Urban Peak Colorado Springs
Urban Peak helps homeless youth and youth at risk of becoming homeless overcome real life challenges by providing essential services and a supportive community, empowering them to become self-sufficient adults.
Urban Peak Colorado Springs includes the Outreach Street Team, health care and services for youth, apartment program, shelter facilities, and counseling programs necessary to achieve our mission. Urban Peak also aids in achieving education and employment goals through various programs.
Outreach Street Team
The purpose of UPCS’s Outreach Street Program is to provide outreach services designed to build relationships between UPCS staff and runaway, homeless, and street youth with the ultimate goal being to keep youth safe and help them leave the streets. Outreach Case Managers network in the community seeking out youth who live on the streets and in uninhabitable environments. The team’s main goals are to build trusting relationships with these youth and to help connect them to UPCS and community resources until they are ready to seek shelter or other services. The approach to serving this population is to integrate case management services, innovative programs, the principles of Positive Youth Development, Trauma-Informed Care, and Harm-Reduction in order to build trust. Outreach Case Managers assist approximately 400 unduplicated youth each year.
Healthcare Services
Youth experiencing homelessness are more likely to have physical and mental health issues because of the challenges of life on the street, so Urban Peak Colorado Springs employs a full-time healthcare coordinator to support youth access to medical and mental healthcare.
Some youth need just the most basic of services, such as dental care, procuring eye glasses or scheduled vaccinations. For a young person, good healthcare experiences can make a big difference if they’ve lacked an adult to appropriately care for their well-being. Building a trusting relationship with medical providers and with people who can support their health and wellness can be a crucial support.
Peak Vista Community Health Centers supports our mission by providing a licensed healthcare professional to hold office hours once per week at our on-site clinic. This ready access to health care, provided in a confidential space that youth trust, increases the chance that common health related issues such as colds and infections, as well as more serious issues such as sexually transmitted infections, don’t go untreated.
One of the cornerstones of our health care program is our weekly Healthy Living class. In the classes, facilitated by either the Health Services Coordinator or an outside presenter, clients learn about a variety of health related topics. Past sessions have included: Hygiene, Health and Wellness, Sleep, Body Image, Stress Reduction and Massages, Nutrition and Healthy Cooking Group, Suicide Awareness, CICP/ER Usage, Skin Cancer, Smoking, Flu, Healthy Relationships, and Sexual Health.
Shelter Facilities
Urban Peak Colorado Springs emergency shelter, is a 20 bed facility for youth ages 15 through 20. At the shelter, youth have their basic needs met—from meals to personal hygiene—in a safe environment. Beyond basic needs, youth at shelter receive intensive case management, health services, and education & employment support, which are all designed to empower each individual youth to build toward self-sufficiency based on their own identified goals and needs. Youth can also participate in a variety of life skills classes, the bike program, and take part in activities in the community, which range from hiking trips to volunteering. The youth served at the shelter come from a variety of backgrounds, and we strive to be a safe community for all youth, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, class, educational background, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ability status.
