Meet Tasha VanMarter of Joyful Journeys Community Enrichment in Broomfield

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tasha VanMarter.

Tasha, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My name is Tasha VanMarter and I am 37 years old. I come from a poor family in a low-income neighborhood. Unlike many of my childhood friends, thankfully, I had a good family.

In 2010, my sister and I created Joyful Journeys Community Enrichment. The inspiration for this organization took root as we were growing up witnessing firsthand some of the atrocities our young friends were experiencing. As we grew into mature adults, it became apparent that not all kids begin life with the same resources and support to compete and survive. Many of our friends had drug and alcohol addicted parents that never played the part of a supporting role model. These children lacked guidance, leadership, protection, support, and most of all love. Many of our childhood friends who lived in these circumstances became involved in crime, dropped out of school and began using substances themselves.

Several of these same kids have now been murdered, committed suicide, or are currently incarcerated. Today, these problems for children still exist, creating an extreme need for programs like Joyful Journeys, which is designed to help further the education and emotional development of children. Now, eight years after it first began, our organization is providing tutoring assistance, leadership opportunities, art, music, sports and culinary programs. Joyful Journeys focuses on teaching children to give back to the community and helps them realize their ability to establish and maintain healthy relationships.

After working directly with the children of our community, we became aware of the challenges facing their parents. With this new insight, we have implemented several different programs educating and empowering adults to completely transform their lives. Joyful Journeys now provide basic needs and emergency items like food, clothing, household items, school supplies and hygiene products.

However, giving someone a food basket only feeds them for the week. It does not address the actual issue and only solves and immediate need. Joyful Journeys fights the battle upstream by providing employable skills training, budgeting, health and nutrition training and community involvement opportunities. This allows for the understanding of personal accountability with finances, wellness, emotional control, community service and decision-making while embracing their full potential and value as human beings.

Has it been a smooth road?
Oh wow, have there been struggles. Yes, definitely. There is never enough funding, we always need more volunteers and with Colorado’s current economy the need for help is greater than ever!

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Joyful Journeys Community Enrichment story. Tell us more about your organization.
We are a non-profit that takes pride in offering more than just a bag of clothes or a basket of food. We cherish the people we help and focus on giving them the tools they need to become successful and self-sufficient. We take a multi-generational approach toward poverty and make sure to focus on children, adults and the elderly because every one of them is impacted differently. We treat the folks we help with dignity and make sure they know that we know their value! We are open seven days a week from 10 am to 7 pm so there is never a wait to receive the help they need.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
In a perfect world, there would be no need for non-profits because that would mean that all human, animal and environmental needs are being met. Sadly though, I believe the need for organizations like mine are in demand now more than ever because the cost of living is so high and our population continues to multiply. I don’t see this changing over the next ten years but I do believe that the community is becoming more aware of the need and people are more willing to get involved and help. We are blessed with some of the most amazing volunteers and donors ever and I credit that to the ease and access of information that technology and social media have made available.

Contact Info:

• Address: 6900 W 117th Ave Broomfield CO 80020 #400
• Website: joyfuljourneyscommunityenrichment.org
• Phone: 3036679695
• Email: joyfuljourneysce@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyfuljourneysce/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joyfuljourneyscommunityenrichment/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/joyfuljourneys_
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/joyful-journeys-community-enrichment-broomfield
• Other: Joyful Journeys Community Enrichment

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