the assumption is that he/she does not work hard enough. Herein lies a central flaw. Anyone who is familiar with the backbreaking minimum wage jobs available to the marginalized in our society knows that hard work does not equal financial success. In fact, if work were measured by the amount of physical labor put forth, the exact opposite would hold true. The physically harder an individual works, the less they earn and the more likely they are to live in poverty, sustain serious injury on the job and suffer long-term disabilities related to the physical nature of their work.

The time has come for us to value the physically hard work that makes life easier for the rest of us and to demonstrate this appreciation in meaningful ways . We can do this by insisting on a living wage and decent housing for those who build our houses, care for our children, clean our homes, and grow our food. We can do this by ending the invisibility of those who do the “hard” work in our culture. We can do this by saying, “Thank you!”

-Maggie Tidwell