Dear Friends,
Jesus loves kids. When He was on earth, He blessed children, He pointed to them as examples of what our faith should look like, and He issued stern warnings toward anyone who would harm a child.
We know that homelessness is increasing significantly in Colorado and around the country. HUD found that overall homelessness increased 18 percent last year in America. In the 2022-23 school year, 1.4 million school-aged children experienced homelessness at least once during the year. Nearly 50 percent were chronically absent from school. We also know that across the nation, at least 43 percent of adults who are homeless first experienced homelessness as a child.
These statistics are alarming! If we let them, they could demoralize us. However, our God is bigger than any of these statistics. At DRM we believe that through the power of Christ, together, we can turn things around for children, families and others experiencing homelessness.
In this newsletter you will read a story of one family we were able to help. This story is repeated with so many other families throughout the year. As we move further into 2025, we are moving forward with plans to launch Prevention Programs in Denver and Fort Collins. The Prevention Program will seek to help families with children who are still housed but about to become homeless, stay housed. Frankly, it is far less expensive to help a family stay housed and become stable than it is to help them leave homelessness once they have entered in.
We also know that helping to stabilize the family and prevent them from becoming homeless helps the children. They get to stay in their own school, neighborhood and community.
For families who do enter into homelessness, at The Crossing we have special age-appropriate rooms designed for kids from zero to 18 with staff trained in helping them grow, develop and simply be a kid in the middle of the family crisis. At any given time, we are serving between 40 to 50 kids from our Emergency Family Shelter and Bridge program.
We could not do this without your faithful prayers and financial support. At DRM we love and serve families and kids because Jesus did the same. Thank you for making our work possible and partnering with us to change the world, one life at a time.
Grace and peace,
Dennis Van Kampen
President/CEO
This post is part of May’s Changing Lives Newsletter. This month, we’re sharing how the Bridge program gave Kalina and Danny’s family a way out of an eviction as well as tools to rebuild their lives in: For Our Children.
