Podcast Recap: Isabel McDevitt from Bridge House
Every week, Heidi and Rachel from Market Boulder will be sitting down with the entrepreneurs, owners, makers, and builders of Boulder. They’re getting behind the scenes of the market with these unique and inspiring stories that will help everyone see our community in a brand new light. Check out all the Market Meets Podcasts.
We had the pleasure of speaking with one of Boulder’s Philanthropic warriors, Isabel McDevitt. Isabel currently is the Executive Director for Bridge House, which is a non-profit that supports the homeless population of Boulder and Beyond. She is impactful and passionate about creating new and unique opportunities in the workforce for this population. Get ready to get goosebumps for the incredible work BridgeHouse and Isabel are doing for our community.
Bridge House is a nonprofit in Boulder that provides a range of services that helps adults experiencing homelessness get back on their feet. It began as a “day shelter” about 20 years ago that offered basic needs programming. Since then, it has expanded to overnight shelter and a meal program, in addition to a structured work program called Ready to Work. This work program provides a year’s worth of employment and housing so that folks experiencing home insecurity can graduate to full time jobs and mainstream housing. The mission of Bridge House Boulder is to end homelessness one person at a time, and they’re dedicated to doing so by pushing the needle of innovative solutions and employing preventative solutions to homelessness.
Ready to Work has two social enterprises: a landscaping crew that has done a ton of work for the City of Boulder and property managers in the region; and Community Table Kitchen, a catering and cafe circuit throughout Boulder. Both create jobs and meaningful employment. While the basic needs program that Bridge House runs, which includes severe weather shelter and the Community Table Meal program, sees nearly 1,300 people per year, the Ready to Work structured program has room for 44 people in Boulder, and 50 folks in Aurora. Last year, 53 people graduated into permanent jobs and housing, while 330 people exited with another form of housing, no longer requiring shelter services.
Isabel is an East Coaster who migrated from Maine, to Philadelphia, to New York City. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, but had always volunteered for different causes growing up and was eventually put in touch with an agency called Common Ground, which was developing housing models in the infamous Times Square for folks experiencing homelessness. From there, Isabel’s career snowballed, especially after she met some men from the parent program of Common Ground who were in a similar structured work program. So inspired by their motivation and professionalism, Isabel jumped right into the agency and became a job developer at a 200-bed mens’ facility in Harlem. As she worked her way up, she began to run the social enterprises, and at one point, oversaw nearly 450 men who were cleaning the streets of NYC.
It was when Isabel’s husband began training for ironman marathons that they decided to move to Boulder. With a full time job in finance in a concrete jungle, it can be hard to train for those! Given that there is a community of ironman marathoners in Boulder, they decided to move here full time.
Isabel finds herself constantly inspired by the motivation and grit of the folks she has met, despite the incredible challenges they’ve gone through. She credits a little bit of love, trust, and respect that transforms folks experiencing homelessness. “It’s amazing to see what it can do to someone’s self-esteem.”
Everyone is currently feeling the effects of Covid19 and the homeless community is no different. Bridgehouse had to make immediate changes to their model to create more physical space between people at their shelters, in order to comply with the CDC’s social distancing and hygiene requirements. They’ve partnered with the city to open the CRC (Covid Recovery Center) at East Boulder Rec Center, to help identify and isolate those of the homeless population showing symptoms. Bridge house expects to see a reduction in financial support from their social enterprises and donations with an increase in need across this population. Supporting their social enterprises including the Community Table Kitchen is one way to get involved and show your support. You can order nutritious family sized meals for pick up or delivery at: boulderbridgehouse.org.
