Today is Colorado Gives Day. But first I want to read a random text message that I got. It says, after Thanksgiving it work. I observed a lady with a giant castroll dish filled with mashed potatoes and she was just eating them with a spoon.
I wanted to compliment her, but.
I didn't say anything because I was worried she would take it the wrong way. But I'm jealous and I admire her stance on the abundance of potatoes.
It never occurred to me to do that.
Jealous, I think I would agree with you in that situation for sure. I also want to share one more text message, Mandy, I gave my old Honda to step this fall.
It was a good experience.
I also have a small donation twenty five dollars monthly going their way for my check every month. I believe in what they do and I am blessed to be able to make a small contribution. I also love Colorado Feline Foster Rescue and Humane Colorado. I don't have either of those animal related charities on the show right now, but I do have Megan Shay, the executive director, and Andrea write down your last name, so I don't know
what your last name is. Okay, that's probably why I didn't write it down because I don't know if I would Is that Polish?
It's Russian? Russian?
So close and yet so far. Megan, you've been on the show multiple times.
Welcome back.
Yes, it's great to be here with you. Love this annual tradition. Thanks for having us.
Well, so much has happened. I want to start with you, Megan, and then we're going to come to you Andre. But I just recently did another tour of Step Denver, and I have to give Paul Corolei from Citycast podcast a shout out because out of the and I'm not exaggerating thirty people that I've invited to come to a tour of Step, he's the only person that has ever taken me up on it. So Paul and I went down
and did a tour of Step. Although I'm bummed we didn't get to see all of the residential quarters or have such a huge impact.
Honestly, you love the bed making, Okay, that is it's a powerful visual. We'll get to that in a moment.
But you guys have there's so much amazing cool stuff happening at step Denver. But the coolest stuff is that there's now a step Colorado Springs.
It has been a remarkable year.
We are very grateful to share that we just five weeks ago opened a fifty bed facility in Colorado Spring. So we've talked for how many years, a decade probably about the fact that this model is replicable, should be taken into communities that don't have these philosophies, these methodologies at play, and the continuum of services. Right, we know we are not going to be able to solve homelessness
us one organization. It takes a lot of different options and different methods, but we have one that has proven to work over decades. We have ten years worth of solid data and we felt that responsibility to answer the call where there is a significant need. And I'll tell you we are now seeing that need. We have eleven open beds in the fifty bed facility only five weeks after opening.
We will be full before Christmas. Well, congratulations, thank you man. Let's start with the philosophy first, because I'm sure there are people to say right now who are not really familiar. They've heard the name step Denver, maybe they haven't, right, So what is the philosophy what is STEPED over all about.
So Step dever is helping men exit homelessness for good, and we do that through addressing the root cause of homelessness, which is addiction for the majority of the population. We're also serving men specifically, because the majority of the homeless population are men if you look at any point in time, count and we do that through addiction, recovery programming, workforce development,
and life skills. So we are helping men rebuild every part of their life that's been destroyed from the ground up. And we're doing it on four core principles sobriety, work, accountability, and community. We also take no government funding. I have to say, I think that's why this program works because we are making every decision based on what's best for the people we serve in nothing else, and we are able to do that through the generosity of our donors.
We are entirely funded through philanthropy, but that gives us the freedom to have a methodology that actually produces outcome and we can talk about those well.
I want to share something I was just telling Megan.
I literally just read a book last week called Beyond Homeless Good Intentions, Bad outcomes and transformative solutions. And one of the points they make in this book is that they had looked at certain organizations like yours, and they had a program that worked really, really well and it
was about accountability and work. But then they went after government dollars and they had to change the programming in such a way to work with the federal requirements that the federal government has a housing first policy, and housing first means that you are looking to get someone some kind of permanent support of housing before they deal with their mental illness, their trauma, their addictions. It just get them into housing and then they're going to make better decisions.
I would say from my perspective that housing VERSU has been an epic failure.
A house does not miraculously solve addiction. And what we are seeing is that people who are in the throes of their addiction are put into free housing with no expectation of sobriety, accountability, of them making any progress or effort in their life. And what happens is they die in that housing. They are more isolated, they're less likely.
To be found.
And I do have to say that I was alarmed to hear and I won't call anyone out. But somebody stood in front of city council and said, you know, we don't consider deceased to be a negative outcome because they died inside. And I could not believe what I was hearing, and if I hadn't seen it for myself, I wouldn't believe it. We counter that we believe that compassion, real compassion is telling someone that you are capable of more.
We know you are.
We're with you every step of the way, but we are going to hold you to these standards because we know it's what it takes for you to get the life back that you deserve and for you to be able to be someone that you can look in yourself in the mirror every morning and know that you have something to offer this world. And Andre is an example of that. I know we'll talk about about history and you'll get to hear from him, but we believe that people deserve better well.
And one of the most interesting things about Step and I want to I'll ask Andre about his way through
the process. You know, it was initially called Step thirteen as kind of an add on to the twelve Steps of AA, the Foundational Steps of AA, which was great, but now it feels like step Denver represents the steps that men take from the first day they walk in the door, when they start learning the rules, and they start learning what's expected of them, and they start learning the rewards that come to them when they do these things.
It is like a series of steps. I mean even and I you know, we talked about the residences at step Denver, the visual of how you start to what is possible and then you eventually move into support of housing outside of step Denver's four walls.
I mean, it is a series of steps. In reality, it is.
We Actually it's a four phase program and every phase has different goals and milestones that you're reaching in your
life through your own effort. I often love to say that, you know, people talk about Step and what a wonderful program, and that's true, but it doesn't matter, frankly, how good our program is if each individual person doesn't make the choice every day to put it into practice in their life and so everything these men achieve, those are their achievements through the support of our donors, through the support
of our program. But at the end of the day, it takes that individual making that choice to put in the work and that's how they see the results, and frankly, that's how they become the person that their family needs, that our society needs, and they can really contribute to our city as people who have officially broken the cycle of dependency.
So one of the.
Greatest things about STEP is that a vast majority of it is peer to peer. When you are talking to an employee of STEP Denver, they are someone who has overcome addiction themselves. They are going to look an addict in the face and say, whatever you got, I understand it because I was there. And that brings me to Andre who now is the STEP Denver Director of Operations. But how long ago were you a client of STEPNVERK So.
I joined in August twenty second of twenty two. Okay, I entered the doors to STEP Denver. And why I was there, like, well, led me there was I didn't know a way out.
I had been to eighteen other programs that didn't work.
You did eighteen other programs to overcome your addiction, like in patient, outpatient everything.
Those were just the inpatients an outpatient as well.
How long did you struggle with addiction? That's active addiction thirteen Since I was thirteen. Holy cow, So you have really had a tough road to hoe. As they say, how old are you now?
I just turned forty one? Wow? Wow? What finally? Why did this stick? So?
I think many different things. Right the second I got to Step, they treat me as a human. I felt safe in the environment, and I was living with other guys that went through a similar situation that and just like you just explained, the staff there like they all knew what I went through and was able to approach it from a brother perspective versus a clinical right, those
other eighteen programs were all clinical. I'd stay there for as long as the insurance would let me, and then it was here's a meeting sheet, good luck, and back to the streets I went.
So, So, how many times were you homeless when you went into Step this.
This last time? That's correct, it was homeless for almost two years at that point. Now, let me ask you a.
Little bit about your time when you were living were you were you unsheltered homeless? You were living on the streets.
Yeah, I was living on an intent under a bridge in Englewood.
So from your perspective as a formerly homeless person, what do you think is the biggest issue when it comes to and I realized that there's a million different reasons why people end up on the streets. There's no one single this is why it happens. But why do people become chronically homeless? Why are they there for five years, for ten years? What happens that makes that seem like like it's the life you're choosing, when in reality you're not.
So for me personally, it was the fact that I hadn't experienced enough pain at that point. And that sounds silly because at that point I had lost my children, my marriage was on the rocks, lost you know, career career jobs with like Fortune five hundred, one hundred companies.
And it was the fact that I was able to.
Still live right, Like I had food stamps, I had you know, third party assistants.
Really that allowed me to stay out there longer.
So how how this is going to sound like a dumb thing to say, But how easy did they make it? Were you talking three meals a day or a meal whenever you wanted it? I mean, one of the things I'm trying to impart to people is that I understand what people's hearts tell them they need to do something to help people on the streets, but they're not really helping.
Yeah, so I.
Mean, I mean I ate when I I mean, I was on meth and fetamine, so I really didn't eat, but I when I needed to, and I used the food stamps. I'd cash them in and use that money to buy narcotics.
Crazy.
So when you went into STEP at the very beginning, had you gone through Detoks first?
So?
Yeah, I got committed for nine months prior to the mental hospital. About twenty seven days in they offered me to go to the STEP Denver.
So you basically were so strung out on drugs they put you in a mental facility.
Yeah, correct, Okay, and you made the choice, though, what was it? Were you just trying to get out of the mental hospital at that point? That's correct. I'm guessing that was.
Yeah.
I just wanted to not be there, right, you know, because I was in a room lockdown for twenty three hours a day.
How good were you?
How certain were you that you'd be able to snow the people at STEP Denver and you know, skate your way through this.
I had no intent in staying.
I was just waiting, you know, And they said all I had to do was go just step Denver. They never said I had to stay, So why did you stay?
I mean it's nice, don't get me wrong, but it's it's not that nice. Something must have kept you there.
So it was that first night I went to my first seven o'clock meeting and one of the recovery support managers, Derek, was telling his story that night, and the first thing he said to me or the group was look for the similarities, not the differences, right, And I get chills every time I say that, Right.
And what did that mean for you? At that time?
In that moment it clicked like I didn't know what it meant exactly, but it's just like, all of a sudden when he was telling his story, he spent ten minutes qualifying himself as an addict, right, so I can believe them, right, And then fifteen minutes of this solution, Right, it's a solution that night. By the end of that meeting, I was just so excited. I was like, I want to be here, I want to do this right, And I'm like, if a guy like that can recover, why can't I.
Oh Wow, that's fantastic. I mean, that's kind of what it's about, Megan.
It is and I have to say, you know, watching people like Andre when they come in from the day one to even day five, they're almost unrecognizable. We get to watch people come back to life right before our eyes, and we watched that light come on behind the eyes. And then we get to watch people like Andre become men of service who helped the next guy and help the next guy. And that is why this works. There
the heart and soul of this program. One hundred percent of our program staff or alumni of our program.
Okay, I just realized I'm five minutes later for a break. This is going to be two breaks in a row. I apologize. We'll be right back to talk more about step Dever after this. By the way, to the text, who said, is Leeland Conway's wife doing their social media commercials for step Denver in Springs, she looks so familiar. Well, that would be Megan Shay, who happens to be in
the studio with me right now. We're also joined by Andre and the Russian last name, who is the director of operations for step Denver and also a graduate of the program.
Now there's a couple things, Megan.
That first of all, you guys just shared with me how you ended up getting in the program in the first place. You actually tried to kill yourself. Well it turned them on.
Yeah, that's correct, So I didn't see a way out. So basically, I was so depressed and hopeless that I decided to shoot up bleach and that's what got me put onto the cycles.
I can't even imagine what that must have like, Like the entire that must have been a terrifying thought process that got you to there.
It was I just again felt hopeless. I've lost pretty much everything in my life. My marriage was on the rocks. I lost my kids to my addiction, jobs and housing and just everything, not just once, but three times over.
You know, since I was twenty, How what is it?
How does failing that rehab affect you mentally as an addict?
Mix it that it's not an option to go to another one? Like I said, I went to eighteen programs prior to STEP and none of them worked. So I didn't think that treatment was an option for me. Because how you were hopeless.
Yes, golly, I'm glad you weren't andre when we get back, and I'm sorry, guys, I did not break on schedule. I breaked really late, so we got to take another break here in just a moment, I do want to talk about some things you need to know. First of all, we've got a donor who is offering a ten thousand dollars match. So if you've ever wanted to donate to step Denver, now's the time you could help them get an extra ten grand if you make your donation today.
But when we get back, let's talk about Step Spring, something Andre is intimately involved with and very exciting for Step that they're growing this way.
We're gonna do all of that right after this.
Keep it on KOA in honor of Colorado Gives Day. We have one of my favorite things that you should give money to, as step Denver. We just got a good report. I just mentioned the fact that if they get ten thousand dollars in donations today, they get a ten thousand dollars match.
And the Mandycoddle aut against you guys delivered. We're up to like forty two hundred that's right, eighty five minutes. I just got words.
Since you made that announcement, forty two hundred dollars has been donated towards Oh match.
That makes me, you know why, because my audience is the best.
I'm just saying, let's talk first, going to get a couple questions, and someone on the text line asked what I think is a very common question, and that is is STEP denver faith based?
We are not. And it's for good reason.
I'm sure many people have heard about the barriers that often go up for an individual, especially people who have been caught in that cycle of addiction for so long. Any idea of religion, a wall immediately goes up, and many people, most people will not even enter a program if there is any image of religion associated with it. And so what we have found over the years is that by focusing on spirituality and having groups and discussions
around what is the difference between religion and spirituality? Why are you resistant to the idea that there may be a power greater than yourself. One day I heard a man say my ego right, Well, i's honest. So just naming it, what we find is it opens the door. And our men do develop very strong faith through their experience at STEP, but it's strong because they've developed it in their own way and on their own timeline and their throats exactly.
This is a.
Let's I think a better way to say this. It's not faithless, correct, it's not dogmatic at all.
There's no doubting.
Right.
They're not going to tell you what to believe. They're not going to tell you who to believe or what path to follow. They're just going to open the possibilities for you to maybe think about that.
And as a result, men are actually having very strong faith in their life and a connection to God of their own understanding.
Right.
But they are building that connection to God which would never be possible if we were a faith based program in which they wouldn't even walk through the door.
Andre where were you when it came to faith or God or any of that stuff? And where are you now?
So?
Yeah, the God word really tripped me up. Or because I was molested at a young age by a priest. Oh, when I heard God, I was kind of attributed to that. Sure, And you know, when I got the step, I learned the difference between religion and spirituality, and you know, I became spiritual.
And now I'm back in the church. Really that's correct? Wow?
Good, I mean that's fantastic actually that it helped you healed your relationship with the church.
That's pretty amazing.
Yeah, No, it's it's just been a blessing, like every aspect of this program and to know that, you know, I do have a God of my own understanding and today it's just been really good for me.
I want to talk about how STEP is a little bit different than some of the the inpatient programs that you did sixteen eighteen programs.
You said, Andre, that's correct.
Andre's not only the director of operations for STEP and STEP Springs, he is also a graduate of the program. So when you are in the program, you're not just insulated from the rest of the world.
You're actually put out in the world. Almost immediately tell me about that. Yeah.
So after my first five business days of like learning the rules and it was the expected to go get a job in the community, which was amazing because it's not a lockdown facility. After my requirements, even my first five days, I was able to like go walk around the street, like go get some fresh air, go to the store, and that just made me feel like I was trusted things I haven't had in the past, Right, I didn't feel trusted, and you know, I early on I would run really quickly.
Back to step, just like testing the water.
I'd be like, all right, let me go around the block and and then like run right back.
I'm like, all right, I'm not ready for that yet. I kind of love that.
Actually it's a very but that's kind of I love the thought of step being the safe place of home base, you know what I mean, Like when you're a kid, you run back to the tree that's home base. I like that because it sounds like it gave you the courage to do something more.
Yeah, and then you know, finally I got out there and I got that first full time job that I hadn't worked probably a W two tax paying job in almost a decade.
At that point.
And you know, I got my first job at a seven eleven, And it was just like I was so proud that day.
That I got a job. I was just like there's something.
I was like, oh my god, I'm doing the program right, Like this is amazing, right, And it just made me feel like a part of society again when I hadn't been for like almost two years.
So you're rebuilding in real time in the real world, that's correct. So one of the things I didn't know that I learned on our last tour a week or so ago. Is that that you require the men to find a meeting outside the walls of step Denver. So you're like, you know what, whatever, pick your poison, you want to do AA, you want to do this, you want to do that, but you got to find it.
Why is that so critical?
That's so critical because no one is cured when they leave our program, right and the only way that a man will be able to maintain their sobriety is if they do the work, every day work of recovery program to keep that disease and remission. And what that looks like is connection and community. They always say the opposite
of addiction. Connection, and so if we can get men to establish community outside of our walls, then they have a much better shot of actually being able to sustain their sobriety and everything that they've rebuilt while in our program.
You said something at the beginning of this conversation, Andre that I want to go back to, and that is, you know, you'd go through these programs and then kind of throw you out of the world with a sheet of meetings, but you didn't have any connection to any of those meetings when you were leaving.
That's correct, And the difference that STEP is why I was there. I found my STEP community like instantly, right. It's just that it's like a brotherhood. As soon as you walk into the facility. Every you know, somebody offered me a steak dinner. I think within the first week they're like, hey, come have some a mistake, right, But then I have to create that same feeling outside a STEP for you know, transition purposes.
Has have you been successful in that you feel like you have a big network out now? Obviously you have gotten hired and you're still within the walls of STEP working but in a much different capacity. So do you have that network outside to this day?
Yes? I do, so you know I do.
I do go to multiple recovery meetings and very active and recovery.
Outside of STEP.
Because STEP is my place of employment today, I can't treat my employment as my recovery.
That's really great. So let's talk about Colorado Springs. Apparently Megan gave you a lot of credit for really kind of what decorating the joint.
In goodness, making it a home.
Yeah, so what did you I'm guessing as a as a former resident yourself, you probably had ideas of things that were like, you know what that would be really cool? Did you get to institute all those things?
Yeah, it was a very exciting process.
I got to well a that Megan trusted me, and two like I got to implement like things that I saw as all right, maybe we can add this, you know, like and make it a little bit better and really create that home feeling that was so important to me when I entered Step Denver.
Yeah.
No one's gonna uh hold the standards of Step meaning cleanly and taking care of the facility, like Andrea, because that is the thing that caused him to stay that first night is that it wasn't dirty and he didn't have that excuse. So he makes sure that no resident coming in is going to have that excuse.
That's fantastic. I want to talk for a second about what I love, what the visual impact of the accommodations at STEP, because it's not just the accommodations at Step, it is the metaphor for progress at Step Denver. And it just the first time I saw this, it blew
me away. When people come into Step Denver, the first place they go, we'll call it shelter, right, I mean you're call it a dorm You got int a dormitory, lots of beds, and when you look at the beds on one side, there was a bed that they're all made. Everything is neat and tidy, but the beds at one end.
A little sloppy.
Maybe they don't have those tight hospital corners. The beds on the other end you can bounce a quarter off of. And I asked when I went through the first tour with Paula, so I was like, what's up with that? He goes, those are the men pointing to the beds that are not quite perfect.
Those of the men just got here.
Those are the men on the other side that are about ready to move to phase two?
And what is phase two? How do you get to phase two?
So you get through to phase two by meeting basic fundamental goals. You're getting a full time tax paying job in the community, a phone email address ID if you don't already have it, being a sponsor or mentor in a twelve step or other recovery fellowship outside of our walls. So just the fundamental things that you need to build
that foundation. So it's about thirty to forty five days for most men before they're moving out of that dorm and into a private room, that first tangible sign of success and progress in their life, that momentum builder really is what that room is. But after you move out of the dorm, you're never sharing a room again. So that experience is really just so that it's earned and gives people the motivation to want to keep moving forward and making progress.
I also would imagine, Andrea and you can address this. I would also imagine that being in that dormitory setting with other men in the exact same place is probably helpful just from a peer kind of a peer to peer viewpoint.
Yeah, so it was very helpful, right one. They showed me how to make my bad right that first day when I didn't have the instruction yet. Right, No, guy there, would you know if you see somebody the culture really is like, if you see someone not doing something right, go help them.
Right, just help them? I mean, I think that's a great motto. Then you get to go to the penthouse, which is a little more private.
Yes, that's right.
So when you get through the development phase, which is really the heavy lift where you're setting smart goals in every aspect of your life, it takes about sixty days. Your reward for hitting those goals is moving into an area that's more apartment style living, more privileges, you can have food talk up there. It's just a little bit
more freedom in that space. And so with every progression as you hit those goals, your quality of life is improving, and then ultimately you get to move to our sober living homes, which are beautiful residences in neighborhoods where you have a truly normal life, but within the structured sober living environment that we have.
Let me get one more thing in before we go. You guys do a really good job with follow up, and you reach out and you talk to former residents, find out where they're going.
What does some of those statistics look.
Like in terms of how many people you're able to reach and how many of them are still sober housed and working.
This is how we keep ourselves accountable and make sure that this program is really working and that our men are having the successes that we intend. Ultimately, our goal is really for them to have sustained sobriety, employment, stable housing, and be able to continue everything that they've built at step after they leave. So we're following up at eight different intervals in the first twelve months after they leave
our program. Last year, we were able to contact one hundred and forty one men in the twelve months after they left our program. Of those, eighty five percent were still sober, seventy five percent still had full time tax paying jobs, and ninety percent were still housed. So the outcomes speak for themselves, and those calls are an opportunity for us to continue the relationship, continue the peer coaching, and provide that assistance in that transition.
If you want to really help out, you can help out today. Yeah, put a link on the blog because it is Colorado Gives Day today and there's matching dollars on the line. If they hit ten thousand dollars, they are going to get a ten thousand dollars match. So if you've ever wanted to contribute to a program that does three things, Number one, they have a track record of success helping a population that is historically very difficult
to help. Let's be real, this is not the easiest population of human beings to help, you know, come back from the brink.
They do it incredibly well.
They don't take government money because they don't want to have to use the government edicts that I think have been shown to be a massive failure. And we haven't even gotten to how efficiently you guys do this. What do you spend per year per man to help a man get his life back?
Last year, our cost per man served was fifty two hundred dollars, that's all in, all in cost fifty two hundred dollars per man. And while we're investing fifty two hundred dollars in these men, they are investing in the community by paying taxes, buying goods and services, and having their money they're saving sitting in a local bank right
so that money's being reinjected. We had an over sixteen million dollar economic impact on a two point six million dollar budget, So your dollars that you donate today will stretch as far as they can possibly go. And we always talk about you know, who better to invest in than those who are willing to invest in themselves.
Amen to that.
Megan Shay, the executive director of step Denver Andre with a Russian last name that I'll never be able to pronounce. Thank you so much for coming in, for sharing your story, for continuing to help men.
Just like you get their lives back.
I mean, there's nothing better than reminding someone that they are important and they matter. And you know, I don't care if you believe in God. I believe in God, So I'm.
Gonna say it. God thought you were important enough to put on this planet. Right. That's great?
And thank you for reminding people that they matter, because I think that's incredibly important. I do have one question here, Hey, Mandy, would you ask your guest how many of these men have a violent criminal history and are they in regular homes and neighborhoods that concern to me?
What do you do about that?
So to be qualified to enter our program, you have to pass a background screening, and so we are looking for patterns of severe violence in someone's background. They are not eligible to enter our program if they have severe violence in their pay round.
So that you don't necessarily have to worry about that.
Reason for that is they're going to need a higher level of care, a clinical program that can address the anger management issues, and we want to make sure our community is safe within our walls.
Fantastic. I hope that answers the questions. Just go to my blog side or go to Colorado GIFs dot org search step Denver. I put a link directly today on the blog so you can just do that. It's right at the top. I would love for you to support this organization. They're absolutely incredible. And by the way, I offered another tour to someone this password again, so I'm marrier.
We'll see if she takes me up.
I'm more than marrier, manthy can I just and I also just do a plug for those who might be in the Colorado Springs area. We are just getting off the ground there, five weeks open now. We've got only eleven beds left open and a fifty bed facility.
So they need is great.
If you're in the Colorado Springs area, please support STEP Springs on Colorado Gives Day. They need your support as well, I think, at least to both of them.
And if you are in the Springs area and you are finding yourself in need of help, call Colorado Step Colorado Springs.
They can help you. Yep, they will help you.