December 10, 2024 • 11 mins
STEP DENVER If you've listened to the show for any length of time you know that Step Denver helps men overcome the consequences of addiction to get their lives back and become productive members of our community again. This program is needed more than ever, we see it on our streets every day. Donate to Step Denver by clicking here, and if you have a car or truck or RV you don't want anymore, please consider donating it to Step Denver. Find out more about that by clicking here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And helping men overcome the perils of addiction in a
(00:05):
fashion that I enthusiastically support. I've had the opportunity to
go and tour the facility, and if you do that,
if you take the tour and you go and find
out how the program works, you will be blown away
as I was at everything required and joining me in
the studio. Now the executive director. Are you is that
your official title? Megan? Yes, Megan Shay. She's new to
(00:26):
that role, but not new to denver So. And we
also have Derek who has now are you where are
you in the program?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Derek, I'm a recovery support manager.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Recovery support manager? Are you a former addict or recovering addict? Okay,
I'm in recovery myself, and that is very common. It's
step Denver.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It is twenty of our twenty five staff members have
been through the program themselves or are actively in recovery.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
What is the point of that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I believe it's part of the peer to peer model
where we're not just people that got a degree in
something and have that on the wall and say hey,
I read this in a book, right, it might help you.
We get to with the residents that we work with
on a daily basis. We get to tell them, hey, look,
I've been where you're at. As a matter of fact,
I've been in this program myself. I'm not asking you
(01:10):
to do anything that I haven't done, but I'm going
to give you suggestions and experience through my lived experience
to help you get out of this cycle of addiction.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
How did you end up in STEP in the first place.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I was homeless before I got to STEP, and I
went to a detox and the counselor that was there
when I was seeking treatment said you might want to
try this place called Step Denver, And I was out
of options, and so I was willing to do anything
at that point.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
So you really were at rock bottom definitely when you
first came into the program. And when you enter the
program it's called STEP because there are steps that you
go through and they are physically manifested in where you sleep.
And when you first come into the program, you have
these barracks. You know, you're out with all the other guys.
What was that like for you when you got there
and you realize like, okay, I'm going to do this.
(01:58):
Tell me what that part was like, Like, how you
made that first step.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, So my experience with STEP, like I should mention that,
like I chose to sleep on the street instead of
the shelters because it was safer and cleaner on the
street than in the shelters. And so I went into
STEP with the expectation with if it looks, smells, or
feels like a shelter, I'm not going to stay. And
(02:22):
so when I walked in and I saw how immaculately
clean it was twenty four to seven, and how kind
and comforting the staff members were. And then like I
get a bed to sleep on instead of like a bunk,
and it's like a really nice bed, and I get
a closet, and the living space was like beyond what
I was expecting, and it made me like immediately when
(02:43):
I walked in, it felt like home. It felt like
a brotherhood, and it felt comfortable and I felt welcome.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
How did you fall into addiction in the first place.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I got introduced to drugs and alcohol at a very
young age, just being exposed to in the environment that
I grew up in.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So tell me about what has happened for you just
as a human since you became You got sober, and
then you committed to the program, and now you're actually
working for the program. How has that evolution been for Derek.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I mean, it's been life saving and life changing. To
be honest, I'm a completely different person to the selfish,
self centered, egotistical full of pride and guilt and shame
and fear before recovery, and now I'm the exact opposite
of all those things. I have a purpose in my
life to be of service to other people and to
(03:34):
help people, and to be a messenger of truth and
love and an advocate for recovery. And I'm very much
I'm very much a fan of recovering out loud. I'm
not shy about my recovery and I don't shout it
from the rooftops like a preacher. But I'm definitely willing
to have the conversation and have the vulnerable conversations, and
I lean into discomforts and I lean into fear, and
(03:57):
I only know how to do these things and just
be a regular citizen in our community, like tax paying
member of our community, like a good member. I only
know how to do those things because Step and the
twelve Step fellowships that I got involved in.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Megan, You guys how many people do you think you've
actually helped over the years. I mean, you know, I've
sud asked me thousands. When did Bob Kote start this?
What year?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So we were founded in nineteen eighty three. We have
served thousands of men over the years, but last year
we served almost four hundred men. So we're now serving
about four hundred men per year. So, and the key
is it's not just servings, right, So we consider a
man served when they've been in our program five plus days.
(04:40):
We don't consider them served because they had a place
to stay for one night or we provided them with food.
To us, true service is they learned something they can
put into action in their life that is going to
have an impact in their quality of life, their ability
to recover, their ability.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
To be self sufficient.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And so we consider men served after they actually received
career coaching and peer coaching from men like Derek and
gone through you know, some of our curriculum and meetings
and received things that they can actually apply. And so
I think that's the difference too. When you look at shelters,
it's like heads and beds, right, how many nights did
they stay for us? It's about them actually receiving the
(05:20):
tools that they need to become the people that they're
capable of being. You see what Derek is doing every
day in his life, the impact he's having on these men.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
And we don't want lives to be wasted.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
We don't want people on the street living in misery
and despair. We want them to have purpose and that's
our main goal, is that they can sustain where I
learn it step after they leave, not just oh great,
we served four hundred men.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
This is a challenging population. Addiction is a real tough
thing and there's a lot of relapse and things of
that nature. Do you feel like because of the program?
And either of you can answer this, because this program
is and I never want to knock any kind of
rehab like there's a there's a form of rehab that's
going to help people. It may not help all people,
but I am all in favor of any program that
(06:05):
I want to be clear about that. But the thing
I like about STEP is that it does require that
accountability portion. It requires self sufficient It requires you to
go out and get a job, It requires you to
do these things that bring you back into society. Is
that do you think that's why it's so successful. I'm
gonna ask Derek that I.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Do believe that's why it's so successful. That I was
telling Megan the other day and spoke about it this morning,
as well as like we recover in real time. Life
isn't on pause. We're able to go do those life
things instead of just focusing just on one thing for
eight hours a day, which is my addiction and the
recovery from it. But like I actually get to save
(06:46):
my money, I get to be accountable for my actions
within this community. I get to go to the store
and cook my food. I need to be able to
learn how to make my bed in the right way
and be accountable for all those things.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
But also like.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Really just build habits that are going to carry me
once I get out of said program, because it's going
to end eventually.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I love the way you just said I get to
do these things. I get to have a job, I
get to do these instead of I have to. That's
a pretty significant mindset situation there, you know. It's that
I get to do these things, not I have to.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Megan, how much does it cost to per man Yeah,
it's five It's just over five thousand, fifty two. Hundred
dollars per man, and that's for the entire stay. So
most men are staying with us for four to six months,
some up to two years. But if we look at
how many men we serve in a year in our
total expenses, it's about fifty two hundred dollars per man,
which by the way, is one sixth of the cost
(07:41):
I did the math on one of these hotels, one
sixth of the cost of just putting someone in a
hotel room. And so for a fraction we are able
to help men become self sufficient, get out of that
cycle of dependency, and be able to contribute because they
have a lot to contribute, by the way, to their
community and to their families.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And just for the person on the text line who
asked if Mayor Mike had done the tour of step
Denver yet, that is a big fat no. I asked
Megan that when he came in, if you would like
to help out step Denver, and if you're like me,
I love a hand up program. They could use your donation.
Today I put a link on the blog today where
you can go straight to the Colorado Gives page. What
(08:21):
is the benefit of working through Colorado gives instead of
a direct donation. Well, there are a couple.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
One is the Colorado Gives Foundation does an incentive fund match,
so we will have a larger percentage of that incentive
fund at the end of the day based on how
many people are supporting step Denver among all of the
other charities that they're supporting today. We also have a
twenty five thousand dollars match. We have an individual who
has stepped up and said I will match dollar for
(08:46):
dollar up to twenty five thousand dollars gifts that are
received on this show.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
If you just need to hit twenty five thousand dollars,
then you hit another twenty five.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I about five thousand dollars from that last I was
going to look on.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
This right now. It doesn't have the thing on there.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Getting updates from our director of development. And right before
we left Step to come here, we were about five
thousand away from lat so here we go.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
It is yeah, well, no, it's that's a different match. Okay,
it's weird.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
There's another cool thing that's happening is Colorado Gives Foundation.
Any new monthly donation that's made today through Colorado gives
dot org slash step Denver. People who sign up for
a monthly gift Colorado Gives Foundation will match their first
donation okay, dollar for dollars, so there are a couple
of different matches. There's one other benefit which is new,
the Homeless Contribution tax credit, So people who give one
(09:34):
thousand dollars or more to STEP Denver are eligible for
a twenty five percent tax credit on that gift, So
twenty five percent of their gift they'll get back in
a tax credit on their federal or state TAXI state
state of Colorado.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
All right, my friends, there you go. How long is
the waitlist for STEP Denver. We never have a waitlist, okay.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We were actually an overflow two weeks ago for the
first time, so I've been there six years and I've
never seen us full. And a couple weeks ago we
hit sixty one or sixty two and the sixty.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Three bed capacity.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
We actually say we're a sixty bed facility, but we
have three overflow beds, okay, and we had one overflow
bed open. So we're very grateful that right now the
demand is actually leading men to our doors. Men are
making that choice. But the fact of the matter is,
at any given time, there are over one hundred and
fifty beds open in this community. We do not have
a shortage of beds for people to have.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
A shortage of people taking them. Correct. I do want
to say you do have to go to the program sober, yes,
meaning if you are intoxicated on anything, you have to
sober up before you can come through the door, which
I think is reasonable because all of the other men
there are trying to maintain their sobriety and they don't
need to be around someone who is not sober. But
you can go to detox and then go straight to
(10:47):
step Denver and that is something that's what you did. Derek. Absolutely, Yeah, guys,
I really appreciate you coming in. I love the program.
I'm so excited you're expanding into Colorado Springs. When is
that open?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
We are this time next year we hope to have
our doors open fifty bed facility in Colorado Springs. It'll
be called STEP Springs. It is our first replication of
this program. We've now got a forty plus year history,
we have proof ten years of data proving this works,
and so now our mission is to take this model
into communities and reach more men in need of this
program men like Derek give them that opportunity. So Derek
(11:19):
will be moving to Colorado Springs to help us launch
that and give other men the same opportunity he was given.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
They're lucky to have you, Derek.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I'm blessed to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Megan shay From an executive director of step Denver and Derek,
thank you so much.
And helping men overcome the perils of addiction in a
(00:05):
fashion that I enthusiastically support. I've had the opportunity to
go and tour the facility, and if you do that,
if you take the tour and you go and find
out how the program works, you will be blown away
as I was at everything required and joining me in
the studio. Now the executive director. Are you is that
your official title? Megan? Yes, Megan Shay. She's new to
(00:26):
that role, but not new to denver So. And we
also have Derek who has now are you where are
you in the program?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Derek, I'm a recovery support manager.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Recovery support manager? Are you a former addict or recovering addict? Okay,
I'm in recovery myself, and that is very common. It's
step Denver.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It is twenty of our twenty five staff members have
been through the program themselves or are actively in recovery.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
What is the point of that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I believe it's part of the peer to peer model
where we're not just people that got a degree in
something and have that on the wall and say hey,
I read this in a book, right, it might help you.
We get to with the residents that we work with
on a daily basis. We get to tell them, hey, look,
I've been where you're at. As a matter of fact,
I've been in this program myself. I'm not asking you
(01:10):
to do anything that I haven't done, but I'm going
to give you suggestions and experience through my lived experience
to help you get out of this cycle of addiction.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
How did you end up in STEP in the first place.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I was homeless before I got to STEP, and I
went to a detox and the counselor that was there
when I was seeking treatment said you might want to
try this place called Step Denver, And I was out
of options, and so I was willing to do anything
at that point.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
So you really were at rock bottom definitely when you
first came into the program. And when you enter the
program it's called STEP because there are steps that you
go through and they are physically manifested in where you sleep.
And when you first come into the program, you have
these barracks. You know, you're out with all the other guys.
What was that like for you when you got there
and you realize like, okay, I'm going to do this.
(01:58):
Tell me what that part was like, Like, how you
made that first step.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, So my experience with STEP, like I should mention that,
like I chose to sleep on the street instead of
the shelters because it was safer and cleaner on the
street than in the shelters. And so I went into
STEP with the expectation with if it looks, smells, or
feels like a shelter, I'm not going to stay. And
(02:22):
so when I walked in and I saw how immaculately
clean it was twenty four to seven, and how kind
and comforting the staff members were. And then like I
get a bed to sleep on instead of like a bunk,
and it's like a really nice bed, and I get
a closet, and the living space was like beyond what
I was expecting, and it made me like immediately when
(02:43):
I walked in, it felt like home. It felt like
a brotherhood, and it felt comfortable and I felt welcome.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
How did you fall into addiction in the first place.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I got introduced to drugs and alcohol at a very
young age, just being exposed to in the environment that
I grew up in.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So tell me about what has happened for you just
as a human since you became You got sober, and
then you committed to the program, and now you're actually
working for the program. How has that evolution been for Derek.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I mean, it's been life saving and life changing. To
be honest, I'm a completely different person to the selfish,
self centered, egotistical full of pride and guilt and shame
and fear before recovery, and now I'm the exact opposite
of all those things. I have a purpose in my
life to be of service to other people and to
(03:34):
help people, and to be a messenger of truth and
love and an advocate for recovery. And I'm very much
I'm very much a fan of recovering out loud. I'm
not shy about my recovery and I don't shout it
from the rooftops like a preacher. But I'm definitely willing
to have the conversation and have the vulnerable conversations, and
I lean into discomforts and I lean into fear, and
(03:57):
I only know how to do these things and just
be a regular citizen in our community, like tax paying
member of our community, like a good member. I only
know how to do those things because Step and the
twelve Step fellowships that I got involved in.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Megan, You guys how many people do you think you've
actually helped over the years. I mean, you know, I've
sud asked me thousands. When did Bob Kote start this?
What year?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So we were founded in nineteen eighty three. We have
served thousands of men over the years, but last year
we served almost four hundred men. So we're now serving
about four hundred men per year. So, and the key
is it's not just servings, right, So we consider a
man served when they've been in our program five plus days.
(04:40):
We don't consider them served because they had a place
to stay for one night or we provided them with food.
To us, true service is they learned something they can
put into action in their life that is going to
have an impact in their quality of life, their ability
to recover, their ability.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
To be self sufficient.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And so we consider men served after they actually received
career coaching and peer coaching from men like Derek and
gone through you know, some of our curriculum and meetings
and received things that they can actually apply. And so
I think that's the difference too. When you look at shelters,
it's like heads and beds, right, how many nights did
they stay for us? It's about them actually receiving the
(05:20):
tools that they need to become the people that they're
capable of being. You see what Derek is doing every
day in his life, the impact he's having on these men.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
And we don't want lives to be wasted.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
We don't want people on the street living in misery
and despair. We want them to have purpose and that's
our main goal, is that they can sustain where I
learn it step after they leave, not just oh great,
we served four hundred men.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
This is a challenging population. Addiction is a real tough
thing and there's a lot of relapse and things of
that nature. Do you feel like because of the program?
And either of you can answer this, because this program
is and I never want to knock any kind of
rehab like there's a there's a form of rehab that's
going to help people. It may not help all people,
but I am all in favor of any program that
(06:05):
I want to be clear about that. But the thing
I like about STEP is that it does require that
accountability portion. It requires self sufficient It requires you to
go out and get a job, It requires you to
do these things that bring you back into society. Is
that do you think that's why it's so successful. I'm
gonna ask Derek that I.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Do believe that's why it's so successful. That I was
telling Megan the other day and spoke about it this morning,
as well as like we recover in real time. Life
isn't on pause. We're able to go do those life
things instead of just focusing just on one thing for
eight hours a day, which is my addiction and the
recovery from it. But like I actually get to save
(06:46):
my money, I get to be accountable for my actions
within this community. I get to go to the store
and cook my food. I need to be able to
learn how to make my bed in the right way
and be accountable for all those things.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
But also like.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Really just build habits that are going to carry me
once I get out of said program, because it's going
to end eventually.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I love the way you just said I get to
do these things. I get to have a job, I
get to do these instead of I have to. That's
a pretty significant mindset situation there, you know. It's that
I get to do these things, not I have to.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Megan, how much does it cost to per man Yeah,
it's five It's just over five thousand, fifty two. Hundred
dollars per man, and that's for the entire stay. So
most men are staying with us for four to six months,
some up to two years. But if we look at
how many men we serve in a year in our
total expenses, it's about fifty two hundred dollars per man,
which by the way, is one sixth of the cost
(07:41):
I did the math on one of these hotels, one
sixth of the cost of just putting someone in a
hotel room. And so for a fraction we are able
to help men become self sufficient, get out of that
cycle of dependency, and be able to contribute because they
have a lot to contribute, by the way, to their
community and to their families.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And just for the person on the text line who
asked if Mayor Mike had done the tour of step
Denver yet, that is a big fat no. I asked
Megan that when he came in, if you would like
to help out step Denver, and if you're like me,
I love a hand up program. They could use your donation.
Today I put a link on the blog today where
you can go straight to the Colorado Gives page. What
(08:21):
is the benefit of working through Colorado gives instead of
a direct donation. Well, there are a couple.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
One is the Colorado Gives Foundation does an incentive fund match,
so we will have a larger percentage of that incentive
fund at the end of the day based on how
many people are supporting step Denver among all of the
other charities that they're supporting today. We also have a
twenty five thousand dollars match. We have an individual who
has stepped up and said I will match dollar for
(08:46):
dollar up to twenty five thousand dollars gifts that are
received on this show.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
If you just need to hit twenty five thousand dollars,
then you hit another twenty five.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I about five thousand dollars from that last I was
going to look on.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
This right now. It doesn't have the thing on there.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Getting updates from our director of development. And right before
we left Step to come here, we were about five
thousand away from lat so here we go.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
It is yeah, well, no, it's that's a different match. Okay,
it's weird.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
There's another cool thing that's happening is Colorado Gives Foundation.
Any new monthly donation that's made today through Colorado gives
dot org slash step Denver. People who sign up for
a monthly gift Colorado Gives Foundation will match their first
donation okay, dollar for dollars, so there are a couple
of different matches. There's one other benefit which is new,
the Homeless Contribution tax credit, So people who give one
(09:34):
thousand dollars or more to STEP Denver are eligible for
a twenty five percent tax credit on that gift, So
twenty five percent of their gift they'll get back in
a tax credit on their federal or state TAXI state
state of Colorado.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
All right, my friends, there you go. How long is
the waitlist for STEP Denver. We never have a waitlist, okay.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We were actually an overflow two weeks ago for the
first time, so I've been there six years and I've
never seen us full. And a couple weeks ago we
hit sixty one or sixty two and the sixty.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Three bed capacity.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
We actually say we're a sixty bed facility, but we
have three overflow beds, okay, and we had one overflow
bed open. So we're very grateful that right now the
demand is actually leading men to our doors. Men are
making that choice. But the fact of the matter is,
at any given time, there are over one hundred and
fifty beds open in this community. We do not have
a shortage of beds for people to have.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
A shortage of people taking them. Correct. I do want
to say you do have to go to the program sober, yes,
meaning if you are intoxicated on anything, you have to
sober up before you can come through the door, which
I think is reasonable because all of the other men
there are trying to maintain their sobriety and they don't
need to be around someone who is not sober. But
you can go to detox and then go straight to
(10:47):
step Denver and that is something that's what you did. Derek. Absolutely, Yeah, guys,
I really appreciate you coming in. I love the program.
I'm so excited you're expanding into Colorado Springs. When is
that open?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
We are this time next year we hope to have
our doors open fifty bed facility in Colorado Springs. It'll
be called STEP Springs. It is our first replication of
this program. We've now got a forty plus year history,
we have proof ten years of data proving this works,
and so now our mission is to take this model
into communities and reach more men in need of this
program men like Derek give them that opportunity. So Derek
(11:19):
will be moving to Colorado Springs to help us launch
that and give other men the same opportunity he was given.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
They're lucky to have you, Derek.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I'm blessed to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Megan shay From an executive director of step Denver and Derek,
thank you so much.
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