Banging & Clanging Landfill Demise – The Uprising of Five Points
Walking down Downing Street in Denver offers a new opportunity for inspiration these days as the Five Points gets a new facade. The Matthews Centers run the length of two city blocks and take on a host of action oriented missions to stop homelessness. Not only does Bo Matthews provide shelter for homeless, but his work crews offer training, jobs, and eventual opportunities for new business, if the person so desires to step out and stake a claim.
On a recent visit to the Five Points area of Denver, my granddaughter and I found broad smiles, warm welcomes, and friendly faces to be the common factor among residents and workers there. Of course, at not-quite two, Lizzie may have instigated many of those happy responses with her own rendition of “If you’re happy and you know it…” but, nonetheless, the location adds color and style to the city.
So, what trumps the value of property in the downtown Denver metro area, and brings a San Diego Charger (Bo Matthews) to a run down, beaten up section of Denver to spur economic recovery and urban renewal? Plastering the sides of falling facades and rejuvenating them with color inspires the neighborhood with vibrant new concepts. There’s just something about replacing the crumbling gray brick that reminds locals that there is hope. Change is possible, and living vibrant lives with clarity and a dream for the future brings a new outlook to the area.
In the old days, housing the homeless meant cleaning up a dump enough that some humans would live there out of the cold, instead of a paste-board box in the park. But this new vision for renewal and revitalization spurs the neighborhood with hope and continuity. “Our goal is to initiate dreams,” says one worker who had spent a cold afternoon on the roof of the Matthews Center preparing for winter. “Once people have a dream, they start setting goals and they strive to achieve their goals. That’s what we’re all about.”
“I’ve learned that real people who are successful these days have email. They have a continuum of existence that perforates their personal history and gives them a future. They create resources, and we want to provide a long term resource for the people who come through here,” says Bo Matthews during an afternoon discussion about the Project and his own purpose and mission for setting up the provision. “Stabilizing these people is important. They need some place to call home, an address and four walls they can depend on, and jobs that will keep them working to support themselves. But for the long drive home, they need some stability. Matthews Center is about providing stability.”
The purpose of Matthews Centers is to recreate the sense of community, integrated with business and corporate structure that sends out a “Welcome to our world…” sort of message, encouraging those who have been beaten down by society to step up and become a part of the working world, in an environment where being responsible and goal oriented is rewarded.
How can Corporate America help with this mission?
Corporate America can become an investing magnitude offering material investment into the neighborhood, injecting jobs into the neighborhood, or even providing resources for the people who have stepped up and are focused on achieving their goals. Through their gifts and participation in the development of Matthews Centers, Corporate America will be helping to build the dream.
Matthews Centers accepts donations, and plan to provide a membership subscription for those who simply want to participate in and encourage the development of Matthews Centers and the cause for which they stand. “People are our cause,” says Matthews, reiterating the fact that he sees faces, souls and human beings who need love and care, as well as accountability and encouragement, not just numbers.
“We see this as the uprising, the Phoenix of the downtown area.” Shares one resident, smiling and lifting his arms high at the newly renovated exterior of the Matthews Center. “I see our future on the horizon.”
Standing across from the final most northern point of Denver’s Light Rail System, the Matthews Center offers a fresh face in brilliant tones of yellow, red, and teal edged with upscale black metal. Across the drive sits a small restaurant, struggling to survive. The food is good, but the location is remembered as a dive. Folks haven’t yet given in to the idea that Five Points is a rising star on the horizon and started coming here as a destination in Denver. We still haven’t hit the list of most visited sites in Denver, although many travel through, they just don’t stop.
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