Speaker 1: And helping men overcome the perils of addiction in a
Speaker 1: fashion that I enthusiastically support. I've had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: go and tour the facility, and if you do that,
Speaker 1: if you take the tour and you go and find
Speaker 1: out how the program works, you will be blown away
Speaker 1: as I was at everything required and joining me in
Speaker 1: the studio. Now the executive director. Are you is that
Speaker 1: your official title? Megan? Yes, Megan Shay. She's new to
Speaker 1: that role, but not new to denver So. And we
Speaker 1: also have Derek who has now are you where are
Speaker 1: you in the program?
Speaker 2: Derek, I'm a recovery support manager.
Speaker 1: Recovery support manager? Are you a former addict or recovering addict? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm in recovery myself, and that is very common. It's
Speaker 1: step Denver.
Speaker 2: It is twenty of our twenty five staff members have
Speaker 2: been through the program themselves or are actively in recovery.
Speaker 1: What is the point of that.
Speaker 2: I believe it's part of the peer to peer model
Speaker 2: where we're not just people that got a degree in
Speaker 2: something and have that on the wall and say hey,
Speaker 2: I read this in a book, right, it might help you.
Speaker 2: We get to with the residents that we work with
Speaker 2: on a daily basis. We get to tell them, hey, look,
Speaker 2: I've been where you're at. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: I've been in this program myself. I'm not asking you
Speaker 2: to do anything that I haven't done, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to give you suggestions and experience through my lived experience
Speaker 2: to help you get out of this cycle of addiction.
Speaker 1: How did you end up in STEP in the first place.
Speaker 2: I was homeless before I got to STEP, and I
Speaker 2: went to a detox and the counselor that was there
Speaker 2: when I was seeking treatment said you might want to
Speaker 2: try this place called Step Denver, And I was out
Speaker 2: of options, and so I was willing to do anything
Speaker 2: at that point.
Speaker 1: So you really were at rock bottom definitely when you
Speaker 1: first came into the program. And when you enter the
Speaker 1: program it's called STEP because there are steps that you
Speaker 1: go through and they are physically manifested in where you sleep.
Speaker 1: And when you first come into the program, you have
Speaker 1: these barracks. You know, you're out with all the other guys.
Speaker 1: What was that like for you when you got there
Speaker 1: and you realize like, okay, I'm going to do this.
Speaker 1: Tell me what that part was like, Like, how you
Speaker 1: made that first step.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So my experience with STEP, like I should mention that,
Speaker 2: like I chose to sleep on the street instead of
Speaker 2: the shelters because it was safer and cleaner on the
Speaker 2: street than in the shelters. And so I went into
Speaker 2: STEP with the expectation with if it looks, smells, or
Speaker 2: feels like a shelter, I'm not going to stay. And
Speaker 2: so when I walked in and I saw how immaculately
Speaker 2: clean it was twenty four to seven, and how kind
Speaker 2: and comforting the staff members were. And then like I
Speaker 2: get a bed to sleep on instead of like a bunk,
Speaker 2: and it's like a really nice bed, and I get
Speaker 2: a closet, and the living space was like beyond what
Speaker 2: I was expecting, and it made me like immediately when
Speaker 2: I walked in, it felt like home. It felt like
Speaker 2: a brotherhood, and it felt comfortable and I felt welcome.
Speaker 1: How did you fall into addiction in the first place.
Speaker 2: I got introduced to drugs and alcohol at a very
Speaker 2: young age, just being exposed to in the environment that
Speaker 2: I grew up in.
Speaker 1: So tell me about what has happened for you just
Speaker 1: as a human since you became You got sober, and
Speaker 1: then you committed to the program, and now you're actually
Speaker 1: working for the program. How has that evolution been for Derek.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's been life saving and life changing. To
Speaker 2: be honest, I'm a completely different person to the selfish,
Speaker 2: self centered, egotistical full of pride and guilt and shame
Speaker 2: and fear before recovery, and now I'm the exact opposite
Speaker 2: of all those things. I have a purpose in my
Speaker 2: life to be of service to other people and to
Speaker 2: help people, and to be a messenger of truth and
Speaker 2: love and an advocate for recovery. And I'm very much
Speaker 2: I'm very much a fan of recovering out loud. I'm
Speaker 2: not shy about my recovery and I don't shout it
Speaker 2: from the rooftops like a preacher. But I'm definitely willing
Speaker 2: to have the conversation and have the vulnerable conversations, and
Speaker 2: I lean into discomforts and I lean into fear, and
Speaker 2: I only know how to do these things and just
Speaker 2: be a regular citizen in our community, like tax paying
Speaker 2: member of our community, like a good member. I only
Speaker 2: know how to do those things because Step and the
Speaker 2: twelve Step fellowships that I got involved in.
Speaker 1: Megan, You guys how many people do you think you've
Speaker 1: actually helped over the years. I mean, you know, I've
Speaker 1: sud asked me thousands. When did Bob Kote start this?
Speaker 1: What year?
Speaker 3: So we were founded in nineteen eighty three. We have
Speaker 3: served thousands of men over the years, but last year
Speaker 3: we served almost four hundred men. So we're now serving
Speaker 3: about four hundred men per year. So, and the key
Speaker 3: is it's not just servings, right, So we consider a
Speaker 3: man served when they've been in our program five plus days.
Speaker 3: We don't consider them served because they had a place
Speaker 3: to stay for one night or we provided them with food.
Speaker 3: To us, true service is they learned something they can
Speaker 3: put into action in their life that is going to
Speaker 3: have an impact in their quality of life, their ability
Speaker 3: to recover, their ability.
Speaker 1: To be self sufficient.
Speaker 3: And so we consider men served after they actually received
Speaker 3: career coaching and peer coaching from men like Derek and
Speaker 3: gone through you know, some of our curriculum and meetings
Speaker 3: and received things that they can actually apply. And so
Speaker 3: I think that's the difference too. When you look at shelters,
Speaker 3: it's like heads and beds, right, how many nights did
Speaker 3: they stay for us? It's about them actually receiving the
Speaker 3: tools that they need to become the people that they're
Speaker 3: capable of being. You see what Derek is doing every
Speaker 3: day in his life, the impact he's having on these men.
Speaker 1: And we don't want lives to be wasted.
Speaker 3: We don't want people on the street living in misery
Speaker 3: and despair. We want them to have purpose and that's
Speaker 3: our main goal, is that they can sustain where I
Speaker 3: learn it step after they leave, not just oh great,
Speaker 3: we served four hundred men.
Speaker 1: This is a challenging population. Addiction is a real tough
Speaker 1: thing and there's a lot of relapse and things of
Speaker 1: that nature. Do you feel like because of the program?
Speaker 1: And either of you can answer this, because this program
Speaker 1: is and I never want to knock any kind of
Speaker 1: rehab like there's a there's a form of rehab that's
Speaker 1: going to help people. It may not help all people,
Speaker 1: but I am all in favor of any program that
Speaker 1: I want to be clear about that. But the thing
Speaker 1: I like about STEP is that it does require that
Speaker 1: accountability portion. It requires self sufficient It requires you to
Speaker 1: go out and get a job, It requires you to
Speaker 1: do these things that bring you back into society. Is
Speaker 1: that do you think that's why it's so successful. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ask Derek that I.
Speaker 2: Do believe that's why it's so successful. That I was
Speaker 2: telling Megan the other day and spoke about it this morning,
Speaker 2: as well as like we recover in real time. Life
Speaker 2: isn't on pause. We're able to go do those life
Speaker 2: things instead of just focusing just on one thing for
Speaker 2: eight hours a day, which is my addiction and the
Speaker 2: recovery from it. But like I actually get to save
Speaker 2: my money, I get to be accountable for my actions
Speaker 2: within this community. I get to go to the store
Speaker 2: and cook my food. I need to be able to
Speaker 2: learn how to make my bed in the right way
Speaker 2: and be accountable for all those things.
Speaker 1: But also like.
Speaker 2: Really just build habits that are going to carry me
Speaker 2: once I get out of said program, because it's going
Speaker 2: to end eventually.
Speaker 1: I love the way you just said I get to
Speaker 1: do these things. I get to have a job, I
Speaker 1: get to do these instead of I have to. That's
Speaker 1: a pretty significant mindset situation there, you know. It's that
Speaker 1: I get to do these things, not I have to.
Speaker 3: Megan, how much does it cost to per man Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's five It's just over five thousand, fifty two. Hundred
Speaker 3: dollars per man, and that's for the entire stay. So
Speaker 3: most men are staying with us for four to six months,
Speaker 3: some up to two years. But if we look at
Speaker 3: how many men we serve in a year in our
Speaker 3: total expenses, it's about fifty two hundred dollars per man,
Speaker 3: which by the way, is one sixth of the cost
Speaker 3: I did the math on one of these hotels, one
Speaker 3: sixth of the cost of just putting someone in a
Speaker 3: hotel room. And so for a fraction we are able
Speaker 3: to help men become self sufficient, get out of that
Speaker 3: cycle of dependency, and be able to contribute because they
Speaker 3: have a lot to contribute, by the way, to their
Speaker 3: community and to their families.
Speaker 1: And just for the person on the text line who
Speaker 1: asked if Mayor Mike had done the tour of step
Speaker 1: Denver yet, that is a big fat no. I asked
Speaker 1: Megan that when he came in, if you would like
Speaker 1: to help out step Denver, and if you're like me,
Speaker 1: I love a hand up program. They could use your donation.
Speaker 1: Today I put a link on the blog today where
Speaker 1: you can go straight to the Colorado Gives page. What
Speaker 1: is the benefit of working through Colorado gives instead of
Speaker 1: a direct donation. Well, there are a couple.
Speaker 3: One is the Colorado Gives Foundation does an incentive fund match,
Speaker 3: so we will have a larger percentage of that incentive
Speaker 3: fund at the end of the day based on how
Speaker 3: many people are supporting step Denver among all of the
Speaker 3: other charities that they're supporting today. We also have a
Speaker 3: twenty five thousand dollars match. We have an individual who
Speaker 3: has stepped up and said I will match dollar for
Speaker 3: dollar up to twenty five thousand dollars gifts that are
Speaker 3: received on this show.
Speaker 1: If you just need to hit twenty five thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: then you hit another twenty five.
Speaker 3: I about five thousand dollars from that last I was
Speaker 3: going to look on.
Speaker 1: This right now. It doesn't have the thing on there.
Speaker 3: Getting updates from our director of development. And right before
Speaker 3: we left Step to come here, we were about five
Speaker 3: thousand away from lat so here we go.
Speaker 1: It is yeah, well, no, it's that's a different match. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's weird.
Speaker 3: There's another cool thing that's happening is Colorado Gives Foundation.
Speaker 3: Any new monthly donation that's made today through Colorado gives
Speaker 3: dot org slash step Denver. People who sign up for
Speaker 3: a monthly gift Colorado Gives Foundation will match their first
Speaker 3: donation okay, dollar for dollars, so there are a couple
Speaker 3: of different matches. There's one other benefit which is new,
Speaker 3: the Homeless Contribution tax credit, So people who give one
Speaker 3: thousand dollars or more to STEP Denver are eligible for
Speaker 3: a twenty five percent tax credit on that gift, So
Speaker 3: twenty five percent of their gift they'll get back in
Speaker 3: a tax credit on their federal or state TAXI state
Speaker 3: state of Colorado.
Speaker 1: All right, my friends, there you go. How long is
Speaker 1: the waitlist for STEP Denver. We never have a waitlist, okay.
Speaker 3: We were actually an overflow two weeks ago for the
Speaker 3: first time, so I've been there six years and I've
Speaker 3: never seen us full. And a couple weeks ago we
Speaker 3: hit sixty one or sixty two and the sixty.
Speaker 1: Three bed capacity.
Speaker 3: We actually say we're a sixty bed facility, but we
Speaker 3: have three overflow beds, okay, and we had one overflow
Speaker 3: bed open. So we're very grateful that right now the
Speaker 3: demand is actually leading men to our doors. Men are
Speaker 3: making that choice. But the fact of the matter is,
Speaker 3: at any given time, there are over one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty beds open in this community. We do not have
Speaker 3: a shortage of beds for people to have.
Speaker 1: A shortage of people taking them. Correct. I do want
Speaker 1: to say you do have to go to the program sober, yes,
Speaker 1: meaning if you are intoxicated on anything, you have to
Speaker 1: sober up before you can come through the door, which
Speaker 1: I think is reasonable because all of the other men
Speaker 1: there are trying to maintain their sobriety and they don't
Speaker 1: need to be around someone who is not sober. But
Speaker 1: you can go to detox and then go straight to
Speaker 1: step Denver and that is something that's what you did. Derek. Absolutely, Yeah, guys,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you coming in. I love the program.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited you're expanding into Colorado Springs. When is
Speaker 1: that open?
Speaker 3: We are this time next year we hope to have
Speaker 3: our doors open fifty bed facility in Colorado Springs. It'll
Speaker 3: be called STEP Springs. It is our first replication of
Speaker 3: this program. We've now got a forty plus year history,
Speaker 3: we have proof ten years of data proving this works,
Speaker 3: and so now our mission is to take this model
Speaker 3: into communities and reach more men in need of this
Speaker 3: program men like Derek give them that opportunity. So Derek
Speaker 3: will be moving to Colorado Springs to help us launch
Speaker 3: that and give other men the same opportunity he was given.
Speaker 1: They're lucky to have you, Derek.
Speaker 2: I'm blessed to be a part of it.
Speaker 1: Megan shay From an executive director of step Denver and Derek,
Speaker 1: thank you so much.