Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to Life Reviewed, a podcast by Hope House Colorado, where we invite you into conversation with teenage moms and the people who champion them. These stories of struggle, overcoming and perspective shifts will challenge you to review life as you've known it. One story, one person, one conversation at a time.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Oh, I thought I knew the kind of life that I would lead. Hi there. Welcome back to Life Reviewed. My name is Jenny Macias, and I'm the director of partnerships at Hope House Colorado. I am here today with Colleen Emery. She is our executive director of our Hope House Northern Colorado location up in Greeley and our first ever Hope House affiliate. I am so excited for you all to get to know her today.
But first I thought I'd just share just kind of some background. So when Hope House started, you all have heard a lot of the history of Hope House, but one of our vision was to someday be able to replicate ourselves and to be able to have Hope House all over the world and open different locations. But it took a long time for us to get there. So it's only been a few years that we had our first affiliate, and Colleen almost forced us to be the first affiliate. And so you guys will get to hear that story today. We weren't quite ready. And so for many years, what we would do is people would reach out from different areas of the country and say, hey, oh, my gosh, like, we need a hope house for our teen moms. And they'd come and tour and we'd show them our stuff and just give away, you know, all of our curriculum and just say, you know, good luck. We just share whatever we had, but didn't have anything formal in place to really help support someone, actually be a hope house.
And we just weren't ready yet to start doing that, actually. And now we are in a place where we're kind of starting to build, like, what I like to call Hope House in a box. So for those of you that don't know my role as the director of partnerships, part of that is to, I get to be the one who is really helping to launch and equip new hope houses across the country. And each of our affiliates have their own 501 and their own board of directors. And then I just get to work with these lovely women that are brave enough and following the call of God, calling them to open a hope house where they live to support their teen moms. And so today you get to hear Colleen's story of her becoming our very first affiliate. And she's been amazing and kind of the guinea pig with us. And when she started, we're like, we'll do this, but we're kind of gonna be building the plane while we're flying it, so if you're okay with that, we're gonna just all do it together. And it's been an incredible journey. So, Colleen, welcome.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Thank you. It's an honor to be here, and I'm really excited to kind of look back at some of the steps of how we got here. So I am super excited about this.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Me, too. Me, too. So, for everyone listening, I think it'd be really fun for them to just get to know you a little bit. So give us a little bit of background on you.
Who's Colleen? Where'd she come from? How did we get here?
[00:03:22] Speaker A: So, I'm originally from the Chicago area. I was raised there. I have four sisters and a brother, so I came from a fairly big family, and, yeah, went to University of Illinois, met my husband there, and we got married 1991, and I knew I wanted to be a mom, and we started a family right away. And I always. I had three kids under three at one point, and I always say I don't really remember the nineties.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: But, yeah, I was really fortunate to be able to stay home with my kiddos till they turned about five, and then I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.
I had a degree in English, but knew I didn't really want to do anything with that. But I always loved doing hair, and so once my kids went to school, I went to hair school, and I got my cosmetology license and started doing that. And I had three choices that I was looking at. Like, I liked pharmaceutical sales, but that would take me away from my family territory wise.
I thought public speaking would be fun, but I had nothing to say.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: So back then, you did not.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: I did not.
And so cosmetology was kind of what I fell into for the next probably 1215 years. And oddly enough, my training in that led me to some public speaking classes. So that was pretty cool to see how God was. Like, he knew some of my desires and wove them in a little bit.
So, yeah, so I did that for a number of years, and it was kind of toward. As I was doing it, my husband and I had really been involved with young life quite a bit. Before our kids were born, we were leaders. Once our kids were born, we served on different boards in different states, and once our kids got to be the age of where they could do young life, that's something that John and I decided to step back because it's not cool to do the things that your parents are doing.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Don't want your parent to be your young life leader. And maybe we could back up for our listeners who maybe don't know what young life is. You could tell them what that is.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Yeah. So young life is a ministry that reaches kind of non churched kids.
So, yeah, that's how my husband became a Christian, was through young life. And so it was a special place in my heart and his heart, and just meeting kids where they're at on their turf, on their territory, and just kind of presenting the authentic person of Jesus through interaction and through story.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: So many fun things with all those teenagers, too.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: For sure. For sure.
So, yeah, we took a step back. And then once my kids started to flee the nest, I was invited to a new kind of sector of young life called young lives, and that was a teen mom ministry. And so somebody had invited me to come. They were kicking it off their very first club, that's what they call the meetings is club. And they were kicking it off with a spa day for these young moms. And they reached out to me, knowing I did hair and the like, could you come and just be a part of this? And now I look back and I think it was a ploy to reel me back into leadership there. But it was so fun connecting with these young moms who were excited to have their children, and you could tell how much they loved them and were happy to be a part of a support system. Right.
So shortly after that, the gal that led it was like, you need to be a leader again.
You know, I kind of had the bandwidth at that point, so I said, sure. So I was a leader for young lives, for, gosh, I want to say about four years, maybe. Okay. And then John's job called us to just a different chapter. So we left Colorado for about two years and went to California and eventually overseas, thinking we would never be back here.
And then circumstance had it that we came back to the area and I left my career. I had given my clients away. I was ready to be done with hair. Yeah, with hair styling and all that. And I came back to serving young lives. And some of my teen moms were on their second babies, but there was no improvement in their economic state, and it got me worried for them.
And I thought about what we could do through young lives, and I was assured that we were just a relationship. We're not there for a resource. And that did not sit well with me. At all, because they needed so much more. They needed, like, comprehensive help in so many areas. And so I just didn't know what to do. And coming back to Colorado, I wasn't working, and just kind of felt like, God, what am I supposed to be doing at this point in my life? So I'm sitting in church one day, and the sermon was about women in the Bible who changed the course of history were queens, and some were prostitutes. And thinking about my own life and how does God want to use me right now? And I began to think of our teen moms, and I thought, gosh, what could God do? What purpose could he have for them if they could get out from underneath all of the weight and the barriers? So many of them lived in kind of generational poverty, lacked resources. And I thought, if they could get out from under that, what purpose would God have for their lives? And just thinking about that moment, I just felt a voice say, you need to start a teen mom home. And all I can say for people listening out there, I know it sounds corny, but there is something about hearing a voice, and then all of a sudden, your heart and your soul connect in that moment that is completely overwhelming. I know I started crying in church, and my husband's like, are you okay? What is wrong?
So I just. I knew something was profound was happening. And I went home that day feeling really overwhelmed at the call. Cause I'm like, surely he wasn't talking to me. He must have been talking to the lady in the row behind.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that's an overwhelming calling. Like, you want me to do what? God?
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Well, and I'm just a hairstylist, right?
So I went home, and the next day, I met with somebody on my team. We put butcher paper on the wall and just started putting up post it notes about ways we felt we could come around teen moms to get them to self sufficiency. So, sticky notes that had, like, counseling on it, ged, further education, healthy relationships, all kinds of different things.
And then underneath each one of those, who do we know that could help us get to there?
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Like, who in the community or resources? Yep.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So once it was on the wall, I was like, okay, okay, I can see this, maybe how I could do this. And I think it was two days later. Another one of our leaders said, does anybody want to tour hope house? And I didn't want to look stupid, so I said, well, let me get back to you on that. And then I went home and, like, googled, what is hope? What is Hope House? Yes. My friend Denise Staleye. And so I think within the week, so we're talking ten days from when I felt this calling that I was walking through kind of the old community resource center.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yep. Old warehouse resource center in Westminster.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Yes.
And you guys were so great because as we toured, everybody would stop to meet us, and they would say, this is so and so, our legal advocate. And I thought, oh, she's a sticky note on my wall. And, you know, this is Ashley. She does ged. And I was like, oh, she's a sticky note on my wall. And all of a sudden, this went on and on, and I was realizing, God is showing me something again, another profound moment. And I never thought to put it under one roof, Jenny. And I was like, it has to be. It has to be under one roof, because kids in this generation are not gonna, you know, if you give them, hey, go reach out to this counselor. Here's her number or his number. Nope, nope. Not at all.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Too scary. Transportation's a barrier. There's so many things, right? And, like, they want. They know you. They have their trusted person 100%.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: So I realized they needed those. That building of relationship and trust.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: And so that's what a great revelation was to me that day.
You know me, I'm rarely speechless, but I walked out of there and I was like, wow, I want this. And I felt like, we don't have time to reinvent the wheel.
We had just had a teen mom kind of commit suicide in front of her kid.
And when I say, like, we just don't have the time, we don't have the time to mess up because lives are at stake. That's not hyperbole. That is actually true. And so I was thinking about this for probably another month or so. And during that time, I had friends from out of town. Their daughter was here at school for the first time away from home and said, could you meet with her just to have a taste of home or whatever, a friend. So I said, sure. And I'm driving down from Fort Collins to Denver. And on my drive, I was thinking to myself, the to do list, right? Like, what do I have to do? I thought, I need to reach out to Hope House to see if I can get a lunch with their executive director.
I also was thinking, hey, I think I need to reach out to Terry Laprino. And she had served regionally for young life just to see if maybe young life might. I want to be a part of this building of the community resources or a home for teen moms. So, you know, all the things that you're thinking when you drive. And so I walk into this restaurant, and I meet with our friend's daughter, and we had a great lunch. And as I'm walking out, I see Terry Laprino.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: Like, what?
[00:14:35] Speaker A: She says, what are you doing down here? I was like, oh, my gosh, this is so weird. And told her about, like, literally just.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Thinking about you, thinking about you.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: And she said, oh, really? Why? And so I said, you know, I want to do this thing. And she said, well, young life really can't be a part of that. But she said, do you know Lisa, Steven? And I don't think I knew Lisa's name at that point. And she goes, she does hope house down here. And I go.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: And you're like, I did.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: I go, that was also the other person I was thinking about on the way down here. She said, well, do you know her? I said, I don't. She goes, do you want her number?
I just was like, okay, God.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: So this was. That must have happened before you did the tour, then at the resource center.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: No, I did the tour. And that's when I was like, okay, I really want to.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: At least I didn't give you the tour.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: No.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Who gave you the tour? Do you remember?
[00:15:27] Speaker A: I think you did, Jenny.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Because I remember.
I don't think I gave you the tour, but I remember meeting you, and that could be. I remember, like, stopping and, like, you sharing that you guys were, like, a part of young lives, and you just have this energy that feels like Hope house, which is, of course, why you're our first affiliate.
But I just remember feeling like that chick's gonna be around.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Well, little did you know at the time how pesty I can be.
So I, in fact, did. And it was just fun to see God planting those seeds everywhere, because I was really overwhelmed at the call, and it just was reinforcing.
I'm here for you. I'm gonna go before you stand beside you.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: It's crazy how God does that when you need it, right? You're feeling overwhelmed, and then there's these little moments of, like, I'm in this with you.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: So cool.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: So, yeah, I ended up calling Lisa. We met for lunch and just told her, like, kind of my background with young lives, and I'm seeing these gaps that, you know, really need to be filled by the community to help our teen moms. And I said, so really, I guess what I'm asking is, I want to be your first affiliate. I just blurted out right at the end of our lunch, and she said, well, we've talked about it, but I don't think we're quite ready. And I said, I don't think I'm quite ready. And one thing that I love about Hope House is you guys are so generous with your time and with your resources. In other words, you don't hold everything so close. Proprietary. Everything.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: You know, and you're like, come down if you want to come to our meetings or know how we fundraise or. So I took advantage of all of that, I think. So for the next year, I was just, I'm sure the staff was like, who is this lady that keeps showing up? We don't know who she is.
So it was, yeah, it was just fun to sit and learn about generational poverty, about what your programming offers and why you offer it, and we do what we do.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Take it all in.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I always felt like, it felt like hope House academy for me.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: And it was probably, I looked on my calendar. It was almost a year to the day from when I met Lisa for lunch and asked for that affiliation to when I got a call from her, and she had just been at a board meeting, and I was sitting in my family room with my board. I didn't know she had a board meeting. She didn't know I had a board meeting. And she called in the middle, and she said, I have some exciting news. And I said, well, I'm in the middle of a board meeting.
Should I put you on speakerphone? She said, oh, my gosh, this is perfect. And so she announced to our board that we received, like, a unanimous vote to be the first affiliate.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: And it was such an incredible celebration and. And how beautiful that God timed it so we could all celebrate together.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: I will never forget that phone call. We were all, like, wrapping up our board meeting and. Yeah. And couldn't wait to call you. And, you know, we always, like, ring the gong to celebrate things at Hope House for our moms or just hope house in general. And then you guys have your cowbell, which is so appropriate for Greeley. And so for both boards to just be, like, ringing our gong and cowbell to celebrate this, it's so weird. Momentous thing.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: Yeah. When we were overseas, we were actually in Zurich, Switzerland, and I loved going to their kind of antique little things, and the cows there wear these enormous collars. They're like, these huge leather collars with these huge bells. I'm like, I think those are cool. I'm going to get one. Little did I know that that would be our celebratory hope house.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: That's like your gong.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: That's my gong for Weld county. Yeah. So it's just kind of cool stories that God planted all these things long ago because he knew what would be about to come.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Yep, absolutely. Absolutely.
So we're going to take a short break, and when we come back, we're going to learn more about what happened after Hope House approved for Colleen and her board to move forward and be our very first affiliate.
[00:20:09] Speaker C: Hi, everyone, it's Celeste, development coordinator at Hope House Colorado. We have an awesome group of 233 champions called our bedrock builders who donate monthly gifts and we would love for you to join. This group is super special to our moms because it provides them stable support through an income stream that they know they can always count on. If you'd like to become a monthly donor, please visit visit hopehousecolorado.org. donate now and make your recurring donation today. Thank you so much for empowering our teen moms.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: All right, welcome back, everyone.
I want us to move on now and just chat a little bit. Now, what has happened since Colleen, she just shared this amazing story about herself and following this calling, which is so cool. And I think when God gives you a calling, it can feel terrifying and also kind of make you feel like, really me? Like, I don't know God. Like, I'm just. I'm just a hairdresser. Or, you know, if you've listened to the podcast before with Lisa Steven, she's like, I'm just like, I just run a daycare out of my home. Like, or I just worked at Jay Z Benny, like, really me? God, are you sure it's not somebody else?
And so it's really brave when people follow that call. And Colleen is so amazing for doing that. And I think the thing that, where you see these miracles happen is you truly do have to walk with God and trust. And I love that verse. I think it's in Corinthians. It's like God equips the called and you followed that calling and he's continued to equip you. And it's been so fun to watch you along this journey and learning all these new skills and getting to work out of your strengths, but also learn these new things. 100% equipped you to do it and do it very, very well and provided all the resources that you needed. So, okay, so after our amazing night of both boards celebrating the same time, talk about what's been happening.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Hope pass, northern Colorado.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: So for that year, training here, you know, I knew that we might not get a affiliation. So I kept trying to come up with different names because I didn't want to take the name, especially in this close proximity, that would be too confusing to people. So I would go to Lisa, and I'd be like, what about if we called ourselves the lighthouse? She's like, no, I don't like that. And then I would say something else. She's like, no, I don't like that. And I go, okay, then you guys are going to have to give us affiliation so we can be hope house.
So once we got that, we filed for our 501, and it would took a long time.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: It does take a long time.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: March had hit of 2020. We still hadn't received it. And the pandemic hit well.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: And you were planning on opening a house to start.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Correct. We had started little fundraisers here and there for, you know, just with family and friends to raise funds for residential.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: And so when we didn't get the 501 C three as quick as I thought, I thought. And then Covid hit. I thought, this is gonna be, you know, this is the government, you know, is gonna be slowing down and.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: Right. So I'm running a house. During COVID the residential program during COVID was hard.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: So, yeah, but, like, how do we pivot and still serve our girls in our community? Right, right.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: So we ended up receiving that in April. So it wasn't too much long after that, but we, you know, we had a chunk of money, but we had really girls that were struggling. Their daycares were closing. They couldn't go to work. They were falling behind on rent. And so we, as a board, decided to pivot at that point and said, okay, it feels kind of not great to have this money and not be able to serve them. So we pivoted more to a community program right away. And really 2020 was just about stabilizing those girls, getting them what they needed so that they could just be good parents to their kiddos. And then it was 2021, and we're like, okay, now, actually, this is a program that you have to engage in.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: And I just delivering stuff to you, correct?
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Yeah. So we hadn't had a location yet, so we started doing classes out of churches, some parenting classes, and just that relationship building, which everything is foundational for when we're working with our teen moms. And I think it was September. September 1 might have been our grand opening of our office space. And so we really shifted, and we started a community program.
And ever since then, we've just been adding new programming every single year.
Started off parenting classes, then it went to healthy relationships classes. We've been doing direct assistance for the girls the whole time, all the way up to now, where we just started offering the assessments of our kiddos to make sure that they are. Yes, the asqs, just to make sure they're on par for developmental milestones. And if they're not, we can get those interventions really early so that they can be on par by kindergarten. Right?
[00:25:24] Speaker B: Right. Yeah.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: So, yeah. So last year we served 25 girls and 34 kiddos, which is awesome. Yeah. And just in the past few months, we've had about ten girls apply, so. Yay.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: So it's like a snowball. Like, once the moms are the best recruiters, right? So, like, once you have enough moms engaged in your program, then they are excited to tell any teen mom friends that they meet or any mom that they meet that's a teen mom, they.
[00:25:53] Speaker A: Like to tell you about hope, and you gotta be ready for it. So that's where our panic has been a little bit this year is I'm full time and I have two part time staff. One helps on the development side, one does the program side. So we really have needed some help, and I'm super excited to have hired another gal that's gonna start at the end of the month to really help fill those gaps, because it's just a lot. And we're so grateful that the girls feel like they can come and be who they are, and it's a place like they can belong and be who they are with one another.
Because I think in the world, you know, we put on so many different hats for so many different people or groups of people, and I just want hope house to be a place that they can come and be genuine and authentically who they are as teen moms with other teen moms. So it has. Has been like quite a journey to get here. And I always said if God had given me a blueprint that day in church, I for sure would have said, no, no way.
But I've learned to just follow the breadcrumb in front of you. That's all he's asking. Yeah, that's good. You know, just follow that one and then the next one, and then the next one. Because I think I. I think when God calls you to do something, it can feel incredibly overwhelming, especially if you have a vision for something and you want to jump to that immediately. And really, the journey is in how you get there, and the blessing is really in how you get there. Right? Like all these little stories all these.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Little God stories of how we got here is so cool.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: Yeah. That's why I love Lisa's new book, a place to belong. Just had so many of those God moments in her journey. And at first I was like, I didn't have those big ones. And then I started looking back, I'm like, yes, you did.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Yeah, you did.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Yes, you did.
So it was really exciting to kind of.
That book is so inspiring. And then it made me look back on my own journey and how we got here and how I just know that there are people right now God's putting in place for those future affiliations and the encouragement that they're going to need and all of that. But to your point, Jenny, there are things as you start something that are gonna fall outside of your gifting.
For me, those are numbers like budgets. And me, too.
[00:28:30] Speaker B: Me, too.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: That is not my strength. But it's beautiful to see a community that's willing to come alongside you who are gifted in those areas and love doing it, which I cannot wrap my head around.
But I will say, I think the ability to have gotten where I am, so much of it lies with my husband. I hope you don't get emotional.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: I love John. He's just, like, the best man ever. He's so great.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: It's a really hard journey. So if you don't have someone there to really support you and encourage you along the way, totally, it can be really lonely. And a lot of eds have said that, you know, part of me thinks when we met in college, like, you know, God can see the span of our life, and it's almost like he picked not only the partner to be the father of my children, but also somebody that would need to be by my side as we live out this calling as well. And just what an integral part he has been in this as well, because, you know, and I'm sure Lisa Steven would say the same thing. It was her calling. But John has been such an incredible part of this journey with her, as my John has been to me. So the other thing I would say about the journey of starting something, I just wanted to help teen moms, right? Like, I just saw the gap, and they're so young, they don't know how to navigate the systems.
You want so much promise for their life so that they can really flourish and bloom to be who God wants them to be.
But what I did not expect is to have a wider community, whether that's your donors, community partners, see what God is doing. It's almost a ministry to the community.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: And again, if I had had a blueprint that that's what was going to.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: Be happening, not just the moms, you're also going to be transforming the lives of all these people in the community. Community that are touched by.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that might have been moms and.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: How incredible they are.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that might have been a hard pass, but this is why God just gives you pieces at a time and. But it is a privilege to be able to walk not only alongside our teen moms, but alongside community members and just donors and care for them when, you know, tragic things happen in their lives. And Hope House can reach out to be like, hey, we're praying for you, you know, we're here, and if you need anything. And so I think that's one of the more beautiful things that was unexpected in this journey for me.
So I guess what I'm trying to say, jenny, is, you know, when you say yes to something, it goes far beyond what you think it's going to look like.
[00:31:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
So for people listening, I wanna also just kinda paint a picture colleen talked about. They got this space up in Greeley. Cause that's something that we really want for our affiliates is we want all of our hope house moms to have a place to belong.
And so we have our resource center down here. And I love any time I go up to Greeley to this resource center that colleen has for Hope House, northern Colorado, it's like a mini version of ours. It has all the same things. It's so welcoming and friendly when you walk in the building, which is so important. Right? We want. We want moms to know that, like, you deserve this beautiful space that you get to be in. And we want you to feel safe and loved whenever you are at any Hope house, wherever that is. And Colleen and her team have done a good job of that. But also, like, her and her team are so loving and welcoming, and we're so, so, so picky about who gets to be on staff and a part of Hope House, whether you're an affiliate or not. We have the same kind of expectations of, you love teen moms the same way that we do. And Colleen and her team embody that fully. And it's been fun watching you guys grow and just seeing more and more of the community come together. And it's so encouraging to hear that just recently you have, like, ten new moms. Like, ten new moms recently. That's a lot.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: It's a lot.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: That's a lot for you guys. When you think of you served 25 last year. And to have that many. Yes. I'm so glad you're getting more staff and you get to just touch more lives, and that's going to continue to just snowball and grow.
I know one thing that you and your board have been talking about is also going back and having conversations about, do we still want to keep pursuing a residential program, knowing that housing is still a need for our moms, and do we want to keep exploring that? Are you guys still talking about that and having those conversations?
[00:33:28] Speaker A: We are. 2023 was kind of a rough year for a handful of our girls with housing, and it really weighs heavily on myself, on the staff. When someone calls and I've been evicted, I have nowhere to go, and we can't help them. You know, housing lists are so long, and the waitlist is long, and we're trying to exhaust resources, and every community is trying to address the affordable housing issue across the state, across the country, but it weighs heavily when we know a mom and her kid are in the car and. Which can sometimes be considered housed in a car, which is ridiculous.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: It is ridiculous.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
So I just was like, we really need to relook at when we're gonna do this and the feasibility and the timing, because that is the most expensive piece of any hope house is a residential. So we would essentially be tripling our budget easily by this.
So, you know, do we have the support of our community, of foundations, of funders, to be able to do this and, you know, have a good group of people that can determine whether that feasibility is probable?
[00:34:45] Speaker B: Is this the right time?
[00:34:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So we're just in the beginning stages of that. Wish we were further along, but I do know everything is in God's timing. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew and really have it be a financial burden for the entirety of Hope House. Right, right. I don't want to jeopardize what we've built up to this point.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: And you don't want to jeopardize the care that you give to your current moms you're serving, too. Right. That's always a consideration.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: Right. So I think, to date, we're the first ones. We're the only ones that have started with a community wide program. I know the other affiliates have started residential, and so, yeah, I just have to be patient. I think being an affiliate of Hope House is such a blessing. You know, we can get to glean the programming and kind of some curriculums and just being able to call up Jenny and be like, jenny, we have this girl. I don't know what to do, you know, and just that consultation is so important, but it can be a curse, too, because we see the model, the success and everything that you guys offer, and we're like, we want to do that, too, but we're just have to build financially to get there. Right, right.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: So we've been around for 20 years. I know we started with, like, just humble little beginnings and you're only a couple years in, so.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Yes, I. And that's the hard part. Right. Like, but you just see the need.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: Yeah. You wish you had it. Like, could leave a magic wand and give them everything that they need to.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: But we, you know, we got to trust God's timing and everything, too, so.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So before we close out, I have one last question for Colleen, but I thought I'd also share what's happening with Hope House and affiliates right now. So we currently have three affiliates. So you got to hear all about Colleen and our first affiliate up in Hope House, northern Colorado. We also have a Hope House residential location that is Canyon City, Colorado, down there. So if there's any moms listening that are looking for housing and you're in like, southern Colorado area near Canyon City, we would love to get you connected to them. We are also in the process of opening our first affiliate out of the state in Orange County, California, and they are hoping to open a residential Hope house program out there. So, very exciting. We also have a very ambitious goal of ten affiliates within the next two years. So we've just recently hired a consultant to help us build our kind of like, roadmap to expansion because we're a little bit like, you know, Hope House. When we do something, we want to do it well. And the three women that have come to us asking to be affiliates, Colleen included, were people that came and sought us out, and I told them the same thing, like, well, you feel like Hope House. We have this whole vetting process to become an affiliate and we want them to be on board, but also they knew that they were signing up for or just like Colleen, we're going to build the plane while we're flying it, and you get to be a part of the building process with us and helping provide feedback. And Colleen's been so helpful in that as we're building what I like to call, like, hope House in a box. And so we're hoping by the end of the year to have some more of a formal process of what all do we need to do the do expansion. Well, and then maybe start going out and recruiting affiliates all over the country where we know there's teen moms out there that really could benefit from what we do. So that's the update on where we're, what's happening with expansion world at Hope House. But, Colleen, just to close us out as our first affiliate, you've learned so much and there's been ups and downs, and it's been quite the journey for you. What advice would you have for anyone who might be listening who is thinking about becoming a Hope house affiliate?
[00:38:42] Speaker A: I. Yeah, I think when you're contemplating a yes with God, don't take into account your ability.
Don't look at the end game right off the bat.
Obviously, he's given you a vision for something. Right.
But I honestly think he chooses those that might not be equipped because I think our dependence then lies more closely with him. I wonder if I had, you know, had a career in nonprofit or something, maybe my arrogance would have led the, led the way, my arrogance and experience as opposed to what am I doing? I am so not equipped for this. And then your reliance on God is a little heavier, and I think he wants that.
So don't ever think that you can't do it and just know right off the bat there are days where you feel like you're failing, but I think it's just God stretching you and molding you in ways. And I have to say, when I started this, because I started this when I was, like, 48 or something, I was like, I'm too old to be stretched like this, but we always have room to grow and learn to. And so somebody asked me recently, if you were to have written a book, what the title would be, and, you know, what would it be about? I said, I don't think it would be so much about Hope House as much as the journey to get here. And it would be the unassuming yes, because I said yes. But I love that I am the most unassuming person for the job. Right. Same with Lisa, Steven? Yeah, I love them. And God can use anybody.
But, yeah, your reliance on him is, I think, what he wants. And when you're in those positions of vulnerability, you do rely on him, but there's so much to be gained.
It will stretch you emotionally, physically. Sometimes when you start up something, it's long hours and whatnot.
But knowing that you have made an effect on people's lives and then the greater community can see what God is doing through Hope House and through these teen moms is just such an incredible gift, truly.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Yes. Agreed. Agreed. So if there are moms listening that live up in northern Colorado, how do they get plugged in and connected with you?
[00:41:22] Speaker A: Absolutely. So you can go on our website, which is Hope House, Northern Cove, and right on that homepage you're going to see apply here and just click on that. That'll capture some general information. We try to get back to you in 24 hours and then we just kind of go from there. We'll meet with you. We'll kind of give you a little snapshot of what we're able to do and how we can help. And then it just starts the relationship. Right. So very easy.
You know, you can also call, but we're going to end up saying go on the website anyway so we can have that information.
But if you're out there, I know. It is so hard to ask for help when you're a teen mom because you've had so many voices tell you you can't do it and you want to do it on your own, like you want to prove all of them wrong.
But we would be honored to come alongside you and help you in any way we can. And sometimes the hardest part of this journey is just reaching out that first time. So if you're listening, I encourage you. Yeah. Just make the call and then you can decide for yourself if it's something that you want to be a part of, if you're ready for it. Or maybe you just need a little bit more time before you're ready to jump in. But we would love to have that conversation.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:46] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Good. Well, Colleen, I love, love, love that I get to work with you. It's always fun, always fun chatting with you. And I just admire you and look up to you for being so brave and following the call. And thank you.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: Feeling is mutual. Thanks, Jenny.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: Thanks for being here today.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: You bet.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: Thanks for listening, everyone. Have a great day.
You, o precious soul. The things I didn't know.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: The things I didn't know about you, about.
