Helping Homeless by Creating the Good

AARP Colorado’s Create the Good and AARP ElderWatch partnered together to help make a difference in the Denver community.

Create the Good is where good people get connected to opportunities to create good, in whatever way works for them. Nothing could be more simple.

In the weeks leading up to USA Weekend’s Make a Difference Day, AARP Colorado and AARP ElderWatch volunteers and staff collected donations for New Genesis Transitional Community for the Homeless in Denver. Founded in 1986, New Genesis is the only Denver area homeless program for working people. Designed out of a need to more successfully improve the lives of the homeless, New Genesis provides a stable environment, to help people get off the streets and back into society.

New Genesis emphasizes a proactive resident care management program and outlines specific behavioral objectives for residents, including the ability to live a more productive and independent life, maintain a job and help improve the lives of other residents. Residents are required to be substance free and hold a full-time job.

Donations were collected at both the Colorado State office and AARP ElderWatch office and a final collection was held at our annual volunteer recognition event, attended by over two hundred volunteers, on October 23rd, 2009.  The hundreds of donated items included toiletries, new t-shirts, socks, linens and new or gently used business attire.