About the Hub
How Elevated Denver identified a critical gap and built a community-driven solution
Elevated Denver
Elevated Denver works to change how communities respond to homelessness, combining storytelling, research, and equity-centered design to develop solutions that center lived expertise and are accessible to the people who need them. The organization focuses on the systemic conditions that drive housing instability in Denver, and works alongside community members to test, learn from, and scale approaches that can prevent homelessness and support lasting housing stability.
“We’re creating a blueprint for community-driven solutions grounded in the wisdom of those closest to the challenge and designed to be responsive, effective, and scalable.”
— Elevated Denver
Identifying the Problem
Through a community landscape assessment that included in-depth interviews with over 80 unhoused neighbors, Elevated Denver identified an early and often overlooked pain point in Denver’s response to homelessness: the difficulty of finding and connecting people to resources before they fall into homelessness.
People whose housing is at risk are often facing a health crisis, loss of a job or loved one, or another issue that prompts a crisis. They often do not know resources exist to support them, or how to access them. Knowing that a food pantry or a rental assistance program exists is only a first step. Community members also need to know which programs are operating, who is eligible, and how to reach them. Closing that gap, and reducing the friction between a person in need and the resources that can help, was where Elevated Denver focused its inaugural Collaboratory.
The Collaboratory Process
Elevated Denver’s community Collaboratory approach is a structured, co-design process that brings together people from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors alongside people with lived experience of homelessness. Together, Collaboratory members first build a shared understanding of the problem and of the system conditions that allow it to persist, and then work together to design a solution, centering the wisdom and insights of the lived experts.
A central realization occurred during the first Collaboratory, held in Summer and Fall of 2024: community members needed more than a list of resources. They needed a knowledgeable, compassionate person to help them identify and get connected to the resources that could actually help them, ideally someone who understood it firsthand because they had experienced it themselves.
The Hub: A Community Solution
The Community Resource Connection Hub was the Collaboratory’s response to that need. The Hub opened in June 2025 at the Westwood Community Center in Denver, and offers one-on-one support to community members experiencing economic insecurity.
What makes the Hub different
Staffed by lived experts
Hub navigators bring firsthand experience with the systems and challenges their clients face. That shared experience shapes the whole interaction, building trust quickly and making honest conversation possible.
Trusted, accessible location
The Hub is embedded in the Westwood Community Center, a place where the community already gathers. The familiar setting lowers the barrier to access.
Human-centered, holistic approach
Staff begin by listening to a person’s full story rather than working through a form. Clients feel seen and supported, and staff are able to identify needs a client may not have named at first.
A living, vetted resource database
The Hub maintains a continuously updated database of community resources and reviews them regularly to confirm they remain accessible, responsive, and current. Resources that are no longer working are removed, and new ones are added as staff find them.
What the Hub is trying to achieve
The Hub’s goals reach beyond making a referral. The pilot set out to demonstrate that, with the right support, people would:
- Feel taken care of: understood, valued, and supported
- Get what they need: resources that are responsive to their specific situation
- Understand where to go and what to do next: leaving with clear next steps and a sense of agency
- Reach the right resources at the right moment: for people on the cusp of housing instability, this can make the difference between a temporary crisis and a longer period of homelessness
Continue reading: The Hub Journey →