Hope Communities CEO & Executive Director

Fiscal year 2009 tested the spirit of Hope Communities and every other low-income affordable housing provider across the nation. With a big percent of our funding coming from foundations, corporations and government agencies, all of which have struggled with budget deficits, coupled with a decline in our endowment due to market fluctuations, we have been challenged as never before to operate more efficiently, while maintaining a constant focus on quality service-enriched affordable housing as our top priority.

While some of our fellow providers have been forced to close their doors, Hope Communities has remained operationally strong. We have reduced our overhead costs and met personally with our residents and key referral agencies to discuss how we might better serve them in this new economic environment.

Despite the challenges we face, we continue to successfully operate seven properties across the city and we touch the lives of hundreds of individuals, along with their families, each year. Our ability to survive the economic tide is a result of the strategic focus we have employed over the course of our 30-year history, and certainly through this crisis. Our success is realized daily in the ability to truly change lives and nurture the human potential of those individuals we serve.

However, more than at any time since Ray and Marilyn Stranske raised the first funds to open the Hope Communities Neighborhood Center in the Five Points area of Denver, we need your help. The economy and the environment we operate in have not changed the needs of those for whom we serve. Nor has it altered our need for donors to partner with us, in strategic endeavors, to support the mission of Hope Communities. We remain a leader in building healthy communities through quality service-enriched affordable housing with innovative programming that focuses on the individual strengths of those we serve. With the steadfast support of our caring donors, corporate and foundation partners, we will continue to be strong. Through our strategic initiatives, and careful oversight of our finances, we are mindful of our responsibility to be careful stewards of our financial resources. For donors, you can be assured that your contributions are the means by which we carry forward our important mission to help the children and adults of Hope Communities every day.

At Hope Communities, there is much to be proud of. We are celebrating our 30th anniversary of serving those who work for a living but are in need of affordable housing. Our longevity is a testament to the strength, stability and strategy of our organization. But of all that which brings us pride, it is the individual successes of our clients, some of whom you will read about here, that gives us the greatest joy. For these individuals, and all those at Hope Communities, we ask you continue to be our partner, as we reach toward our goal of creating 350 affordable housing units in the next five years!

Larry Fullerton
CEO & Executive Director