Hope House Colorado empowers parenting teenage moms to strive for personal and economic self-sufficiency and to understand their significance in God's sight, resulting in a healthy future for them and for their children.
Grace always knew she wanted to work in the medical field. In high school, she was part of a four-year STEM program in biomedical sciences, preparing herself for a future in healthcare. But life had other plans.
During her senior year, Grace found out she was pregnant with her son, Cebastion. Overwhelmed by the news, she kept her pregnancy a secret for months.
Instead of letting fear hold her back, Grace used it as motivation. She enrolled at Front Range Community College and started working toward her certificate in medical administration—all while preparing for motherhood. After graduating high school and welcoming Cebastion in October 2023, she threw herself into her studies, determined to create a stable future for him.
Grace first heard about Hope House from a nurse at the hospital where she gave birth. Hope House became a second home for her. She took classes like financial literacy, parenting and a CPR certification class. Events like Homework and Homies and fun activities with other moms gave her and Cebastion opportunities to form friendships. More than anything, Hope House became a place where she never had to feel alone.
Now, Grace is working toward her next goal: finding a part-time job in the medical field and moving into her own apartment. She is taking prerequisites at a community college while applying for nursing school. Balancing school, work and motherhood is not easy, but she is determined to give Cebastian the best life possible.
“There is so much support and help with basically anything you could think of. It provides a good place to come—even if you just want to hang out. If you feel alone, you can come here. There are so many good classes to help with whatever journey you are on.” -Grace
Hope House Colorado empowers parenting teen moms to strive for personal and economic self-sufficiency and to understand their significance in God's sight, resulting in a healthy future for their children.
Hungry, struggling to afford essential needs, unstable housing, domestic violence: these are real issues for teen moms living in our community. In fact, 67% of teen moms live below the poverty line -- which came as a surprise to our local founders over two decades ago.
Hope House Colorado began when the founders, two former teen moms themselves, recognized that because 67% of teen moms live below the Federal poverty line, they are a particularly vulnerable population that is often overlooked. The challenges these economically disadvantaged teens face are significant:
• Less than 50% of teen moms will graduate from high school;
• Fewer than 2% will ever earn a college degree;
• In Colorado, a teen mom must work 101 hours per week at minimum wage to earn enough annual income to meet basic needs without public assistance
Hope House opened its Residential Program in 2003 in Arvada. To date, this program has served 130 formerly homeless or at-risk teen moms and their children with a high rate of success among program graduates: 90 percent of graduates have achieved basic levels of self-sufficiency.
Demand for services for teen moms increased every year, with staff receiving approximately 150 crisis calls annually from teen moms and service providers. In response, we launched our Community Program initiative in 2007, which included a GED Program, and supportive services such as healthy relationships classes, parenting classes, certified counseling, life skills classes, job readiness workshops and community building activities.
In 2012, we opened our resource center in Westminster, moving all Community Programs, including our GED Program, to this new location; the house in Arvada now hosts the Residential Program only and is thus able to offer housing to more teen moms and their children. In 2013 we launched a College & Career Support Program, offering practical support and resources to teen moms in college or entering the workforce. In 2014 we opened an Early Learning Program for the children of Hope House teen moms.
In 2015, we launched a capital campaign for a new resource center that would allow us more space to serve teen moms. In 2019, we completed the $5.4 million campaign and moved into our 15,000-square-foot resource center debt-free thanks to the generosity of so many champions (donors). The resource center is adjacent to the residential house in Arvada and allows us the space to grow and serve 450 teen moms and 675 children annually!
In 2020 when the pandemic hit, we pivoted to virtual programming and a curbside Grab & Go to help fulfill our teen moms' most essential needs. We transitioned our residential house into a temporary shelter for moms and their kids who experienced homelessness or domestic violence during COVID.
In 2021, we worked to mitigate the impacts of COVID through increased mental health support for moms and early intervention support for kids who experienced developmental delays.
In 2022, we expanded our Residential Program into a full Housing Support Program, which includes our Residential Program. This program is an immediate disturbance to homelessness and supports teen moms as they create Individual Growth Plans (IGPs) with an eventual goal of being able to afford market-based housing. We also expanded our Early Learning program into an Early Learning & School Age Program to more comprehensively serve the school-age children of our teen moms who need additional social and literacy support.
In 2023, we served the most teen moms we have ever served in our history. We served more than half of our teen moms in our Housing Support Program and through our economic navigator. We also completed a $6 million capital campaign for a brand-new Early Learning Center, located on our campus, which will provide child care to the children of our teen moms who are utilizing the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP).
In 2024, we celebrated the grand opening of our new 11,000-square-foot early learning center in August. The center will provide full-time, licensed, quality-care for up to 104 children of Hope House teen moms and staff. This will remove a significant barrier for teen moms, allowing them to attend school or work full time while their child receive quality child care in a safe and loving environment.
Hope House supports and empowers teen moms as they work toward self-sufficiency and break the cycles of generational poverty for themselves and their children. We focus on a two-generation approach in our programming so that teen moms and their children are receiving the supports they need to create lasting change.
Organization name
Hope House Colorado
other names
Hope House Colorado
2000
Tax id (EIN)
84-1567838
Category
Human Services
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
6475A Benton StreetJefferson County, CO, US
Denver, CO, US
Adams County, CO, US
Arvada, CO, US
Westminster, CO, US