In 1996, our founders began providing sandwiches to homeless people in Colorado Springs in parks and under bridges. At the same time, they began inviting young homeless couples to stay in their home to give them a head start on life-change. Soon after, they opened a food pantry in one room of a small building. These humble beginnings rapidly grew into a wide range of programs intended to serve the 27,000 households living below the poverty line in the Pikes Peak region.

Since our veterans charity organization was founded in 2003, we’ve helped our troops prosper after service. See each of our milestones along the way and donate to help our veterans today: https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org... Our promise to veterans and service members in the military since September 11, 2001, is to provide the resources and support they need to prosper on their next mission. Through your military donations, we’ve managed to help millions of veterans thrive after service. Along our 15-year journey, some of our milestones include: 2003: Wounded Warrior Project was founded 2004: First Soldier Ride 2005: Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance signed into Law 2006: First Courage Awards & Benefit Dinner and headquarters moved to Jacksonville, Florida 2007: Combat Stress Recovery Program hosted the first Project Odyssey 2008: Warriors to Work launched 2009: Caregivers Summit held in Washington D.C. 2010: Caregivers Act signed into law 2011: WWP named #1 nonprofit to work for 2012: WWP grant initiative launched 2013: A decade of service and the Independence program launched 2014: 50,000th warrior registered 2015: Warrior Care Network launched 2016: WWP-led initiative offering IVF to wounded veterans passed by Congress 2017: 100,000th warrior registered 2018: 15 years of serving those who sacrificed We’ll continue to help veterans conquer their next missions with the resources and support they need at no charge to them. As we reminisce on our 15 years, we look forward to continuing to help veterans in the years to come.

Studies show that between 5-10 percent of people living in homelessness are believed to have a pet, which could be a barrier to folks looking to spend the night in shelters that do not allow animals. Springs Rescue Mission in Colorado Springs is one of a number of shelters that are beginning to allow pets to board along with their owners in an effort to bring more people in. Animal companionship is a very important relationship and source of comfort and stability for someone experiencing homelessness. Some barriers still exist, however, like shelters that have little funding for sheltering pets.

Fostering Hope volunteers create "an extended family" for foster families and youth aging out of the foster care system. The program focuses on relationships as a way to prevent foster parent burnout, help youth heal from trauma, and restore the kind of love and support inherent in natural, healthy families that child welfare systems are not designed to provide.

Homes for All Veterans, a program within the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Human Services, recently began training volunteers to walk the city's streets in search of homeless veterans, with the goal of effectively eliminate veteran homelessness by the end of the year. If successful, advocates say the push to end veteran homelessness could be the first step in addressing the city's larger, chronically homeless population.

Warming shelter opens for homeless youth in Colorado Springs.

Colorado's Transforming Safety initiative empowers communities to decide how to use grant money to address high rates of recidivism. One community-chosen grantee is Colorado Springs Works, founded by a man who made a habit of asking those he was incarcerated with why they had been sent back to prison on parole violations. Lack of good jobs was a key reason, and so the program he created helps recently incarcerated people get job training and jobs on the outside.

Silver Key Senior Services is developing affordable housing for seniors, a people group that faces unique challenges and is often overlooked in the public housing conversation. Construction on the development is expected to be completed in few years.