These offerings reflect the city’s growing commitment to creating healing-centered, collaborative, inclusive spaces that meet people where they are.
Animal Assisted Therapy Programs of Colorado
7275 Kipling Street, Arvada
Consider how hard it is to look a therapist in the eye and feel comfortable sharing your deepest truama while sitting in a tiny, stuffy office with blinding fluorescent lights. For more than fifteen years at a ranch in Arvada, Animal Assisted Therapy Programs of Colorado has been doing things differently, using 3.5 acres of outdoor space and animals to help children and adults work through challenges such as anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction and more.
“There’s almost nothing we don’t treat,” says Terri Bauer, interim director and licensed clinical social worker. Bauer sometimes has patients care for the horses, and while they’re focused on that connection, they finally feel safe to open up. Animal-assisted therapy works well for people who are hesitant or haven’t had success with traditional therapy. It’s not uncommon for Bauer to hear clients affectionately say, “I didn’t know therapy could be like this.”
Here, you’ll encounter all types of animals, including alpacas, goats, horses, ferrets, rabbits, rats, cats — there’s even an invertebrate program (yes, that means tarantulas). “Animal-assisted therapy helps people look at the world outside of themselves,” Bauer says. “The animals add a richness to therapy. If you can care about cockroaches, you can care about anything—including yourself.”
How to support: AATPC is accepting donations through its GoFundMe to help provide essential veterinary care, enrichment, and a safe, loving home for the animals who make this healing work possible. To inquire about therapy, volunteer opportunities, or to see what items they need donated most, visit animalassistedtherapyprograms.org.
Phamaly Theatre Company is an artistically rigorous theater for the disabled community.
Courtesy of RDG Photography
3532 Franklin Street, Suite T2
If you’ve seen the Wicked movie, you may know Marissa Bode; she’s an actress who uses a wheelchair. Bode is a famous alum of the Phamaly Theatre Company, an artistically rigorous theater for the disabled community. In fact, it’s the longest-running disability theater in the U.S. — and according to Artistic Director Ben Raanan, people even move to Denver to be part of this community. “We’re the only place doing work like this; it’s really unique to the Denver scene,” he says.
It’s one of the few places where accommodations are made for the actors. “Our actors are free to say, ‘Hey that light is too bright, I’m having a sensory day.’ Or, ‘The way the costume feels on my skin is setting me off.’” Phamaly produces three to five shows per year with an all-disabled cast. Shows you know and love are told through a disability lens. And as Raanan points out, 1 in 5 people are disabled, with many people becoming disabled as they age.
Raanan says the nonprofit took a big hit from Trump’s DEI cuts, so donations — especially now — are welcome. “If we were to close, all these actors would have nowhere to go,” he says. “Come see a show — it sends a message that people in the disabled community matter.”
See a show, volunteer to be an usher or donate. Dance Nation is coming up from October 9-19. For more information, visit phamaly.org.
The Phoenix
2233 Champa Street
After a night of using cocaine and alcohol, Phoenix gym founder Scott Strode said he thought about what it would be like for someone to have to tell his mom that her son died on a bathroom floor — and that was the last night he used.
For so long, Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous has been the most well-known path to addiction recovery. The Phoenix, a national sober active community, is offering another alternative.
Events include open gym or CrossFit at its Champa Street facility, plus yoga, biking and climbing. Operating on the belief that human connection to combat social isolation is a key step in addiction recovery, the gym offers weekly sober events and activities that create safe spaces for all individuals, which includes recovery meetings.
The overall mission: change how society approaches addiction and recovery, provide a place that eliminates shame from recovery, and become empowered by their own story. “If they can become an athlete, a biker, a weightlifter, a Crossfitter, then they are a little less of an addict every time,” Strode says.
How to support: To keep the programs free and accessible for all, you can donate or join the community at thephoenix.org.
“Everyone is welcome in our space, regardless of background and abilities,” says founder and Executive Director Mary Medellin Sims.
Guided by Humanity
3496 South Broadway, Englewood
Since 2017, this nonprofit has offered inclusive and adaptive yoga for people with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities. Guided by Humanity also offers mindfulness retreats, community support groups, and even social enterprises like a smoothie bus that shows up at community events. Private classes create a uniquely safe space; for example, someone might feel comfortable taking off their prosthesis or practicing yoga outside of their wheelchair.
“Everyone is welcome in our space, regardless of background and abilities,” says founder and Executive Director Mary Medellin Sims. Sims’s background is in advocacy. When she didn’t see a space that offered inclusive yoga classes for folks with disabilities, she created her own. “I wanted a space that is healing. Inclusivity means everyone is not just included but heard.”
Examples of classes offered include yoga for amputees and limb differences, yoga and meditation for brain healing, chair yoga, classes geared to students experiencing neurodiversity — even a class called “Yoga for Everybody.”
“Like any nonprofit, we need financial support to keep the doors open. Donations help us continue to support our staff and sustain our operations,” Sims says. To sign up for a class at the Lakewood or Englewood location, visit guidedbyhumanity.org.
Part event venue, coffee shop, bar, retail marketplace and community gathering place, the Town Hall Collaborative regularly hosts unique and inclusive events.
Town Hall Collaborative
525 Santa Fe Drive
Co-founders and best friends Lauren Beno and Denise Day want their mixed-use space to be a place for everybody. Part event venue, coffee shop, bar, retail marketplace and community gathering place, the Town Hall Collaborative regularly hosts unique and inclusive events. Whether it’s a Disability Disco or Poly Cocktails — a monthly happy hour for polyamorous and poly-curious people — Day and Beno are determined to support people from all walks of life.
Day says part of the inspiration for the space was her oldest son, who is autistic and has epilepsy. “It was always on my heart to find and create a space for people who don’t follow a neurotypical lifestyle,” she says. “Many spaces don’t give thought in how they’re set up. We’re always thinking of ways to show up for different communities.”
The types of events and concerts hosted varies. Town Hall Collaborative was the venue for a panel discussion about the proposed National Women’s Soccer League stadium in Denver to gather community feedback. Upcoming events include a Brandi Carlile themed intuitive painting workshop, board game speed dating, Spanish language classes and a live storytelling mic night. You can even book the venue for your wedding or holiday party.
“We are very proud to be female founders and keeping our business alive for three years in a world that is male dominated,” Day says.
Come to an event or show, book the venue, peruse the retail, or grab a drink at the bar. For a list of upcoming events, visit townhallcollaborative.com.
Access Gallery
909 Santa Fe Drive
Access Gallery was founded nearly twenty years ago as an inclusive art gallery uplifting people with disabilities through art with educational and economic opportunities.
Through the belief that everyone deserves access to the arts, the nonprofit displays and sells the work of disabled artists in its gallery, has a studio space where artists can work and provides a wide range of services, such as art commissions, murals and graphic design.
According to Access, people with disabilities experience a 70 percent unemployment rate, making the lack of economic challenges a larger challenge than the actual disability in many cases. The organization aims to provide artists with intellectual or physical disabilities who are serious about their work with opportunities and experiences to grow in their careers and crafts.
Find out about upcoming events, exhibits and how to get involved at accessgallery.org.
