Ladies from the Castle Pines community support Denver’s Warren Village
More than 150 women attended the Fifth Great American Jacket Exchange at the Oxford Hotel in the heart of Denver. Funds from the annual event are used to directly support services that Warren Village provides to single parent families. Pictured above are Castle Pines women who came out to show their support.
Article and photo by Carin R. Kirkegaard
The Great American Jacket Exchange, benefitting Denver’s Warren Village, was held once again at the Oxford Hotel in Denver and many ladies from the Castle Pines community were in attendance enjoying shopping, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while supporting single parent families looking to start a new life.
“I was particularly grateful to the women of Castle Pines for coming out in support of this really fun event,” said Tammy Abramovitz, Castle Pines North resident and Chair of the Warren Village Board of Trustees.
The evening started with Abramovitz giving away door prizes from Silpada Jewelry, telling about the programs at Warren Village and introducing the evening’s guest speaker, a graduate from the First Steps program.
The First Steps program is a service being offered at Warren Village as a way to help motivated individuals and their children who still have some barriers to overcome before being eligible to apply for the programs at Warren Village. These may include evictions, unresolved housing debt, collections, no high school diploma or GED, or involvement in the criminal justice system.
The guest speaker, a single mother of two who had not yet attained her high school diploma or GED worked her way through the First Steps program and had just recently received her GED and moved into her apartment at the Warren Village facilities on Gilpin Street. Her story told of her plight from being homeless to entering into the First Steps Program, moving into permanent housing, starting college law classes and finding a job, and how her goals were obtained with the help provided by Warren Village.
After hearing this inspirational story, women wiped their eyes and headed upstairs for a shopping extravaganza. With the purchase of a $25 ticket and a donation of either two purses, jackets or one of each, every event attendee was able to shop for a new to them purse or jacket to take home.
Warren Village helps motivated low-income, previously homeless single parent families move from public assistance to personal and economic self-sufficiency through subsidized housing, onsite nationally accredited child care, intensive case management, education guidance and career development. To learn more about Warren Village visit www.warrenvillage.org. 
