And helping men overcome the perils of addiction in a fashion that I enthusiastically support. I've had the opportunity to go and tour the facility, and if you do that, if you take the tour and you go and find out how the program works, you will be blown away as I was at everything required and joining me in the studio. Now the executive director. Are you is that your official title? Megan? Yes, Megan Shay. She's new to
that role, but not new to denver So. And we also have Derek who has now are you where are you in the program?
Derek, I'm a recovery support manager.
Recovery support manager? Are you a former addict or recovering addict? Okay, I'm in recovery myself, and that is very common. It's step Denver.
It is twenty of our twenty five staff members have been through the program themselves or are actively in recovery.
What is the point of that.
I believe it's part of the peer to peer model where we're not just people that got a degree in something and have that on the wall and say hey, I read this in a book, right, it might help you. We get to with the residents that we work with on a daily basis. We get to tell them, hey, look, I've been where you're at. As a matter of fact,
I've been in this program myself. I'm not asking you to do anything that I haven't done, but I'm going to give you suggestions and experience through my lived experience to help you get out of this cycle of addiction.
How did you end up in STEP in the first place.
I was homeless before I got to STEP, and I went to a detox and the counselor that was there when I was seeking treatment said you might want to try this place called Step Denver, And I was out of options, and so I was willing to do anything at that point.
So you really were at rock bottom definitely when you first came into the program. And when you enter the program it's called STEP because there are steps that you go through and they are physically manifested in where you sleep. And when you first come into the program, you have these barracks. You know, you're out with all the other guys. What was that like for you when you got there and you realize like, okay, I'm going to do this.
Tell me what that part was like, Like, how you made that first step.
Yeah, So my experience with STEP, like I should mention that, like I chose to sleep on the street instead of the shelters because it was safer and cleaner on the street than in the shelters. And so I went into STEP with the expectation with if it looks, smells, or feels like a shelter, I'm not going to stay. And so when I walked in and I saw how immaculately clean it was twenty four to seven, and how kind
and comforting the staff members were. And then like I get a bed to sleep on instead of like a bunk, and it's like a really nice bed, and I get a closet, and the living space was like beyond what I was expecting, and it made me like immediately when I walked in, it felt like home. It felt like a brotherhood, and it felt comfortable and I felt welcome.
How did you fall into addiction in the first place.
I got introduced to drugs and alcohol at a very young age, just being exposed to in the environment that I grew up in.
So tell me about what has happened for you just as a human since you became You got sober, and then you committed to the program, and now you're actually working for the program. How has that evolution been for Derek.
I mean, it's been life saving and life changing. To be honest, I'm a completely different person to the selfish, self centered, egotistical full of pride and guilt and shame and fear before recovery, and now I'm the exact opposite of all those things. I have a purpose in my life to be of service to other people and to help people, and to be a messenger of truth and love and an advocate for recovery. And I'm very much
I'm very much a fan of recovering out loud. I'm not shy about my recovery and I don't shout it from the rooftops like a preacher. But I'm definitely willing to have the conversation and have the vulnerable conversations, and I lean into discomforts and I lean into fear, and I only know how to do these things and just be a regular citizen in our community, like tax paying
member of our community, like a good member. I only know how to do those things because Step and the twelve Step fellowships that I got involved in.
Megan, You guys how many people do you think you've actually helped over the years. I mean, you know, I've sud asked me thousands. When did Bob Kote start this? What year?
So we were founded in nineteen eighty three. We have served thousands of men over the years, but last year we served almost four hundred men. So we're now serving about four hundred men per year. So, and the key is it's not just servings, right, So we consider a man served when they've been in our program five plus days. We don't consider them served because they had a place to stay for one night or we provided them with food.
To us, true service is they learned something they can put into action in their life that is going to have an impact in their quality of life, their ability to recover, their ability.
To be self sufficient.
And so we consider men served after they actually received career coaching and peer coaching from men like Derek and gone through you know, some of our curriculum and meetings and received things that they can actually apply. And so I think that's the difference too. When you look at shelters, it's like heads and beds, right, how many nights did they stay for us? It's about them actually receiving the tools that they need to become the people that they're
capable of being. You see what Derek is doing every day in his life, the impact he's having on these men.
And we don't want lives to be wasted.
We don't want people on the street living in misery and despair. We want them to have purpose and that's our main goal, is that they can sustain where I learn it step after they leave, not just oh great, we served four hundred men.
This is a challenging population. Addiction is a real tough thing and there's a lot of relapse and things of that nature. Do you feel like because of the program? And either of you can answer this, because this program is and I never want to knock any kind of rehab like there's a there's a form of rehab that's going to help people. It may not help all people, but I am all in favor of any program that I want to be clear about that. But the thing I like about STEP is that it does require that
accountability portion. It requires self sufficient It requires you to go out and get a job, It requires you to do these things that bring you back into society. Is that do you think that's why it's so successful. I'm gonna ask Derek that I.
Do believe that's why it's so successful. That I was telling Megan the other day and spoke about it this morning, as well as like we recover in real time. Life isn't on pause. We're able to go do those life things instead of just focusing just on one thing for eight hours a day, which is my addiction and the recovery from it. But like I actually get to save my money, I get to be accountable for my actions within this community. I get to go to the store
and cook my food. I need to be able to learn how to make my bed in the right way and be accountable for all those things.
But also like.
Really just build habits that are going to carry me once I get out of said program, because it's going to end eventually.
I love the way you just said I get to do these things. I get to have a job, I get to do these instead of I have to. That's a pretty significant mindset situation there, you know. It's that I get to do these things, not I have to.
Megan, how much does it cost to per man Yeah, it's five It's just over five thousand, fifty two. Hundred dollars per man, and that's for the entire stay. So most men are staying with us for four to six months, some up to two years. But if we look at how many men we serve in a year in our total expenses, it's about fifty two hundred dollars per man, which by the way, is one sixth of the cost I did the math on one of these hotels, one sixth of the cost of just putting someone in a
hotel room. And so for a fraction we are able to help men become self sufficient, get out of that cycle of dependency, and be able to contribute because they have a lot to contribute, by the way, to their community and to their families.
And just for the person on the text line who asked if Mayor Mike had done the tour of step Denver yet, that is a big fat no. I asked Megan that when he came in, if you would like to help out step Denver, and if you're like me, I love a hand up program. They could use your donation. Today I put a link on the blog today where you can go straight to the Colorado Gives page. What is the benefit of working through Colorado gives instead of a direct donation. Well, there are a couple.
One is the Colorado Gives Foundation does an incentive fund match, so we will have a larger percentage of that incentive fund at the end of the day based on how many people are supporting step Denver among all of the other charities that they're supporting today. We also have a twenty five thousand dollars match. We have an individual who has stepped up and said I will match dollar for dollar up to twenty five thousand dollars gifts that are received on this show.
If you just need to hit twenty five thousand dollars, then you hit another twenty five.
I about five thousand dollars from that last I was going to look on.
This right now. It doesn't have the thing on there.
Getting updates from our director of development. And right before we left Step to come here, we were about five thousand away from lat so here we go.
It is yeah, well, no, it's that's a different match. Okay, it's weird.
There's another cool thing that's happening is Colorado Gives Foundation. Any new monthly donation that's made today through Colorado gives dot org slash step Denver. People who sign up for a monthly gift Colorado Gives Foundation will match their first donation okay, dollar for dollars, so there are a couple
of different matches. There's one other benefit which is new, the Homeless Contribution tax credit, So people who give one thousand dollars or more to STEP Denver are eligible for a twenty five percent tax credit on that gift, So twenty five percent of their gift they'll get back in a tax credit on their federal or state TAXI state state of Colorado.
All right, my friends, there you go. How long is the waitlist for STEP Denver. We never have a waitlist, okay.
We were actually an overflow two weeks ago for the first time, so I've been there six years and I've never seen us full. And a couple weeks ago we hit sixty one or sixty two and the sixty.
Three bed capacity.
We actually say we're a sixty bed facility, but we have three overflow beds, okay, and we had one overflow bed open. So we're very grateful that right now the demand is actually leading men to our doors. Men are making that choice. But the fact of the matter is, at any given time, there are over one hundred and fifty beds open in this community. We do not have a shortage of beds for people to have.
A shortage of people taking them. Correct. I do want to say you do have to go to the program sober, yes, meaning if you are intoxicated on anything, you have to sober up before you can come through the door, which I think is reasonable because all of the other men there are trying to maintain their sobriety and they don't need to be around someone who is not sober. But you can go to detox and then go straight to
step Denver and that is something that's what you did. Derek. Absolutely, Yeah, guys, I really appreciate you coming in. I love the program. I'm so excited you're expanding into Colorado Springs. When is that open?
We are this time next year we hope to have our doors open fifty bed facility in Colorado Springs. It'll be called STEP Springs. It is our first replication of this program. We've now got a forty plus year history, we have proof ten years of data proving this works, and so now our mission is to take this model into communities and reach more men in need of this
program men like Derek give them that opportunity. So Derek will be moving to Colorado Springs to help us launch that and give other men the same opportunity he was given.
They're lucky to have you, Derek.
I'm blessed to be a part of it.
Megan shay From an executive director of step Denver and Derek, thank you so much.