April 3, 2023 Denver, CO – Volunteers of America Colorado today announced it has hired Chiyoko (Chi) Yokota as its Chief Financial Officer and promoted Angel Hurtado to the newly-created role of Vice President of Family, Veterans and Homelessness Services. Yokota comes to VOAC with over ten years of experience in the nonprofit sectors as a financial expective for Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver, Denver Rescue Mission, Colorado Public Radio and most recently served as the CFO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. “I’m thrilled to join an organization as sound, smart and invested in our community as Volunteers of…

January 4, 2024 Join us as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr., a man who believed, as we do, in the power of hope, connection, and community. The event is FREE and open to all! Dinner, music by Freddy Rodriquez and Crew, and warm coats supplied by our friends at arc Thrift Stores.

November 11, 2022 Denver – Volunteers of America Colorado today announced the Denver Broncos will attend our annual Veterans Day Celebration at Clermont Commons on Nov. 11. Broncos cheerleaders and Miles, the official team mascot, will serve dinner and distribute gifts among residents. Photography and video are welcome. Clermont Commons is a group of transitional homes for female veterans in Colorado. Many of these veterans were experiencing homelessness prior to taking residence at Clermont. All are assigned a case manager and a contact with the Veteran’s Association, with the goal being to help veterans secure permanent housing and live productive…

December 19, 2022 Denver – Volunteers of America Colorado will welcome media coverage on Monday, Dec. 19 as hundreds of Holiday Dinner Baskets are distributed to the community. Each basket will contain a $50 gift card from Safeway, nonperishable food items, and bread from VOAC’s City Harvest. The event will be held at the Volunteers of America Mission on Lawrence Street and will see 600 baskets distributed to individuals receiving VOAC services as well as the general public. Sign-up for this program has passed, as those receiving baskets have already been allocated vouchers. Parents will also receive one gift per…

Finally a Place to Call Home Five years ago, 19-year-old Whitney Whitson had a baby on each hip and nowhere to go. Now, 25 years old with an education, a career and two beautiful daughters, Whitson will be closing on her first home Monday thanks to help she found with Volunteers of America. “I wanted better for my kids. I wanted the cycle to stop with me,” Whitson said. After having her second daughter at age 19, Whitson was forced to leave her mother’s house and found a transitional housing program for single parents, Warren Village. There she worked hard…

Home, for the Very First Time Purchasing a home is something that many aspire to do one day. It is a challenge for anyone entering the home buyer’s market and is one of the most stressful things to do. Now, imagine being homeless. Imagine the dream of home ownership not applying to you. That is exactly how Casey felt, but luckily the focus of the Volunteers of America Brunetti Lofts program is to take formerly homeless families and individuals and move them along the path to home ownership. Casey arrived in Denver in 2007, after growing up in a small…

Kindness Can Change the World The days of pedaling down the highway with my road family are now complete. For the past 1-1/2 months, I have cycled 6-8 hours and 80+ miles daily, and it has been both exhilarating and exhausting. Many experiences have changed me along the way, but one of the most significant ones was the kind and gentle way of the South. As we journeyed down rural roads, people waved and shouted, “Ya’ll be safe!” They chased us down in cars and ATVs to offer water bottles. Countless friends with names unknown smiled and waved while perched…

3/30 – Fredericksburg, TX to Navasota, TX 3/28 – Fredericksburg to Buda – While the morning was overcast, a carpet of blue bonnets and other wildflowers lined the road for miles and brightened the day! As scenic as this ride was, I had to dig deep to get myself down the road. I started the day feeling depleted because I didn’t rest enough while in Fredericksburg. And the relentless crosswinds and headwinds over 88 miles and 4,700 ft. elevation made the entire ride even more exhausting. I was so tired, more than a few times, I seriously thought about jumping…

They answered the call. There seems to be nothing a dedicated team of early childhood educators cannot accomplish. When the “Stay at home orders” closed the Volunteers of America Early Childhood Education Center, a place of learning, play, growth, discovery, and safety for young children, also a place of refuge, security, safety, support, community and resources for families in an already complicated world, the Family Service Workers rallied. While many efforts have been made to reach and support families through phone, desk, front porch visits, YouTube videos, online classrooms, education kits, and lending libraries, the Friday Drive-Thru distribution has proven…

Dr. Percy H. Lyle is a man of many distinct talents. He has worked as a producer in television, acted in movies, served as a radio personality and performed in live theater shows across the country. He earned his PhD in Human Communications from the University of Denver and has taught Theater and Communications at several community colleges and universities in Colorado. More recently, Percy added a new title to his long list of career and life accomplishments: volunteering in Denver as a Volunteers of America Senior Corps Foster Grandparent at Cherry Creek’s Place Bridge Academy. Place Bridge, like Percy,…