Nonprofit That Supports Homeless Through Culinary Training Hosts First Fundraiser April 27

It's no secret that homelessness has been a problem in Denver, which is why Brad Volin started Housed Working & Healthy, a restaurant-focused nonprofit meant to not only help people get a home, but to provide them with skills to work and keep a job.

"The visibility of homelessness has dramatically increased, and like many people, I am bothered by it on so many different levels and emotions," says Volin, adding that between 2016 and 2021, the homeless population in Denver increased by 40 percent, twelve times faster than the city's housed population. "I didn’t want to be angry or bothered by the situation. I wanted to be part of the solution."

After working with a handful of community-service organizations, Volin noticed a gap. While one organization helped with finding employment, another focused on mental health, and another on housing. What really needed to happen, he thought, was to put it all together.  "It's hard for these organizations to work efficiently when they are all independent," he says. "It's called the 'three legs of the stool': You can't get a job if you don't have housing, but you can't keep housing if you don't have a job, and you can't get housed or [keep] a job if you don't have mental health."

Housed Working & Healthy's goal is to train able-bodied people without a home who want to work and become self sufficient by teaching skills needed to take a job inside a restaurant or commercial kitchen. Volin and his team find participants by partnering with local housing agencies and shelters to identify and recruit people who are ready to start working.

"In a culinary field, it's physically and mentally challenging, and you need to learn the culinary skills," he says, adding that the program consists of an intake, interview and trial process before anyone becomes committed. "Not everyone is ready for that, so we focus on the people that we think will have success."
While the program takes people ages eighteen and up, many of the students, as Volin calls them, tend to be middle-aged or older, and have spent a lot of time struggling in life for various reasons. Mental health, he adds, is often the crux of the problem, which is why working through issues is such a big part of the program. Each afternoon, four days a week, there are workshops focused on dealing with mental health that offer tools to make the students not just skilled in the kitchen, but in managing life, as well.

"Typically we have 25 to 30 students showing up to change their lives and change their trajectory in order to be self-sufficient," says Volin, who notes that many of the people in the program have had horrendous challenges, from domestic abuse to personal trauma to growing up without family support. "It's amazing to see these folks and what they are working through."

The program was created in 2018 and hosted its first class in 2020. The inaugural group included five students; now each course typically has twenty to thirty. The course was developed in tandem with the Emily Griffith Technical College and lasts three months, during which students learn to chop, dice, bake, baste and all the other skills one needs to work a restaurant job.  Through the organization's commercial kitchen, Ft. Logan Eatery, it prepares about 100 nutritious meals a day, as well as baked goods, which are sold wholesale to places like Kaladi Coffee Roasters. By the end of the year, Volin projects, more than 100 people will have graduated and maintained a secure job through the program.

On Thursday, April 27, Housed Working & Healthy will host its first fundraiser, Cocktails and Conversations, at Cableland (4150 East Shangri La Drive) The event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and guests will enjoy drinks and bites prepared by students while mingling with staff from the organization, graduates, partners, local chefs and other like-minded people. Tickets start at $75 and are available on Eventbrite.

"There are so many people out there that are bothered [by the homeless situation] but don't know how to help," says Volin. "The event is about engaging with the public, because there are so many people that have been through traumas that want to work — they just need the support."