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Meet Lisa Steven of Hope House of Colorado

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Steven.

Lisa, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My husband and I were teenage parents and got pregnant at age 17. We got married right away. That was the beginning of my heart for coming alongside teen moms, which I was able to do years later as a leader in a teen mom support group. The teen moms in this group were experiencing such difficult lives… everything from domestic violence in their homes to parents struggling with addictions to homelessness. It soon became clear we could not help teen moms become self-sufficient through a support group alone.

After searching the Denver-metro area for residential options for teen moms, we discovered that there truly were none. Maternity homes offered housing for crisis pregnancy, but our girls were already parenting. Additionally, homeless shelters required them to be 18 years old, which many were not.

So we decided to open a home for teen moms and their children!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We were blessed to have the opportunity to rent a home in Arvada on a large piece of land that was slated for development. The problem came when the development moved more quickly than expected, and we had not had the time for a capital campaign to build a new home. Miraculously the developer donated the house to us with the provision that it be picked up and moved off of their property. A few months later, a church in Arvada offered to donate land for the house to move to. Our community came together to remodel the home after the move and everything from digging a basement to the tiles on the roof was donated. It was completed in April 2006, and to this day that is where we operate our Residential Program.

The next challenge came when we realized how great the need was as we were fielding up to 150 crisis calls a year. We learned that 3,200 babies are born to teen moms in Colorado every year and that not all of them need a place to live… but they all need someone to come alongside them to help them to move toward self-sufficiency. So in 2007, we started our Community Program and began offering Mentoring and GED Programs to teen moms across the Denver-metro area. A huge challenge came in 2008 when the recession hit. We had to scale back plans for growth and cut staff. Some staff members even took a voluntary pay cut. But once again, our community rallied and volunteers began covering shifts, which kept us afloat and set the stage for future growth.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Hope House of Colorado – what should we know?
Hope House of Colorado is the only organization in the Denver-metro area offering free self-sufficiency programs to teen moms. This year we will serve 240 teenage moms and their children through our GED and College & Career Programs as well as comprehensive support services such as Parenting and Healthy Relationships classes, Financial Literacy, Job Readiness classes and Early Learning for the children of our teen moms.

In August of this year, we will complete the building of a new Resource Center on the same campus as our Residential house. We will move our Community Programs out of our 2,500 square feet of rented warehouse space into an amazing 15,000 square foot facility that will allow us to serve up to 450 teen moms per year.

What are we most proud of? I think that is best answered by sharing a story. Four years ago, Janelle was homeless and literally sleeping in her car with her three-year-old and one-year-old boys. A friend told her about Hope House, and she started attending our GED Program and eventually broke down and shared her situation because a storm was coming that night. She applied for our Residential Program and quickly earned her GED and began attending college. She earned a degree in Applied Sciences and today she is a machinist at Ball Aerospace — and she and her new husband purchased their own home. It is an incredible privilege as a former teen mom to be a part of transforming the lives of teen moms like Janelle today. I always say I have the best job in the whole wide world!

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I don’t think Hope House would exist without the support of my husband John. I usually blame Hope House on him as it was his idea in the first place! Actually, to this day, John serves on our board and is the first to arrive at an event to help set-up and the last to leave after we clean up.

Truthfully it takes an entire community to do something like this. We literally could not exist without our compassionate, professional staff; our committed, generous champions and donors; our volunteers who donate countless hours; and our board members who pour themselves into this work. I also really believe that God has a soft spot for our young moms and He is with us every day.

Pricing:

  • All of our programs are free to parenting teenage moms.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Stephanie Trowbridge

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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