Read the Stories
Your support empowers hundreds of young people to find safe housing, set and reach education goals, gain employment, and create their own successful futures.
MEET EMILY
Emily faced big challenges growing up. As a toddler, she became a foster child - one of nearly 5,000 Colorado youth entering the child welfare system each year. By age 13, she struggled with substance abuse. By 16, Emily’s adoptive parents had relinquished custody, and by 17, she was homeless and alone. When she became pregnant, Emily started reaching out for support.
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Then, she found Mile High United Way. Our Bridging the Gap program provides coaches to youth like Emily to help them learn to live on their own. “Because of Bridging the Gap, I got a housing voucher, learned financial literacy and career skills, found a great preschool for my daughter, and have even learned how to advocate for myself and for all foster youth,” said Emily. Now, she has her sights set on becoming a social worker to help youth who feel abandoned – who she can relate to so well.
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Your support helps youth like Emily plan hopeful futures.
MEET GABBY
Gabby was thankful about having her own apartment thanks to Mile High United Way’s Bridging the Gap – but it took time to stop worrying about being thrown out in the cold. Just two years before she found Mile High United Way, Gabby was homeless. Her dad had not been a part of her life since she was 11. Her mother was in and out of prison. Her grandmother, who struggled with mental health, took Gabby in, but made her leave the house by 5 a.m. each day, regardless of the weather. Still, Gabby was focused on completing high school and working to keep herself afloat.
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At Mile High United Way, Gabby’s Bridging the Gap coach helped her set future goals. With safe housing taken care of, she began working even harder – earning a promotion – and saved enough to buy a car. But her goals go beyond savings. She also wants to further her education and study fire science.
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Your support helps youth like Gabby become self-sufficient and thrive.
MEET TAI
Growing up, all Tai wanted was a stable family. Her reality was the opposite. She was adopted at 6 months old, entered foster care as a second grader, and when Tai was 13, her mother passed away. She lived in 15 foster homes before she turned 18. After she graduated from high school, Tai went straight into the Army as a parachute rigger. She was honorably discharged after about two years.
Tai had been homeless for two months when she found Mile High United Way’s Bridging the Gap. “I’ve never had such supportive people in my life, ever,” she said. “Housing, my budget, school – anything you can think of, they’ve been there for me.”
Today, Tai has steady work, a steady home, and a fat cat. She is interning with Colorado’s Department of Human Services, with hopes to help other youth facing childhoods like her own.
Your support helps youth like Tai find opportunities to succeed.
MEET RAHMET
Rahmet speaks three languages, works two jobs, and attends Red Rocks Community College. A newly-minted and hard-working American citizen, Rahmet believes Mile High United Way’s Bridging the Gap provided essential support he might not have found otherwise.
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Nearly 600 youth leave the child welfare system each year, and without support, many of them end up homeless. Rahmet was one of the lucky ones.
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“Without the support of Bridging the Gap I would have had a very hard time,” said Rahmet, who escaped ethnic violence in Afghanistan and found his way to the U.S. as a teen. Today, he supports himself in his own apartment and has two long-term goals: to reunite with his mother and sister in Afghanistan, and to get his Bachelor’s degree. He is well on his way.
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Your support helps youth from all walks of life chart their own course.
MEET DARIUS
Darius is a youth in Mile High United Way's Bridging the Gap program who is taking steps toward independent living. ​He plans to attend college to study Fire Science, with a long-term goal of becoming a firefighter.
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Darius makes use of many Bridging the Gap programs, including safe housing with a Federal grant program administered by Mile High United Way. In his own apartment, surrounded by furniture and supplies he chose for himself, Darius is able to work toward his goals with a renewed sense of stability.
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MEET SIERRA
Sierra is a young mother who was homeless before she came to Mile High United Way's Bridging the Gap.
Bridging the Gap's housing voucher program allowed Sierra to find a safe, stable, affordable place to raise her family. From the security of her apartment, Sierra is focused on cooking healthy food for her young daughters - and turning their situation around.
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