The goal of the Community Giving Program is to support programs and projects that benefit Westminster residents in the following areas:
- Thriving Community – Keep residents healthy, fed, housed, safe, and prosperous, and address any emergent hardships with innovative solutions.
- City Beautiful – Increase access to healthy outdoor activities and a sustainable environment, and elevate the arts.
- Youth Development – Provide pathways to success for our students, including workforce development programs, mental health services, and enriching learning experiences.
2024 Community Giving Program
2024 Grant Recipients
The Westminster Community Foundation is excited to announce the 2024 Community Giving Program Recipients!
- Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver: Hidden Lake Boys & Girls Club General Operations
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver provides school-aged young people with a safe, supportive, fun, and enriching environment that inspires and empowers them to achieve their greatest potential. The WCF grant will support comprehensive after school and summer programming at the Hidden Lake Boys & Girls Club. The program serves Westminster students from over 10 nearby elementary, middle, and high schools. Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver is well-equipped to support 270 young people at the Hidden Lake Club during their after school and summer programs, which include activities ranging from Academic Success and Healthy Lifestyles to Character and Leadership and Mental Health.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development
- Brothers Redevelopment: Paint-A-Thon
Brothers Redevelopment, Inc. provides housing solutions for low-income individuals, older adults, and people with disabilities across Colorado. It is committed to improve housing stability and enhancing the quality of life for the Westminster community. WCF’s grant will support the Paint-A-Thon (PAT) Program. Volunteers paint home exteriors, do minor home repairs, and yard cleanup/maintenance for low-income older and/or disabled adult homeowners who are unable to pay for these services. In 2023, 2,621 PAT volunteers painted 116 homes and saved homeowners over $710,750. Additional qualitative outcomes include revitalizing neighborhoods, helping older adults age in place, preserving property values, and fostering a sense of community connectedness.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, City Beautiful
- CASA of Adams & Broomfield Counties: Volunteer Program
CASA of Adams & Broomfield Counties provides volunteer advocacy and support for at-risk children and youth, empowering them to prosper. WCF’s grant will support the CASA Volunteer Program, which appoints community volunteers to dependency and neglect (D&N) and truancy cases. All the services provided to children and youth are carried out by trained,committed, and supervised community volunteers. These volunteers visit with children twice per month and attend court hearings and other relevant meetings for the child. The time and commitment that CASA volunteers provide is vital in contributing to a safe and thriving community. In 2024, CASA made a difference in the lives of 48 Westminster youth.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development
- Family Tree: Homelessness, Child Abuse, and Domestic Violence Prevention Programs and Services
Family Tree’s mission is to prevent and overcome the interconnected issues of child abuse, domestic violence, and homelessness to promote safety, healing, and stability across generations. WCF’s grant will support Family Tree’s work to shift the culture of assistance from crisis management by providing tangible resources that help clients improve their long-term health, self-sufficiency, and well-being. When Westminster residents have the resources they need to establish economic stability, they are empowered to create lasting, positive change, and reach their full potential. In fiscal year 2023–2024, Family Tree served 293 Westminster residents and responded to 17,547 crisis and helpline calls from Coloradans. It’s Homelessness Program provided housing assistance and case management to 134 city residents. In the last two years, the number of new Westminster residents seeking services increased nearly 30%.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development
- FISH of Westminster: Support for Westminster's Unhoused
FISH of Westminster is a grass-roots organization that has for more than 50 years been meeting the basic needs of thousands of Westminster citizens. Its mission has evolved to fill immediate food needs of its clients, provide critical supplies to the unhoused, educate neighbors regarding food insecurity and homelessness in Westminster and surrounding areas, and partner with allies working to address food insecurity and homelessness. WCF’s grant will support FISH’s efforts to meet the basic survival needs of residents experiencing homelessness by providing cold weather gear; safety items such as head lamps; gift cards for propane to aid in cooking and heating,and bus passes to provide access to government agencies, medical providers, and work. FISH estimates that more than 1,500 individuals will connect with either its food pantry or the team walking the homeless camps in 2024.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community
- Food Bank of the Rockies: Hunger Relief for Westminster Residents
Food Bank of the Rockies ignites the power of community to nourish people facing hunger. It serves the Westminster community, distributing food to residents who face food in security through both local hunger relief partners and direct service programs. The Food Bank’s partners in Westminster include Clinica Colorado, FISH of Westminster WPC, Front Range Community College, Growing Home, Ministerio Rio de Dios, and Tri City Baptist Church. WCF’s grant will support the distribution of familiar, nutritious food to Westminster residents. Within the last year, the Food Bank served approximately 4,260 residents and distributed approximately 900,000 pounds of food through its services within the city, the equivalent of more than 750,000 meals.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community
- Growing Home: Community Garden
Growing Home advances equity in food, housing, parenting education, and lifelong stability to create lasting change for the future. WCF’s grant will support the organization’s Growing Home Community Garden Project, which provides healthy, culturally relevant fresh produce to families in Westminster. Produce from the Growing Home Community Garden is delivered to the community through its Food Pantry with over 3,000 pounds harvested in 2023. Last year, its Food Pantry served 2,928 households and distributed 429,788 pounds of food. Through September 2024, Growing Home has served more than 2,800 households.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development, City Beautiful
- Hope House of Colorado: Free Self-Sufficiency Programs for Teenage Moms
Hope House of Colorado empowers parenting teenage moms to strive for personal and economic self-sufficiency, resulting in a healthy future for them and their children. To date, Hope House has empowered more than 900 teen moms on their journey, each year opening its doors and hearts to more and more teen moms and their children. WCF’s grant will support the free,self-sufficiency programs for teenage moms in Westminster, which include the Empower Program, Housing Support Program, and Early Childhood Education Program. In 2023, Hope House helped 250teen moms—the most moms they have ever served in their history. Currently, there are 13 teen moms and their children in their programs who are residents of Westminster.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development
- Kids First Health Care: Direct Clinic Services at Westminster Alto Community Clinic
Kids First Health Care improves the health and well being of all children, regardless of their circumstances, through access to high quality health care. \ Kids First has served the southern Westminster community for almost 20 years and is expanding its impact by opening a new clinic in the Alto housing community by the end of 2024. WCF’s grant will help provide direct medical services to the community’s underserved children at the new Westminster Alto Community Clinic. In its fiscal year 2022-23, the Kids First Gregory Hill Clinic in Westminster provided 2,627 patient visits to 1,014 local children and youth. Kids First anticipates providing at least 2,800 medical visits to 1,100 patients and 230 mental health visits to60 patients in the first year of clinic operations at the new Alto Community Clinic.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development
- Low Income Family Empowerment dba Maiker Housing Partners Fund: Family and Community Vitality in Westminster
Low Income Family Empowerment, Inc., doing business as Maiker Housing Partners Fund,provides affordable housing, strengthens communities, and supports long-term housing stability through community-based services and onsite resource navigation in Westminster and greater Adams County. WCF’s grant will support Maiker’s efforts to keep people housed with the development of affordable housing communities, as well as provide human services to support community members. This support includes stabilization services provided through the Family and Community Vitality (FCV) Program. Maiker has eight affordable housing communities in Westminster, serving up to 1,500 individuals.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community
- A Precious Child: Family Stability and Empowerment Resource Center
A Precious Child affords children in need with opportunities and resources to empower them to achieve their full potential. WCF’s grant will support the organization’s Family Stability and Empowerment Resource Center programs that provide Westminster residents with essential goods, culturally relevant food, and resource navigation and referrals to mitigate the economic challenges associated with poverty. In 2023, A Precious Child served 885 Westminster children and 1,126 adult caregivers, providing 18,993 pounds of goods and food and 77,988 diapers. It also provides basic essentials, food, and diapers at various Satellite Resource Centers located throughout the Westminster community, including Westminster High School and Adams County Department of Human Services.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development
- Project Angel Heart: Home-Delivered, Medically Tailored Meals for Westminster Residents Living with Severe Illness
Project Angel Heart’s vision is for all Coloradans living with severe illness to have access to nutritious food that supports their health and well-being. To that end, the organization’s mission is to compassionately deliver comfort and support through high-quality nutrition services, including medically tailored meals, while also advocating for the principles of “Food is Medicine.” WCF’s grant will help improve the health and well-being of Westminster residents living with cancer, kidney/heart/lung disease, HIV/AIDS, and other severe illnesses through the provision of home-delivered meals. In 2024, Project Angel Heart anticipates delivering 14,000 meals, free of charge, to at least 120Westminster residents. Each week, each client and any qualifying dependents in the home will receive 7-14 medically tailored meals. All clients will also receive nutrition education services.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community
- Ralston House: Child Advocacy Center
Ralston House is a child advocacy center accredited through the National Children’s Alliance whose mission is to stop the abuse and start the healing. It is the only child advocacy center in Adams, Jefferson, Gilpin and Broomfield counties and is the only non-hospital facility in these counties providing pediatric medical exams free of charge. Ralston House offers children who have been abused sexually, physically or emotionally the opportunity to tell their story,undergo a pediatric exam, and receive victim support services as they begin to heal from their experiences. WCF’s grant will support the forensic interviews, victim advocacy and medical examinations of Westminster children. In 2023, Ralston House conducted 1,106 forensic interviews, 114 of which were referred by the Westminster Police Department. Eleven children from Westminster, also received comprehensive pediatric forensic medical exams and evaluations.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development
- Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network: RMIAN Children's Program
Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) serves low-income adults and children in immigration proceedings, promoting knowledge of legal rights, effective representation to ensure due process, efforts to end immigration detention, and a more humane immigration system. WCF’s grant will provide free immigration legal services to children and families through RMIAN's Children’s Program. The program aids those who have experienced abuse, neglect, abandonment, human trafficking, and other violence. It helps these families achieve upward economic mobility, employment authorization, and access to stabilizing benefits. In 2023, the Children's Program completed 77 individualized client consultations and in takes in Adams and Jefferson counties. Of those, 14 cases were referred to the Network’s mentored pro bono attorneys and 23 cases were accepted for in-house representation.
WCF Program Objectives: Thriving Community, Youth Development
Congratulations to this year's recipients!
Applications for the 2024 grant program are currently closed. Thank you to all the organizations that applied for funding from the Westminster Community Foundation!
Questions? Please contact communitygiving@westyfoundation.org
