Grant will support unsheltered community in Pitkin County and across the region
PITKIN COUNTY, COLO. (June 27, 2023) - A collaborative supported by Pitkin County Human Services that includes Recovery Resources will receive a $2,743,690 grant to ensure everyone has a safe and stable place to live and thrive. Recovery Resources is a nonprofit that has been helping the unsheltered community in Pitkin County since 2016. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) through the Division of Housing awarded the grant to West Mountain Regional Health Alliance to support the Valley Alliance to End Homelessness (VAEH), a regional homeless response system collaborative. These dollars will be subcontracted throughout the region to partners in the collaborative including Eagle County Homeless Services, Catholic Charities of the Western Slope, Mind Springs Health, Recovery Resources, and Salvation Army.
The West Mountain Regional Health Alliance serves as the backbone and coordinating organization for VAEH, supporting and strengthening the region’s services including: a continuum of care, an array of prevention, shelter, re-housing, and supportive housing services intended to make homelessness rare, brief, and a one-time occurrence.
The funding from the Transformational Homelessness Response Grant Program will support VAEH’s homelessness response organizations and continue to strengthen the regional service delivery system for our friends and neighbors experiencing homelessness. This award represents the second largest grant amount in Colorado for the first round of the Transformational Homelessness Grant Program.
“We believe we can end homelessness as long as our community works collaboratively.” said Janelle Duhon, executive director for Recovery Resources. “Recovery Resources is one organization out of many in the Roaring Fork Valley that is working towards ending homelessness. We are excited to be a part of the award of $2,743,690 for the Valley Alliance to End Homelessness (VAEH) in Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin Counties.”
Recovery Resources provides case management services to the area’s unsheltered community. They were awarded the contract to provide this service through Emergency Solutions Grant funding, which led to building an unsheltered program that is headquartered at the Pitkin County Human Services building in Aspen. Recovery Resources also runs a Street Outreach Team, Emergency Shelter, Rapid Rehousing services, and The Resilience Center.
The Valley Alliance to End Homelessness regional collaborative institutionalizes best practices in three areas: policy and procedure development, strategic planning and consolidated regional funding to achieve a sustainable regional response for ending homelessness. The recent grant will provide up to three years of collaborative funding to expand the continuum of care for the region to transform homelessness response and most importantly house more families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
Media contact: Janelle Duhon, Executive Director Recovery Resources, janelle@recoveryresourcescolorado.org, 307-231-6704