MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Having recently celebrated my one-year anniversary at Archway, it is with great pride and pleasure that I share this new Archway newsletter with our community. The challenges of the past year have been unlike any we have experienced in our lifetimes. Personally, we have all had to find new ways to do, well, just about everything: shop, eat, educate, work, socialize, exercise and travel. At Archway, at precisely the time our residents have needed our services more than ever, we faced enormous challenges in providing those services. For much of the past year, we have reduced our in-person services to the most essential of our offerings: food bank, which has been drawn on more than ever. Our property managers, maintenance technicians and family service coordinators have done an incredible job of remaining engaged with our residents and ensuring that they remain safe, secure, and connected in the face of the pandemic, which more than anything, has served as the "great isolator," especially for our single residents living alone. I have marveled just about every day at the resilience of our site staff in meeting the challenges of the moment and for their steadfast commitment to showing up when called upon.
At the organizational level, our leadership team and board have remained engaged in responding to the urgent needs of the day, while also looking ahead to envision and shape what Archway can be in the future. In that vein, we have worked diligently to strengthen Archway such that we will have a financial, organizational and leadership foundation to expand our reach throughout Colorado and possibly beyond. Among other initiatives, we have engaged very closely with the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC) to advance discussions with several UCC churches about how we can repurpose church properties into affordable housing. We have also shored up our balance sheet and our staff capacity, so we have both greater human and capital capacity to take on new projects. We have also added an entirely new dimension to our organization - Communications and Fundraising - which is the team of professionals who have made this newsletter a reality. Thank you!
Sebastian Corradino
