Speaker 1: Today is Colorado Gives Day. But first I want to
Speaker 1: read a random text message that I got. It says,
Speaker 1: after Thanksgiving it work. I observed a lady with a
Speaker 1: giant castroll dish filled with mashed potatoes and she was
Speaker 1: just eating them with a spoon.
Speaker 2: I wanted to compliment her, but.
Speaker 1: I didn't say anything because I was worried she would
Speaker 1: take it the wrong way. But I'm jealous and I
Speaker 1: admire her stance on the abundance of potatoes.
Speaker 2: It never occurred to me to do that.
Speaker 1: Jealous, I think I would agree with you in that
Speaker 1: situation for sure. I also want to share one more
Speaker 1: text message, Mandy, I gave my old Honda to step
Speaker 1: this fall.
Speaker 2: It was a good experience.
Speaker 1: I also have a small donation twenty five dollars monthly
Speaker 1: going their way for my check every month. I believe
Speaker 1: in what they do and I am blessed to be
Speaker 1: able to make a small contribution. I also love Colorado
Speaker 1: Feline Foster Rescue and Humane Colorado. I don't have either
Speaker 1: of those animal related charities on the show right now,
Speaker 1: but I do have Megan Shay, the executive director, and
Speaker 1: Andrea write down your last name, so I don't know
Speaker 1: what your last name is. Okay, that's probably why I
Speaker 1: didn't write it down because I don't know if I
Speaker 1: would Is that Polish?
Speaker 2: It's Russian? Russian?
Speaker 1: So close and yet so far. Megan, you've been on
Speaker 1: the show multiple times.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's great to be here with you. Love this
Speaker 3: annual tradition. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: Well, so much has happened. I want to start with you, Megan,
Speaker 1: and then we're going to come to you Andre. But
Speaker 1: I just recently did another tour of Step Denver, and
Speaker 1: I have to give Paul Corolei from Citycast podcast a
Speaker 1: shout out because out of the and I'm not exaggerating
Speaker 1: thirty people that I've invited to come to a tour
Speaker 1: of Step, he's the only person that has ever taken
Speaker 1: me up on it. So Paul and I went down
Speaker 1: and did a tour of Step. Although I'm bummed we
Speaker 1: didn't get to see all of the residential quarters or
Speaker 1: have such a huge impact.
Speaker 2: Honestly, you love the bed making, Okay, that is it's
Speaker 2: a powerful visual. We'll get to that in a moment.
Speaker 1: But you guys have there's so much amazing cool stuff
Speaker 1: happening at step Denver. But the coolest stuff is that
Speaker 1: there's now a step Colorado Springs.
Speaker 2: It has been a remarkable year.
Speaker 3: We are very grateful to share that we just five
Speaker 3: weeks ago opened a fifty bed facility in Colorado Spring.
Speaker 3: So we've talked for how many years, a decade probably
Speaker 3: about the fact that this model is replicable, should be
Speaker 3: taken into communities that don't have these philosophies, these methodologies
Speaker 3: at play, and the continuum of services. Right, we know
Speaker 3: we are not going to be able to solve homelessness
Speaker 3: us one organization. It takes a lot of different options
Speaker 3: and different methods, but we have one that has proven
Speaker 3: to work over decades. We have ten years worth of
Speaker 3: solid data and we felt that responsibility to answer the
Speaker 3: call where there is a significant need. And I'll tell
Speaker 3: you we are now seeing that need. We have eleven
Speaker 3: open beds in the fifty bed facility only five weeks
Speaker 3: after opening.
Speaker 1: We will be full before Christmas. Well, congratulations, thank you man.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the philosophy first, because I'm sure there
Speaker 1: are people to say right now who are not really familiar.
Speaker 1: They've heard the name step Denver, maybe they haven't, right,
Speaker 1: So what is the philosophy what is STEPED over all about.
Speaker 3: So Step dever is helping men exit homelessness for good,
Speaker 3: and we do that through addressing the root cause of homelessness,
Speaker 3: which is addiction for the majority of the population. We're
Speaker 3: also serving men specifically, because the majority of the homeless
Speaker 3: population are men if you look at any point in time,
Speaker 3: count and we do that through addiction, recovery programming, workforce development,
Speaker 3: and life skills. So we are helping men rebuild every
Speaker 3: part of their life that's been destroyed from the ground up.
Speaker 3: And we're doing it on four core principles sobriety, work, accountability,
Speaker 3: and community. We also take no government funding. I have
Speaker 3: to say, I think that's why this program works because
Speaker 3: we are making every decision based on what's best for
Speaker 3: the people we serve in nothing else, and we are
Speaker 3: able to do that through the generosity of our donors.
Speaker 3: We are entirely funded through philanthropy, but that gives us
Speaker 3: the freedom to have a methodology that actually produces outcome
Speaker 3: and we can talk about those well.
Speaker 2: I want to share something I was just telling Megan.
Speaker 1: I literally just read a book last week called Beyond
Speaker 1: Homeless Good Intentions, Bad outcomes and transformative solutions. And one
Speaker 1: of the points they make in this book is that
Speaker 1: they had looked at certain organizations like yours, and they
Speaker 1: had a program that worked really, really well and it
Speaker 1: was about accountability and work. But then they went after
Speaker 1: government dollars and they had to change the programming in
Speaker 1: such a way to work with the federal requirements that
Speaker 1: the federal government has a housing first policy, and housing
Speaker 1: first means that you are looking to get someone some
Speaker 1: kind of permanent support of housing before they deal with
Speaker 1: their mental illness, their trauma, their addictions. It just get
Speaker 1: them into housing and then they're going to make better decisions.
Speaker 1: I would say from my perspective that housing VERSU has
Speaker 1: been an epic failure.
Speaker 3: A house does not miraculously solve addiction. And what we
Speaker 3: are seeing is that people who are in the throes
Speaker 3: of their addiction are put into free housing with no
Speaker 3: expectation of sobriety, accountability, of them making any progress or
Speaker 3: effort in their life. And what happens is they die
Speaker 3: in that housing. They are more isolated, they're less likely.
Speaker 2: To be found.
Speaker 3: And I do have to say that I was alarmed
Speaker 3: to hear and I won't call anyone out. But somebody
Speaker 3: stood in front of city council and said, you know,
Speaker 3: we don't consider deceased to be a negative outcome because
Speaker 3: they died inside. And I could not believe what I
Speaker 3: was hearing, and if I hadn't seen it for myself,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't believe it. We counter that we believe that compassion,
Speaker 3: real compassion is telling someone that you are capable of more.
Speaker 2: We know you are.
Speaker 3: We're with you every step of the way, but we
Speaker 3: are going to hold you to these standards because we
Speaker 3: know it's what it takes for you to get the
Speaker 3: life back that you deserve and for you to be
Speaker 3: able to be someone that you can look in yourself
Speaker 3: in the mirror every morning and know that you have
Speaker 3: something to offer this world. And Andre is an example
Speaker 3: of that. I know we'll talk about about history and
Speaker 3: you'll get to hear from him, but we believe that
Speaker 3: people deserve better well.
Speaker 1: And one of the most interesting things about Step and
Speaker 1: I want to I'll ask Andre about his way through
Speaker 1: the process. You know, it was initially called Step thirteen
Speaker 1: as kind of an add on to the twelve Steps
Speaker 1: of AA, the Foundational Steps of AA, which was great,
Speaker 1: but now it feels like step Denver represents the steps
Speaker 1: that men take from the first day they walk in
Speaker 1: the door, when they start learning the rules, and they
Speaker 1: start learning what's expected of them, and they start learning
Speaker 1: the rewards that come to them when they do these things.
Speaker 1: It is like a series of steps. I mean even
Speaker 1: and I you know, we talked about the residences at
Speaker 1: step Denver, the visual of how you start to what
Speaker 1: is possible and then you eventually move into support of
Speaker 1: housing outside of step Denver's four walls.
Speaker 2: I mean, it is a series of steps. In reality,
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 3: We Actually it's a four phase program and every phase
Speaker 3: has different goals and milestones that you're reaching in your
Speaker 3: life through your own effort. I often love to say that,
Speaker 3: you know, people talk about Step and what a wonderful program,
Speaker 3: and that's true, but it doesn't matter, frankly, how good
Speaker 3: our program is if each individual person doesn't make the
Speaker 3: choice every day to put it into practice in their
Speaker 3: life and so everything these men achieve, those are their
Speaker 3: achievements through the support of our donors, through the support
Speaker 3: of our program. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: it takes that individual making that choice to put in
Speaker 3: the work and that's how they see the results, and frankly,
Speaker 3: that's how they become the person that their family needs,
Speaker 3: that our society needs, and they can really contribute to
Speaker 3: our city as people who have officially broken the cycle
Speaker 3: of dependency.
Speaker 2: So one of the.
Speaker 1: Greatest things about STEP is that a vast majority of
Speaker 1: it is peer to peer. When you are talking to
Speaker 1: an employee of STEP Denver, they are someone who has
Speaker 1: overcome addiction themselves. They are going to look an addict
Speaker 1: in the face and say, whatever you got, I understand
Speaker 1: it because I was there. And that brings me to
Speaker 1: Andre who now is the STEP Denver Director of Operations.
Speaker 1: But how long ago were you a client of STEPNVERK So.
Speaker 4: I joined in August twenty second of twenty two. Okay,
Speaker 4: I entered the doors to STEP Denver. And why I
Speaker 4: was there, like, well, led me there was I didn't
Speaker 4: know a way out.
Speaker 2: I had been to eighteen other programs that didn't work.
Speaker 1: You did eighteen other programs to overcome your addiction, like
Speaker 1: in patient, outpatient everything.
Speaker 4: Those were just the inpatients an outpatient as well.
Speaker 1: How long did you struggle with addiction? That's active addiction
Speaker 1: thirteen Since I was thirteen. Holy cow, So you have
Speaker 1: really had a tough road to hoe. As they say,
Speaker 1: how old are you now?
Speaker 2: I just turned forty one? Wow? Wow? What finally? Why
Speaker 2: did this stick? So?
Speaker 4: I think many different things. Right the second I got
Speaker 4: to Step, they treat me as a human. I felt
Speaker 4: safe in the environment, and I was living with other
Speaker 4: guys that went through a similar situation that and just
Speaker 4: like you just explained, the staff there like they all
Speaker 4: knew what I went through and was able to approach
Speaker 4: it from a brother perspective versus a clinical right, those
Speaker 4: other eighteen programs were all clinical. I'd stay there for
Speaker 4: as long as the insurance would let me, and then
Speaker 4: it was here's a meeting sheet, good luck, and back
Speaker 4: to the streets I went.
Speaker 1: So, So, how many times were you homeless when you
Speaker 1: went into Step this.
Speaker 2: This last time? That's correct, it was homeless for almost
Speaker 2: two years at that point. Now, let me ask you a.
Speaker 1: Little bit about your time when you were living were
Speaker 1: you were you unsheltered homeless? You were living on the streets.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was living on an intent under a bridge
Speaker 2: in Englewood.
Speaker 1: So from your perspective as a formerly homeless person, what
Speaker 1: do you think is the biggest issue when it comes
Speaker 1: to and I realized that there's a million different reasons
Speaker 1: why people end up on the streets. There's no one
Speaker 1: single this is why it happens. But why do people
Speaker 1: become chronically homeless? Why are they there for five years,
Speaker 1: for ten years? What happens that makes that seem like
Speaker 1: like it's the life you're choosing, when in reality you're not.
Speaker 4: So for me personally, it was the fact that I
Speaker 4: hadn't experienced enough pain at that point. And that sounds
Speaker 4: silly because at that point I had lost my children,
Speaker 4: my marriage was on the rocks, lost you know, career
Speaker 4: career jobs with like Fortune five hundred, one hundred companies.
Speaker 2: And it was the fact that I was able to.
Speaker 4: Still live right, Like I had food stamps, I had
Speaker 4: you know, third party assistants.
Speaker 2: Really that allowed me to stay out there longer.
Speaker 1: So how how this is going to sound like a
Speaker 1: dumb thing to say, But how easy did they make it?
Speaker 1: Were you talking three meals a day or a meal
Speaker 1: whenever you wanted it? I mean, one of the things
Speaker 1: I'm trying to impart to people is that I understand
Speaker 1: what people's hearts tell them they need to do something
Speaker 1: to help people on the streets, but they're not really helping.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I.
Speaker 4: Mean, I mean I ate when I I mean, I
Speaker 4: was on meth and fetamine, so I really didn't eat,
Speaker 4: but I when I needed to, and I used the
Speaker 4: food stamps. I'd cash them in and use that money
Speaker 4: to buy narcotics.
Speaker 2: Crazy.
Speaker 1: So when you went into STEP at the very beginning,
Speaker 1: had you gone through Detoks first?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got committed for nine months prior to the
Speaker 4: mental hospital. About twenty seven days in they offered me
Speaker 4: to go to the STEP Denver.
Speaker 1: So you basically were so strung out on drugs they
Speaker 1: put you in a mental facility.
Speaker 2: Yeah, correct, Okay, and you made the choice, though, what
Speaker 2: was it? Were you just trying to get out of
Speaker 2: the mental hospital at that point? That's correct. I'm guessing
Speaker 2: that was.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I just wanted to not be there, right, you know,
Speaker 4: because I was in a room lockdown for twenty three
Speaker 4: hours a day.
Speaker 2: How good were you?
Speaker 1: How certain were you that you'd be able to snow
Speaker 1: the people at STEP Denver and you know, skate your
Speaker 1: way through this.
Speaker 2: I had no intent in staying.
Speaker 4: I was just waiting, you know, And they said all
Speaker 4: I had to do was go just step Denver. They
Speaker 4: never said I had to stay, So why did you stay?
Speaker 1: I mean it's nice, don't get me wrong, but it's
Speaker 1: it's not that nice. Something must have kept you there.
Speaker 4: So it was that first night I went to my
Speaker 4: first seven o'clock meeting and one of the recovery support managers, Derek,
Speaker 4: was telling his story that night, and the first thing
Speaker 4: he said to me or the group was look for
Speaker 4: the similarities, not the differences, right, And I get chills
Speaker 4: every time I say that, Right.
Speaker 2: And what did that mean for you? At that time?
Speaker 4: In that moment it clicked like I didn't know what
Speaker 4: it meant exactly, but it's just like, all of a
Speaker 4: sudden when he was telling his story, he spent ten
Speaker 4: minutes qualifying himself as an addict, right, so I can
Speaker 4: believe them, right, And then fifteen minutes of this solution, Right,
Speaker 4: it's a solution that night. By the end of that meeting,
Speaker 4: I was just so excited. I was like, I want
Speaker 4: to be here, I want to do this right, And
Speaker 4: I'm like, if a guy like that can recover, why
Speaker 4: can't I.
Speaker 1: Oh Wow, that's fantastic. I mean, that's kind of what
Speaker 1: it's about, Megan.
Speaker 3: It is and I have to say, you know, watching
Speaker 3: people like Andre when they come in from the day
Speaker 3: one to even day five, they're almost unrecognizable. We get
Speaker 3: to watch people come back to life right before our eyes,
Speaker 3: and we watched that light come on behind the eyes.
Speaker 3: And then we get to watch people like Andre become
Speaker 3: men of service who helped the next guy and help
Speaker 3: the next guy. And that is why this works. There
Speaker 3: the heart and soul of this program. One hundred percent
Speaker 3: of our program staff or alumni of our program.
Speaker 1: Okay, I just realized I'm five minutes later for a break.
Speaker 1: This is going to be two breaks in a row.
Speaker 1: I apologize. We'll be right back to talk more about
Speaker 1: step Dever after this. By the way, to the text,
Speaker 1: who said, is Leeland Conway's wife doing their social media
Speaker 1: commercials for step Denver in Springs, she looks so familiar. Well,
Speaker 1: that would be Megan Shay, who happens to be in
Speaker 1: the studio with me right now. We're also joined by
Speaker 1: Andre and the Russian last name, who is the director
Speaker 1: of operations for step Denver and also a graduate of
Speaker 1: the program.
Speaker 2: Now there's a couple things, Megan.
Speaker 1: That first of all, you guys just shared with me
Speaker 1: how you ended up getting in the program in the
Speaker 1: first place. You actually tried to kill yourself. Well it
Speaker 1: turned them on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's correct, So I didn't see a way out.
Speaker 4: So basically, I was so depressed and hopeless that I
Speaker 4: decided to shoot up bleach and that's what got me
Speaker 4: put onto the cycles.
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine what that must have like, Like
Speaker 1: the entire that must have been a terrifying thought process
Speaker 1: that got you to there.
Speaker 4: It was I just again felt hopeless. I've lost pretty
Speaker 4: much everything in my life. My marriage was on the rocks.
Speaker 4: I lost my kids to my addiction, jobs and housing
Speaker 4: and just everything, not just once, but three times over.
Speaker 2: You know, since I was twenty, How what is it?
Speaker 1: How does failing that rehab affect you mentally as an addict?
Speaker 4: Mix it that it's not an option to go to
Speaker 4: another one? Like I said, I went to eighteen programs
Speaker 4: prior to STEP and none of them worked. So I
Speaker 4: didn't think that treatment was an option for me. Because
Speaker 4: how you were hopeless.
Speaker 1: Yes, golly, I'm glad you weren't andre when we get back,
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry, guys, I did not break on schedule.
Speaker 1: I breaked really late, so we got to take another
Speaker 1: break here in just a moment, I do want to
Speaker 1: talk about some things you need to know. First of all,
Speaker 1: we've got a donor who is offering a ten thousand
Speaker 1: dollars match. So if you've ever wanted to donate to
Speaker 1: step Denver, now's the time you could help them get
Speaker 1: an extra ten grand if you make your donation today.
Speaker 1: But when we get back, let's talk about Step Spring,
Speaker 1: something Andre is intimately involved with and very exciting for
Speaker 1: Step that they're growing this way.
Speaker 2: We're gonna do all of that right after this.
Speaker 1: Keep it on KOA in honor of Colorado Gives Day.
Speaker 1: We have one of my favorite things that you should
Speaker 1: give money to, as step Denver. We just got a
Speaker 1: good report. I just mentioned the fact that if they
Speaker 1: get ten thousand dollars in donations today, they get a
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars match.
Speaker 2: And the Mandycoddle aut against you guys delivered. We're up
Speaker 2: to like forty two hundred that's right, eighty five minutes.
Speaker 2: I just got words.
Speaker 3: Since you made that announcement, forty two hundred dollars has
Speaker 3: been donated towards Oh match.
Speaker 2: That makes me, you know why, because my audience is
Speaker 2: the best.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, let's talk first, going to get a
Speaker 1: couple questions, and someone on the text line asked what
Speaker 1: I think is a very common question, and that is
Speaker 1: is STEP denver faith based?
Speaker 2: We are not. And it's for good reason.
Speaker 3: I'm sure many people have heard about the barriers that
Speaker 3: often go up for an individual, especially people who have
Speaker 3: been caught in that cycle of addiction for so long.
Speaker 3: Any idea of religion, a wall immediately goes up, and
Speaker 3: many people, most people will not even enter a program
Speaker 3: if there is any image of religion associated with it.
Speaker 3: And so what we have found over the years is
Speaker 3: that by focusing on spirituality and having groups and discussions
Speaker 3: around what is the difference between religion and spirituality? Why
Speaker 3: are you resistant to the idea that there may be
Speaker 3: a power greater than yourself. One day I heard a
Speaker 3: man say my ego right, Well, i's honest. So just
Speaker 3: naming it, what we find is it opens the door.
Speaker 3: And our men do develop very strong faith through their
Speaker 3: experience at STEP, but it's strong because they've developed it
Speaker 3: in their own way and on their own timeline and
Speaker 3: their throats exactly.
Speaker 2: This is a.
Speaker 1: Let's I think a better way to say this. It's
Speaker 1: not faithless, correct, it's not dogmatic at all.
Speaker 2: There's no doubting.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: They're not going to tell you what to believe. They're
Speaker 1: not going to tell you who to believe or what
Speaker 1: path to follow. They're just going to open the possibilities
Speaker 1: for you to maybe think about that.
Speaker 3: And as a result, men are actually having very strong
Speaker 3: faith in their life and a connection to God of
Speaker 3: their own understanding.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: But they are building that connection to God which would
Speaker 3: never be possible if we were a faith based program
Speaker 3: in which they wouldn't even walk through the door.
Speaker 1: Andre where were you when it came to faith or
Speaker 1: God or any of that stuff? And where are you now?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 4: Yeah, the God word really tripped me up. Or because
Speaker 4: I was molested at a young age by a priest. Oh,
Speaker 4: when I heard God, I was kind of attributed to that. Sure,
Speaker 4: And you know, when I got the step, I learned
Speaker 4: the difference between religion and spirituality, and you know, I
Speaker 4: became spiritual.
Speaker 2: And now I'm back in the church. Really that's correct? Wow?
Speaker 1: Good, I mean that's fantastic actually that it helped you
Speaker 1: healed your relationship with the church.
Speaker 2: That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, it's it's just been a blessing, like every
Speaker 4: aspect of this program and to know that, you know,
Speaker 4: I do have a God of my own understanding and
Speaker 4: today it's just been really good for me.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about how STEP is a little
Speaker 1: bit different than some of the the inpatient programs that
Speaker 1: you did sixteen eighteen programs.
Speaker 2: You said, Andre, that's correct.
Speaker 1: Andre's not only the director of operations for STEP and
Speaker 1: STEP Springs, he is also a graduate of the program.
Speaker 1: So when you are in the program, you're not just
Speaker 1: insulated from the rest of the world.
Speaker 2: You're actually put out in the world. Almost immediately tell
Speaker 2: me about that. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So after my first five business days of like learning
Speaker 4: the rules and it was the expected to go get
Speaker 4: a job in the community, which was amazing because it's
Speaker 4: not a lockdown facility. After my requirements, even my first
Speaker 4: five days, I was able to like go walk around
Speaker 4: the street, like go get some fresh air, go to
Speaker 4: the store, and that just made me feel like I
Speaker 4: was trusted things I haven't had in the past, Right,
Speaker 4: I didn't feel trusted, and you know, I early on
Speaker 4: I would run really quickly.
Speaker 2: Back to step, just like testing the water.
Speaker 4: I'd be like, all right, let me go around the
Speaker 4: block and and then like run right back.
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, I'm not ready for that yet.
Speaker 2: I kind of love that.
Speaker 1: Actually it's a very but that's kind of I love
Speaker 1: the thought of step being the safe place of home base,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like when you're a kid,
Speaker 1: you run back to the tree that's home base. I
Speaker 1: like that because it sounds like it gave you the
Speaker 1: courage to do something more.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then you know, finally I got out there
Speaker 4: and I got that first full time job that I
Speaker 4: hadn't worked probably a W two tax paying job in
Speaker 4: almost a decade.
Speaker 2: At that point.
Speaker 4: And you know, I got my first job at a
Speaker 4: seven eleven, And it was just like I was so
Speaker 4: proud that day.
Speaker 2: That I got a job. I was just like there's something.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh my god, I'm doing the program right,
Speaker 4: Like this is amazing, right, And it just made me
Speaker 4: feel like a part of society again when I hadn't
Speaker 4: been for like almost two years.
Speaker 1: So you're rebuilding in real time in the real world,
Speaker 1: that's correct. So one of the things I didn't know
Speaker 1: that I learned on our last tour a week or
Speaker 1: so ago. Is that that you require the men to
Speaker 1: find a meeting outside the walls of step Denver. So
Speaker 1: you're like, you know what, whatever, pick your poison, you
Speaker 1: want to do AA, you want to do this, you
Speaker 1: want to do that, but you got to find it.
Speaker 2: Why is that so critical?
Speaker 3: That's so critical because no one is cured when they
Speaker 3: leave our program, right and the only way that a
Speaker 3: man will be able to maintain their sobriety is if
Speaker 3: they do the work, every day work of recovery program
Speaker 3: to keep that disease and remission. And what that looks
Speaker 3: like is connection and community. They always say the opposite
Speaker 3: of addiction. Connection, and so if we can get men
Speaker 3: to establish community outside of our walls, then they have
Speaker 3: a much better shot of actually being able to sustain
Speaker 3: their sobriety and everything that they've rebuilt while in our program.
Speaker 1: You said something at the beginning of this conversation, Andre
Speaker 1: that I want to go back to, and that is,
Speaker 1: you know, you'd go through these programs and then kind
Speaker 1: of throw you out of the world with a sheet
Speaker 1: of meetings, but you didn't have any connection to any
Speaker 1: of those meetings when you were leaving.
Speaker 4: That's correct, And the difference that STEP is why I
Speaker 4: was there. I found my STEP community like instantly, right.
Speaker 4: It's just that it's like a brotherhood. As soon as
Speaker 4: you walk into the facility. Every you know, somebody offered
Speaker 4: me a steak dinner. I think within the first week
Speaker 4: they're like, hey, come have some a mistake, right, But
Speaker 4: then I have to create that same feeling outside a
Speaker 4: STEP for you know, transition purposes.
Speaker 1: Has have you been successful in that you feel like
Speaker 1: you have a big network out now? Obviously you have
Speaker 1: gotten hired and you're still within the walls of STEP
Speaker 1: working but in a much different capacity. So do you
Speaker 1: have that network outside to this day?
Speaker 2: Yes? I do, so you know I do.
Speaker 4: I do go to multiple recovery meetings and very active
Speaker 4: and recovery.
Speaker 2: Outside of STEP.
Speaker 4: Because STEP is my place of employment today, I can't
Speaker 4: treat my employment as my recovery.
Speaker 1: That's really great. So let's talk about Colorado Springs. Apparently
Speaker 1: Megan gave you a lot of credit for really kind
Speaker 1: of what decorating the joint.
Speaker 2: In goodness, making it a home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what did you I'm guessing as a as
Speaker 1: a former resident yourself, you probably had ideas of things
Speaker 1: that were like, you know what that would be really cool?
Speaker 1: Did you get to institute all those things?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a very exciting process.
Speaker 4: I got to well a that Megan trusted me, and
Speaker 4: two like I got to implement like things that I
Speaker 4: saw as all right, maybe we can add this, you know,
Speaker 4: like and make it a little bit better and really
Speaker 4: create that home feeling that was so important to me
Speaker 4: when I entered Step Denver.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No one's gonna uh hold the standards of Step meaning
Speaker 3: cleanly and taking care of the facility, like Andrea, because
Speaker 3: that is the thing that caused him to stay that
Speaker 3: first night is that it wasn't dirty and he didn't
Speaker 3: have that excuse. So he makes sure that no resident
Speaker 3: coming in is going to have that excuse.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. I want to talk for a second about
Speaker 1: what I love, what the visual impact of the accommodations
Speaker 1: at STEP, because it's not just the accommodations at Step,
Speaker 1: it is the metaphor for progress at Step Denver. And
Speaker 1: it just the first time I saw this, it blew
Speaker 1: me away. When people come into Step Denver, the first
Speaker 1: place they go, we'll call it shelter, right, I mean
Speaker 1: you're call it a dorm You got int a dormitory,
Speaker 1: lots of beds, and when you look at the beds
Speaker 1: on one side, there was a bed that they're all made.
Speaker 1: Everything is neat and tidy, but the beds at one end.
Speaker 2: A little sloppy.
Speaker 1: Maybe they don't have those tight hospital corners. The beds
Speaker 1: on the other end you can bounce a quarter off of.
Speaker 1: And I asked when I went through the first tour
Speaker 1: with Paula, so I was like, what's up with that?
Speaker 1: He goes, those are the men pointing to the beds
Speaker 1: that are not quite perfect.
Speaker 2: Those of the men just got here.
Speaker 1: Those are the men on the other side that are
Speaker 1: about ready to move to phase two?
Speaker 2: And what is phase two? How do you get to
Speaker 2: phase two?
Speaker 3: So you get through to phase two by meeting basic
Speaker 3: fundamental goals. You're getting a full time tax paying job
Speaker 3: in the community, a phone email address ID if you
Speaker 3: don't already have it, being a sponsor or mentor in
Speaker 3: a twelve step or other recovery fellowship outside of our walls.
Speaker 3: So just the fundamental things that you need to build
Speaker 3: that foundation. So it's about thirty to forty five days
Speaker 3: for most men before they're moving out of that dorm
Speaker 3: and into a private room, that first tangible sign of
Speaker 3: success and progress in their life, that momentum builder really
Speaker 3: is what that room is. But after you move out
Speaker 3: of the dorm, you're never sharing a room again. So
Speaker 3: that experience is really just so that it's earned and
Speaker 3: gives people the motivation to want to keep moving forward
Speaker 3: and making progress.
Speaker 1: I also would imagine, Andrea and you can address this.
Speaker 1: I would also imagine that being in that dormitory setting
Speaker 1: with other men in the exact same place is probably
Speaker 1: helpful just from a peer kind of a peer to
Speaker 1: peer viewpoint.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it was very helpful, right one. They showed
Speaker 4: me how to make my bad right that first day
Speaker 4: when I didn't have the instruction yet. Right, No, guy there,
Speaker 4: would you know if you see somebody the culture really
Speaker 4: is like, if you see someone not doing something right,
Speaker 4: go help them.
Speaker 1: Right, just help them? I mean, I think that's a
Speaker 1: great motto. Then you get to go to the penthouse,
Speaker 1: which is a little more private.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 3: So when you get through the development phase, which is
Speaker 3: really the heavy lift where you're setting smart goals in
Speaker 3: every aspect of your life, it takes about sixty days.
Speaker 3: Your reward for hitting those goals is moving into an
Speaker 3: area that's more apartment style living, more privileges, you can
Speaker 3: have food talk up there. It's just a little bit
Speaker 3: more freedom in that space. And so with every progression
Speaker 3: as you hit those goals, your quality of life is improving,
Speaker 3: and then ultimately you get to move to our sober
Speaker 3: living homes, which are beautiful residences in neighborhoods where you
Speaker 3: have a truly normal life, but within the structured sober
Speaker 3: living environment that we have.
Speaker 1: Let me get one more thing in before we go.
Speaker 1: You guys do a really good job with follow up,
Speaker 1: and you reach out and you talk to former residents,
Speaker 1: find out where they're going.
Speaker 2: What does some of those statistics look.
Speaker 1: Like in terms of how many people you're able to
Speaker 1: reach and how many of them are still sober housed
Speaker 1: and working.
Speaker 3: This is how we keep ourselves accountable and make sure
Speaker 3: that this program is really working and that our men
Speaker 3: are having the successes that we intend. Ultimately, our goal
Speaker 3: is really for them to have sustained sobriety, employment, stable housing,
Speaker 3: and be able to continue everything that they've built at
Speaker 3: step after they leave. So we're following up at eight
Speaker 3: different intervals in the first twelve months after they leave
Speaker 3: our program. Last year, we were able to contact one
Speaker 3: hundred and forty one men in the twelve months after
Speaker 3: they left our program. Of those, eighty five percent were
Speaker 3: still sober, seventy five percent still had full time tax
Speaker 3: paying jobs, and ninety percent were still housed. So the
Speaker 3: outcomes speak for themselves, and those calls are an opportunity
Speaker 3: for us to continue the relationship, continue the peer coaching,
Speaker 3: and provide that assistance in that transition.
Speaker 1: If you want to really help out, you can help
Speaker 1: out today. Yeah, put a link on the blog because
Speaker 1: it is Colorado Gives Day today and there's matching dollars
Speaker 1: on the line. If they hit ten thousand dollars, they
Speaker 1: are going to get a ten thousand dollars match. So
Speaker 1: if you've ever wanted to contribute to a program that
Speaker 1: does three things, Number one, they have a track record
Speaker 1: of success helping a population that is historically very difficult
Speaker 1: to help. Let's be real, this is not the easiest
Speaker 1: population of human beings to help, you know, come back
Speaker 1: from the brink.
Speaker 2: They do it incredibly well.
Speaker 1: They don't take government money because they don't want to
Speaker 1: have to use the government edicts that I think have
Speaker 1: been shown to be a massive failure. And we haven't
Speaker 1: even gotten to how efficiently you guys do this. What
Speaker 1: do you spend per year per man to help a
Speaker 1: man get his life back?
Speaker 3: Last year, our cost per man served was fifty two
Speaker 3: hundred dollars, that's all in, all in cost fifty two
Speaker 3: hundred dollars per man. And while we're investing fifty two
Speaker 3: hundred dollars in these men, they are investing in the
Speaker 3: community by paying taxes, buying goods and services, and having
Speaker 3: their money they're saving sitting in a local bank right
Speaker 3: so that money's being reinjected. We had an over sixteen
Speaker 3: million dollar economic impact on a two point six million
Speaker 3: dollar budget, So your dollars that you donate today will
Speaker 3: stretch as far as they can possibly go. And we
Speaker 3: always talk about you know, who better to invest in
Speaker 3: than those who are willing to invest in themselves.
Speaker 2: Amen to that.
Speaker 1: Megan Shay, the executive director of step Denver Andre with
Speaker 1: a Russian last name that I'll never be able to pronounce.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming in, for sharing your story,
Speaker 1: for continuing to help men.
Speaker 2: Just like you get their lives back.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's nothing better than reminding someone that they
Speaker 1: are important and they matter. And you know, I don't
Speaker 1: care if you believe in God. I believe in God,
Speaker 1: So I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna say it. God thought you were important enough to
Speaker 2: put on this planet. Right. That's great?
Speaker 1: And thank you for reminding people that they matter, because
Speaker 1: I think that's incredibly important. I do have one question here, Hey, Mandy,
Speaker 1: would you ask your guest how many of these men
Speaker 1: have a violent criminal history and are they in regular
Speaker 1: homes and neighborhoods that concern to me?
Speaker 2: What do you do about that?
Speaker 3: So to be qualified to enter our program, you have
Speaker 3: to pass a background screening, and so we are looking
Speaker 3: for patterns of severe violence in someone's background. They are
Speaker 3: not eligible to enter our program if they have severe
Speaker 3: violence in their pay round.
Speaker 2: So that you don't necessarily have to worry about that.
Speaker 3: Reason for that is they're going to need a higher
Speaker 3: level of care, a clinical program that can address the
Speaker 3: anger management issues, and we want to make sure our
Speaker 3: community is safe within our walls.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. I hope that answers the questions. Just go to
Speaker 1: my blog side or go to Colorado GIFs dot org
Speaker 1: search step Denver. I put a link directly today on
Speaker 1: the blog so you can just do that. It's right
Speaker 1: at the top. I would love for you to support
Speaker 1: this organization. They're absolutely incredible. And by the way, I
Speaker 1: offered another tour to someone this password again, so I'm marrier.
Speaker 2: We'll see if she takes me up.
Speaker 3: I'm more than marrier, manthy can I just and I
Speaker 3: also just do a plug for those who might be
Speaker 3: in the Colorado Springs area. We are just getting off
Speaker 3: the ground there, five weeks open now. We've got only
Speaker 3: eleven beds left open and a fifty bed facility.
Speaker 2: So they need is great.
Speaker 3: If you're in the Colorado Springs area, please support STEP
Speaker 3: Springs on Colorado Gives Day. They need your support as well,
Speaker 3: I think, at least to both of them.
Speaker 1: And if you are in the Springs area and you
Speaker 1: are finding yourself in need of help, call Colorado Step
Speaker 1: Colorado Springs.
Speaker 2: They can help you. Yep, they will help you.