Castle Pines community members take a break from skating to pose with the birthday girl, Tammy Abramovitz, at her birthday party skate for Warren Village.

By Carin R. Kirkegaard

Warren Village, a nationally recognized award-winning program that helps low-income, previously homeless single-parent families transition into self-sufficiency, is looking to connect with the communities in the southern Denver metropolitan area.

Castle Pines North resident, Tammy Abramovitz will soon be seated as the chairperson of the Warren Village Board of Trustees and will serve a two-year term in this capacity.

“Our many friends in the Castle Pines community have been generous in the past. Volunteer efforts have included everything from girl scouts providing family meals to monetary donations that help insure our programming,” said Abramovitz.

Abramovitz’s vision for the two communities, Warren Village and Castle Pines, will be to meet increased community needs while creating new donor support.

Since 1974, more than 3,650 families have been successfully transformed through the three-pronged program that is unique to Warren Village.

The program includes safe and affordable housing, onsite family services, and a nationally accredited four-star Qualistar rated children’s learning center. There are 93 one, two and three bedroom apartments available for families with up to six children and one adult.

The Warren Village Family Services department helps residents discover an appropriate career through a vocational assessment as well as helping residents learn life-skills that are necessary in navigating a self-sufficient life. Some topics that have been addressed in the life-skills classes include parenting, financial literacy, health and nutrition.

As part of the Colorado School Readiness program, the Warren Village Learning Center focuses on developing fundamental cognitive and language skills, combined with a multi-faceted approach of encompassing family and community participation. The program is nationally certified and can take up to 135 children ranging in age from six weeks to 12 years old. The goal is for children to achieve developmental milestones that will prepare each child for school.

Warren Village residents are mostly women between the ages of 21 and 29 who have anywhere from one to six children under the age of five. Many of the women have been victims of domestic abuse, violence or crime.

In 2008, 57 percent of the incoming residents had no income. Every resident at Warren Village must commit to either go to school or work full time, attend three life-skills classes a month and volunteer in the community for two hours a month.

The idea for Warren Village began when members of the Warren United Methodist Church decided to focus the church’s tithing on assisting low-income, single-parent families caught in a cycle of poverty, homelessness and despair. The church donated the land where Warren Village is located today and started the ball rolling.

Along with the local church, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and local business leaders helped to grow the vision of Warren Village into what it is today. To date, more than 3,650 families from the Denver metropolitan area have been helped.

Residents can live at Warren Village for a maximum of two years. During this time, it is expected that residents will be able to move from basic survival skills to asset building so that each graduate from Warren Village will achieve the goal of becoming self-sufficient.

To learn more about Warren Village and to view a list of donations items needed, visit www.warrenvillage.org.

Castle Pines community member Tammy Abramovitz blows out her candles at her 7th Annual Birthday Bash and Family Fun-Filled Fun-draiser for Warren Village. Each year Abramovitz hosts a skating birthday party with donations going to help Warren Village.