Media Advisory: Feet Forward Feeds the Homeless in Boulder Thanksgiving Day

Who We Are

Feet Forward is a peer-led 501-c.3 nonprofit built on a foundation of lived experience with homelessness in Boulder County, Colorado. We provide low-barrier, housing-focused peer support and navigation services to individuals experiencing homelessness. We provide critical pre-housing engagement and build trust with individuals experiencing homelessness in only a way that a person whose been there and done that can. Our peer support and navigation extend beyond our weekly outreach and continue as a person secures a housing resource, transitions into housing, and long after they move in. We also increase service engagement and housing pathways by meeting people where they are and partnering with local helpers.

What We Do

Feet Forward provides an umbrella of services and resources for those experiencing homelessness in Boulder, including low-barrier peer support and navigation that often begins at our weekly outreach event and follows them along with their journey out of homelessness. In addition to this critical support, we provide hot meals, weather-appropriate clothing, a portable charging station, and seasonal haircuts.

Every Tuesday, you can find us at Boulder’s Central Park directly at the Bandshell from 2:30 to 4:00 pm.

We create a trusting community for those currently experiencing homelessness and those who have exited it. Our lived experience in this community increases our trust and ability to connect with those we serve – from lending a trusted ear to assisting with housing lotteries, we know the system and how to navigate it. We are living examples that change is possible and serve as realistic role models.

Recently, Feet Forward was selected as a recommended practice in exemplary trust-building in a homelessness study by The Common Sense Institute and Colorado University Denver. Our peer-led model “helps build trust quickly and speeds up the path to engagement and furthers the continuity of community by transitioning these individuals out of homelessness with a built-in network of support.”

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Who We Work With

We are community connectors, partnering and working collaboratively to end homelessness with FOCUS Reentry, Mental Health Partners, Boulder Municipal Court Navigators and Community Court program, the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, and other local nonprofits and organizations. Every Tuesday, case managers and peer navigators engage with individuals prioritized for housing who would otherwise be difficult to contact.

Our First Year of Impact, 2021:

• We’ve served an average of 100 individuals experiencing homelessness every Tuesday, within an hour.

• Served over 5200 hot meals

• Distributed over 3000 pairs of socks

• From July to October, we boosted the morale and esteem of 72 individuals with haircuts.

• Created over 350 connections to local partners, increasing service engagement and expediting housing processes that end homelessness.

  

• Assisted over 150 individuals in the housing lottery and waitlist application processes.

• Provided critical pre-housing engagement for over 300 individuals experiencing homelessness

• Identified 36 individuals who slipped through the housing cracks, housing 11 in 2021.