Hello Friends and Community,
We are wrapping up an eventful year! Marking our first full year in operations.
I was thinking back to this time last year. We were just starting the first camping heaters drive for the residents at Zuni refugee camp. Zuni camp had formed behind a migrant hotel downtown. As migrants were being discharged from the shelter they would move directly onto the street and into tents.
It was so cold and they were so under prepared from such a different climate. First order of business was to figure out how to keep people warm while living on the street. There were kids living in the tents to make matters worse.
We researched and found heaters that would be safe and functional in a tent. In fact, they even made such a thing as a camping specific heater! At first, there was significant push back. Heaters in tents? “They will catch fire.” “The campers will light themselves on fire accidentally.” Yet freezing night after night had become acceptable? No. These people deserve a warm nights sleep at the bare minimum.
We were successfully able to raise enough donated heaters to get most tents at Zuni and the newly formed Pecos refugee camp with a working heater in each tent and ongoing propane supplies. There were close to 500 campers between Zuni and Pecos camp.
That camp was closed and swept by the City in early January. As that camp was swept several smaller camps formed. We were alerted to residents camping in a tunnel near Tower Rd. What started as 16 campers quickly grew to 30 tents.
Soon the tunnel had a working kitchen tent. Complete with a stove, dish washing station and daily deliveries of food thanks to an All Souls and My Mother’s Kitchen collaboration.
As one would imagine, that camp was quickly spotted by park officials and we were given a 24 hour notice to move. At this point many children were among the camp residents.
We rallied a group of volunteers and moved the camp, in the night, to a location further up on Tower Road.
The camp grew exponentially every day. We would see individuals walking from other places with mattresses and chairs. Moving from individual camp sites to our community of campers. Where they were camping alone, cold and hungry before now they could be warm and be fed. Both physically and emotionally, we would soon come to see.
The kitchen was the heart of the camp. The campers were so happy to have food from home they could cook for themselves. It ignited a new sense of freedom and hope for the future.
One week into that camp, the mayor’s team arrived in close to 30 white undercover cars. They checked campers health briefly and left a 3 day notice to vacate.
This would be our fifth sweep in two months. We were tired, overwhelmed and broken hearted. We took our time regrouping. By this time both my entire basement and two car garage were filled with camp equipment and donations for campers.
We knew we had to find an official space for our operations.
About that time a special camper came our way who was in need of a spot to camp after being swept from many other camps. He didn’t want to be alone. Within a day we found two other men who needed to camp and thus started our largest and final camp - The Central Park Camp.
Tucked away under a large bridge, next to the train tracks our camp took root. Soon like we had seen in previous camps the camp quickly grew. But this type of growth was new. Not only did we have those being evicted for time stays at local migrant hotels, we had those now being evicted from apartments they could not afford.
We soon had two kitchen tents, a shower tent, a toilet, and the start of laundry operations.
Every day we would be tasked with filling propane bottles for camping heaters (50-75 per day). Food was delivered daily, and we strived to give everyone three nourishing meals a day.
We had lots and lots of kids to keep fed and safe. We had a lot of trash we had to figure out what to do with. We were helping keep cars out of impoundment so guys could work the next day. Comforting mothers and children whose fathers had been taken by immigration. Dealing with the chicken pox outbreak - a new illness for this population group, was a challenge. We had good days and bad days.
We kept hope alive as best we could every day.
We were the camper's guardians and any need they would have they would look to us for help with.
Working in the camps and so close to migrants allowed us to understand their needs and develop services around those needs.
Soon we found home for our organization and operations on Welton street in the middle of Five Points. It became the hub where everything was gathered and organized to take to camp.
We got a system down for getting camper needs by labeling bags with tent numbers. Clothes, shoes, hygiene items, blankets, plastic, tent heaters, propane. Campers placed orders and we would deliver to their tent the next day.
The community was so kind and supportive. Donated goods and foods were all going out as fast as we got them in.
6 weeks into camp we got the news we knew we would receive at some point - we were being swept. Thankfully the railroad gave us 2 weeks to organize and move.
Yet campers did not want to go. They had found comfort, finally a break from a never ending cycle of moving. They had created community. The moms had formed a mom group. Sweeping the camp meant destruction.
This was by far the hardest and most traumatic of the sweeps. There were buses, the health department, activist groups, the swarming press. Moms hung on us and cried. Parts of the camp tried to move only to be chased down by cops and the mayor's office.
We could no longer endure the trauma of camp sweeps so we turned inward. We adapted.
To Welton Street we went. Instead of simply storing items at our center, we built up.
We created a robust food bank and community closet that would soon include baby items and small furnishings, home decor and kitchen items, hygiene items, over the counter meds and camping supplies.
We started regular outreach to the people living on the street by the office. So many were just living and laying on the pavement. We felt humbled and overwhelmed by how great the need was within our city. Food, camping supplies, clothes and hugs became our regular weekly routine.
From our opening in June we have consistently serviced 150-200 underserved individuals per week. 90% of which are migrant populations. 50% of which are children.
We realized the great need for small business development within this population group.
With our founder's years of experience in small business and accounting we realized we could easily teach migrants what we had years of experience doing.
We created the migrants LLC small business startup and sponsorship program where we taught migrants as well as their American supporters on how to set up legal small business businesses in the state of Colorado so that migrants could start working and earning money legally. Today we’ve had over 1000 people complete that program.
As we begin looking forward to this next year and the present administration change, we know our work will again change. Due to our time spent with the underserved populations of Denver, we know how to adapt.
In January, we will primarily focus on outreach events instead of having communities at our center. We cannot and will not put families in danger of becoming a target for ICE. We are staying as up to date as possible on all current events in Colorado as well as the rest of the United States. We will always put the safety of those we serve above all else.
We will be here. We will do everything we can to serve those who need it most.
We hope to serve several hundred at these outreach events.
We will also focus time on continuing to help the people who live on the street around our outreach center. These people desperately need food, tents, camping heaters and propane as we move into the coldest months of the year.
At our core our founding principles will continue to guide us. We focus on those that are most overlooked. Those that most don’t think matter. Very often these individuals are at their lowest or a most trying part of their lives. We will continue to meet the most basic needs of these people while being with them in their time of need.
We are able to offer a little bit of hope and a whole lot of love to those who need it most.
You are the ones who make our work possible. We thank you for continuing to support our efforts. Today, you can make an immediate impact to our operations.
It's Colorado Gives Day. A day we invite you to show Colorado that we care about the communities that some find it so easy to ignore.
Every single penny counts. Every single one. If you can donate even just $5, you keep us going. You help us show this city that All Souls Matter.
Thank you, for everything.
-Candice Marley and the team at All Souls Denver
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