Important Announcement, December 2020

Dear Supporter,

We write to you today to announce that Isabel McDevitt, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of our Ready to Work Program, will be departing our organization on December 31, 2020.

Isabel has accepted a senior position at the New York City-based Doe Fund and their Ready, Willing & Able, ‘Work Works’ program to solve homelessness. The Doe Fund operates 3 different Ready Willing & Able facilities totaling 670 beds as well as 1,600 units of housing in its great work to address homelessness with innovative solutions.

The ‘WorkWorks’ model founded by Ready, Willing & Able in New York, was adapted by Isabel during her leadership of Bridge House and is thriving here in Colorado as ‘Ready to Work’ (Boulder and Aurora, Colorado).

While we are sad to have Isabel move to this exciting opportunity for her, we are motivated by three important realizations:

  1. Isabel has become and is one of our Nation’s leading voices and experts on how to most effectively end homelessness.
  2. With Isabel’s move to an organization that is roughly 10 times the size of Bridge House—as measured by the number of people served every year—there may be future opportunities for our two organizations to work together to expand the ‘work-first’ model to other cities having significant populations of people experiencing homelessness.
  3. Great leaders build strong organizations and talent and Isabel has done a truly stellar job of doing just that.

To that end, we are very proud to announce that Melissa Green, Chief Operating Officer, will be promoted to Interim Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2021.

Widd Medford, Chief Operating Officer, will be promoted and broaden his responsibilities as Vice President, Programs.

Melissa and Widd have both been with Bridge House since 2015 and have demonstrated incredible passion, leadership, and results. Both have been instrumental in serving thousands of people experiencing homelessness including the 275 individuals who have successfully completed our Ready to Work Programs, ‘graduating’ to their own apartments and jobs after living and working with us for one year.

During Isabel’s tenure, she, Melissa, Widd, and all our Bridge House leaders have collectively built a strong, supportive culture that will continue to thrive and benefit more communities throughout Colorado.

Our full leadership team will deepen their responsibilities and details will follow.

The entire Bridge House Leadership Team and Board of Directors will continue to transform lives and communities through innovative, effective, and unstoppable solutions to end homelessness one person at a time. With the increase in people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic, we realize too that our work has never been more critical for our entire Country.

 

Onward.

 

On behalf of the Bridge House Board,

-Tasha Given, Dan Hassan, Chuck Lief, Tim Wolf, Greg Beserra

A Message from Isabel –

I am thankful and honored to have been able to partner with you, our incredible community of supporters, for the past 9 years to create bold, innovative and effective solutions.

When I started in 2011 as a volunteer at Carriage House, I never could have imagined we would have come this far. Now with two Ready to Work Houses, Community Table Kitchen, and years of pushing the needle to greater impact through our efforts to make homeless services more accessible, efficient and effective, I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished together.

Thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to continuing our journey as we collaborate to take our ‘Work-Works’ model to the next level.

I am abundantly confident that my team will thrive in their new roles and continue to achieve great outcomes for the people and communities we serve. The best is yet to come for Bridge House, Ready to Work and Community Table Kitchen.

Thank you for your ongoing support – especially now given the significant impacts of COVID-19 on people experiencing homelessness.


With appreciation and gratitude,

Isabel

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