Summary
Organization name
Stride
other names
JESSC - Jeffco Self-Sufficiency Council
1990
Tax id (EIN)
84-1158946
Category
Human Services
Address
3000 Youngfield Street, Suite 170Wheat Ridge, CO 80215
Jefferson County, CO, US
Stride provides services and opportunities to low-income families to give them the skills and resources to achieve economic stability and break the cycle of poverty.
Testimonials
In 2010, Stride celebrated its 20th Anniversary and I became its new Executive Director. What I inherited was an organization with 20 years of experience and success moving families from instability and poverty to long-term stability and self-sufficiency. Having previously worked at Stride 6 years before becoming Executive Director not only was I knowledgeable of organization's workings but I also could bring my passion to see families reach their potential and know success and stability to the leadership of the organization.
Stride provides families with the services and support families need to achieve economic independence. Stride provides housing, employment counseling, life skills training, resources, support, mentoring to families who are struggling but who want to see a different future for their children. A hand up and not a hand out. Stride works in partnership with the families we serve to give them the tools to achieve their goals and provides the services each family individually needs.
In this current economic climate, we are faced with more and more families needing our services but not always having the resources to serve all of those we want or who request our services. Stride continues to work through its staff, board and supporters to be bigger and better and achieve our vision to become the recognized organization for moving low income and homeless families to self-sufficiency.
Sarah Maxwell
Executive Director
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As Stride's board president, I am honored to be serving Stride. I was first introduced to Stride several years ago when I was an emcee at one of their events. At the time I was working for a radio station that was new on the market and the event was part of our promotions. I was deeply impressed and moved by the stories I heard from the participants on their experience in Stride's program and how the program transformed their lives.
Several years after that event I again got involved again with Stride though my position with Regis University and joined their board. As I was helping create promotional materials for Stride I was able to meet one of the graduates of Stride's programs. A young woman who had graduated several years ago and had continued to make improvements in her life for which higher education was a goal she wanted to accomplish in the next couple of years. I was able to connect her to a scholarship program through Regis and where she is currently working on a Master's degree in Business.
As a board member I get to support Stride's mission and bring change and success to families who are struggling. I believe in the work that Stride does to bring hope and opportunities to families. As I support Stride, I hope you will too.
Sincerely,
Rhonda Sheya
Board President
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"Our family ended up homeless, we just couldn't afford housing even though my husband and I both worked. Stride helped us get housing assistance! They didn't stop there. Stride helped us with Christmas gifts. My children even got to experience going to camp... We could never afford that. They provided resources to help our children get beautiful blankets. Stride gave me resource to help me provide school clothes. Stride helped me get clothing for job interviews. Through the goal setting, I eventually was able to obtain a job with benefits, well my dream job. I am still working there now. I have been living in the same place for more than 5 years. We now have a good rental history, and I feel that our family has a brighter future ahead. We are no longer with Stride but I will do what I can to pay it forward."
Mission
Stride provides families with services and a personalized plam to attain economic independence and break the cycle of poverty.
Background Statement
Over 20 years ago and six years before welfare reform, longtime community leader Peg Johnstone pulled together leaders in housing, job training, and community agencies with a seemingly simple idea - to help low-income families become independent of public assistance. From her efforts, the Jeffco Self-Sufficiency Council or Stride as we are known now - was born. Its mission was to help low-income families leave public assistance, by coordinating existing services and filling service gaps. Their vision for Stride was an organization that provided comprehensive, coordinated services for low-income families seeking to become independent from public assistance and that concentrated on long-term self-sufficiency.
Through partnerships with five Jefferson County Housing Authorities, Stride started with 50 families and over the next five years it grew to 225 families. In 1993, Stride participated in its first homeless families grant, providing case management services to 10 formerly homeless families with children, in cooperation with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. In 2002, Stride expanded its homeless programs to serve a maximum of 35 families. The specific grants, funding sources, and program details have changed since then, but Stride has continued to provide housing, service coordination, and other needed services to low-income and homeless families.
Today, Stride is a community-based organization devoted to supporting low-income and homeless families. Stride's focus is on helping families to enhance their strengths and capabilities that will lead to long-term family stability and success. The original concern - poverty, income disparities, challenge of coordinating services and families trapped in government systems - that implied the formation of Stride still exist today. Within the current environment of economic issues, sweeping cuts in governmental safety net programs, unemployment, growing income disparities and reductions in the middle class, Stride's programs and services remain relevant and critical.
Media gallery
Organization Data
Wheat Ridge, CO 80215