Since 2000, The Epworth Foundation has been committed to providing emergency assistance and support to people in crisis in the east Denver community. Each year, we help more than 10,000 families through our food bank, support groups, youth camps, educational and mentoring programs. Our primary goal is to offer vulnerable community members alternatives to a crisis-driven lifestyle.

 

The Epworth Foundation was created to act as the social and humanitarian arm of Epworth United Methodist Church, which has been a fixture in Denver for nearly 130 years. Our foundation operates under the guiding principle that healthy families are the back bone of any thriving community. But, in our current economy, many families face an overwhelming struggle to meet their basic needs—paying rent each month, buying groceries or accessing safe, affordable child care. In fact, Since 2000 the number of people in poverty have more than doubled.

 

For families in need, The Epworth Foundation has become a trusted resource that provides food, referrals for low-income housing, a support system for raising healthy children, and so much more. As Pope Francis once said, “You pray for the hungry, then you feed them. That’s how prayer works.” With that in mind, The Epworth Foundation has strengthened our commitment to community action and social responsibility. We invest our time, energy and resources into the promise of others, with the understanding that we serve God by serving His people.

 

Our activities can be broken down into four specific core program areas: Youth, Family, Hunger and Health. Each area offers distinctive, yet symbiotic programs that provide crucial, targeted services to our clients and the community at large.

Youth

The Epworth Foundation Talent Camp is a week-long arts-based day camp that accommodates up to 100 students each year. The camp, which takes place at Manual High School, is offered to children between the ages of ___ and ___. The kids are exposed to art, music and are paired with mentors from the community. The main objectives of Talent Camp are to introduce underserved, at-risk youth to the performing and visual arts, while educating them about the potential to use the arts as a catalyst for change within their lives. We further seek to strengthen educational fundamentals of learning and critical thinking through hands-on learning experiences.

Family

The Epworth Foundation provides emergency assistance for families in crisis who have household incomes that are at (or below) the national poverty level. The families that we serve come from predominantly African American and Latino households and non-traditional families (i.e. grandparent, stepparent, aunt/uncle, non-married, etc. head of household). The core services that we offer are administered through Family to Family, a program initiated by EUMC Pastor King Harris in 2002. Family to Family provides advocates for families in need and furnishes transportation for supervised and unsupervised visitation for parents with active Denver Human Services intervention.

Hunger Prevention

Hunger relief efforts are broken down in to two components—the Food Bank and the Thanksgiving Feed-A-Family Program.

Health

The 9 Health Fair (held at Columbine Elementary School) provides health services to primarily African American and Latino youth ages 13-21. We encourage healthy lifestyle choices and promote AIDS/HIV awareness and prevention programming. Additionally, we provide education, information and services to the larger community during the special event, such as flu shots, help to quit smoking and low income health care information. The 9 Health Fair is made possible by our partnership with DPS and Inner City Health Center. Due to the overwhelming success of this program, over 200 people each year are able to get life-saving screenings in a variety of areas.

Denver Feed-A-Family

in Honor of Daddy Bruce

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