HomeSteaders is a fundraising and public relations auxiliary, driving awareness of the issue of homelessness and raising much-needed dollars in support of our parent organization, Family HomeStead.  We organize and coordinate a number of events throughout the year that help Family HomeStead succeed in its goal of helping families to overcome their crisis of homelessness and create stable, sustainable lifestyles for their children (read more on Family HomeStead below).  

HomeSteaders activities are varied to appeal to volunteers with multiple interests.  Events include helping to paint an apartment for a new family entering Family HomeStead’s program, a LoDo Loft Tour to collect school supplies, and a Bare Necessities project that provides personal care products and cleaning supplies for new families entering emergency housing. Our annual Bucket Brigade luncheon, held every June, generates a truckload of cleaning supplies every year. 

We drive public awareness through newsletters/newspapers and more.  Lunch and Learn meetings and “get acquainted” parties in peoples’ homes help educate guests and introduce them to Family HomeStead and HomeSteaders.  Our biggest event of the year is our winter/spring “For the Love of Family” fundraising gala, which includes silent and live auctions and an elegant dinner (for more on events and activities, see ‘Volunteer Opportunities’ or ‘Events’).  It is through our actions and activities that we are able to make a real difference in peoples’ lives, as we assist Family HomeStead in its efforts to end homelessness one family at a time. 

Each year HomeSteaders raises critically needed dollars to support Family HomeStead’s work.  The current fundraising climate presents unique challenges, and HomeSteaders are “stepping up” our efforts to meet that challenge.  If you have fundraising or program ideas you’d like to share, please contact us.

Family HomeStead:  Sometimes homelessness is a family affair

A private 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Family HomeStead exists to “house homeless families and end homelessness for individual families in our program in the Metro Denver Area…” Family HomeStead is not a shelter.  For over 30 years, Family HomeStead has worked to provide safe, secure independent housing for homeless families with children.  This enables families to have a place they can call “home” while they work to resolve their crisis of homelessness.  With the assistance of case managers, parents deal with the circumstances and issues that caused their family to become homeless.  They begin to develop a reliable income and work to find permanent housing. 

Family HomeStead’s mission is to “house homeless families and end homelessness for individual families in our program in the Metro Denver Area…”  Founded in 1978, Family HomeStead is the only agency in Denver that provides emergency and transitional housing in individual living units, as well as supportive case management, solely to families with children. 

In 2009 we served 934 individuals and 267 families.  Fifty-seven percent of client families are single-parent, female-headed households.  Eighty-two percent are racial and ethnic minorities.  Sixty-three percent of our clients are dependent children. 

Guided by our core values…

• homeless families with children do not belong in shelters
• housing and social services are equally important to homeless families
• the most important determinant of outcome is the family’s own skills, strengths, and determination to overcome homelessness
• we can assist families to achieve realistic outcomes, not transform individuals or society
• active participation by clients is necessary and required

For more on Family HomeStead, please visit their website at www.familyhomestead.org

Thank you for your interest and your generosity.  It really does make a difference!