(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Along NorthPark Drive in Colorado Springs, a building is under construction. A saw is cutting plywood; a construction worker is installing the frame for a light as the foundation for a new place for hope continues along.
“We are in the final stage of construction,” said Meghan Shay, the Executive Director of STEP. “This has been a two-year journey since we began fundraising for the project.”
Courtesy: FOX21’s Hunter Phipps
It comes as both the Family Hope Center and Springs Rescue Mission in Colorado Springs have either made or are looking into cuts to make up for less funding for the services they provide.
“We do not take government funding, this project was entirely funded through private support and fundraising,” Shay said. “We’ve just completed a $6.5 million dollar capital campaign, and we are starting STEP Springs with no debt and looking to the community to help fund the program moving forward.”
STEP Denver is behind the new facility, as the addiction recovery group expands to southern Colorado. Shay says the Denver program was able to contact 85% of the 382 men in the 12 months after they left the program.
“Of those, 85% were still sober, 90% were still independently housed and 75% were still employed,” Shay said.
The 50-room rehab center in Colorado Springs will have bathrooms, a laundry room, a kitchen, and a career center. It will house a program to help men struggling with addiction.
Courtesy: STEM Springs
“It addresses not just the addiction-recovery aspect, which of course is the root cause of homelessness and the root cause of what our men are experiencing, but it also is restoring life skills, workforce development, getting individuals back into the community to become self-sufficient again,” Shay said.
But while the shovels keep moving and the renderings slowly but surely become reality, Shay is calling on the community to get ready to utilize a resource of need.
“Let people know that this resource is coming,” Shay said. “We’re very grateful to be just a couple of months from opening our doors.”
Shay tells FOX21 News they are estimating opening day for the rehab center to be in November.
