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The Projects
Project #2 -The UMB Bank Homeless
Challenge
Completed on 02/29/08
The Overview
Name:
The UMB Homeless Challenge
Partners: UMB
Bank and Denver's Road Home
Timeline: February
8 – February 29, 2008
UMB
Bank partnered with Denver’s
Road Home for Project #2. Mayor
John Hickenlooper and the Commission to End Homelessness created
Denver’s Road Home in 2005. It is a 10 year plan to
end homelessness in the City & County of Denver. To read
more, please CLICK
HERE.
The two “Apprentice” teams were
assigned to local non-profit organizations working with the
homeless and helping them regain control of their lives. The
5280 Closers partnered with the Disability
Center for Independent Living (DCIL). DCIL’s
mission is to fully integrate people with all types of disabilities,
both physical and mental/cognitive into all aspects of community
life.
The “A” Team chose El
Centro Humanitario Para Los Trabajadores (El Centro).
El Centro is Denver’s first day laborer organization,
organized to defend the human rights of day laborers. They
promote the rights and well-being of day laborers in Denver
through education, job skills and leadership development,
united action and advocacy.
The teams were assigned to work with each
of the agencies in identifying and meeting some of their short
and long term needs. In addition, each group was given $500
to improve on specific problems both centers were encountering.
The Outcome
After three weeks of research and numerous
site visits, both teams completed their needs assessment plans
for each of the organizations. These plans evaluated the agencies
in four categories: Leadership, adaptive capacities, management
and operational capacities.
The teams then presented their results to
a panel of judges--including Metro State faculty, staff, alumni
and professionals in the banking and social services/non-profit
fields--on February 29 at the UMB Bank headquarters.
The 5280 Closers were deemed the winners
of the competition, with more tasks accomplished, including
creating a website and employee handbook, organizing a volunteer
recruitment program and running a food/personal care drive
on and off campus, which resulted in hundreds of items donated
for DCIL clients. The “A”
Team won praise for their successful campus tool drive, which
featured coverage from KBPI
and free Starbucks
and Monster
Energy drinks for visitors to
their booth. About $3,000 dollars worth of tools were donated
to El Centro for use in training day laborers to learn new
job skills.
The Reward
The 5280 Closers were rewarded with a box
suite from Key
Bank at the March 4 Colorado
Avalanche hockey game. They enjoyed dinner, a
VIP tour of the facilities with Altitude
Sports and Entertainment and snagged player autographs
after the big win. View
photos
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