Faithventure Forum

Later this fall, Belay Enterprises  celebrates its 20th Anniversary of offering employment and job-training in its home improvement thrift store, Bud’s Warehouse and its five other employment training business start ups. Over the years, Belay has served hundreds of individuals looking to rebuild their employability while dealing with addiction, homelessness or prison. The organization plans to mark this 20 year milestone by growing employment opportunities for the people it serves and by hosting an anniversary banquet. Like any new social enterprise, the Belay story is one of ups and downs. In 1994, a group of Christian businessmen and urban pastors, all with a heart for urban Denver, began meeting under the leadership of  Mile High Ministries . Out of these discussions grew Belay and its desire to impact the employment side of poverty. The organization's first project was Bud's Warehouse, a home improvement thrift store that recycled leftover construction and home...

Brad Behan produced an excellent video for Greenwood Community Church that captures the spirit of our various faith venture projects at Belay Enterprises . It's well worth the time to watch and share with others: Belay Enterprises: Incubating Jobs for Individuals Rebuilding Lives from Addiction, Homelessness and Prison from Belay Enterprises on Vimeo .

Our partners Dry Bones Denver have produced an excellent video that tells the story of two of the participants in Purple Door Coffee , the project we have started together to employ youth transitioning from homelessness. The video gives excellent insight into the challenges our clients face and the real value organizations like Purple Door, Dry Bones and Belay provide to the Denver community. Check it out:

Many thanks to ZeroSun Pictures for this excellent video on our Purple Door Coffee project that employs and job trains young adults transitioning from homelessness. Kudos to Mark Smesrud and Madison Chandler for all their hard work building this beautiful expression of God's love for homeless young adults. Purple Door Coffee from Purple Door Coffee on Vimeo .

Belay's Purple Door Coffee project to employ homeless young adults received a very small mention in an article on the redevelopment of the Five Points Neighborhood  in the New York Times: After buying that building and successfully developing it into four small retail spaces and five apartments, last year Mr. Beal renovated a building on Welton Street and leased out four retail spaces to businesses that include the Purple Door Coffee Shop and Winter Session, a manufacturer of high-end, handcrafted canvas and leather goods. In Denver, Beat Starts to Pick Up in a Once-Thriving Hub for Jazz , New York Times, August 20, 2013. Read the whole story here .

Over a year ago, Madison Chandler and Mark Smesrud joined the Belay Enterprises' team to start Purple Door Coffee  to employ formerly homeless young adults. Today, they are about to explode in excitement as Purple Door is weeks away from opening its 30th and Welton location in Five Points. Stay tuned as we announce some grand opening events in April. This has been quite the journey of God's faithfulness and provision with over $100,000 in start-up funding generously provided by donors in response to Mark and Madison's dream. Without a doubt, God passionately loves homeless kids and is providing resources for unique organizations mirroring that love. I am also excited because the commencement of this project bring to fruition our vision of partnering with other organizations to create jobs for people rebuilding lives. A few years ago, we became convinced that the only way to meet the incredible needs for transitional jobs was by changing our approach from focu...

I am so excited we are nearing our start-up funding goals for our planned Purple Door Coffee shop to employ some of the large number of homeless young adults in the Denver area. Our talented Purple Door leadership team of Madison Chandler and Mark Smesrud have done a fantastic job sharing the vision for this project with the community positioning us for the next step which is renting the shop location. Please keep praying for this project and stay tuned for more updates as we continue developing this program. And here's my thoughts on Purple Door in a recent interview: Jim Reiner Interview from Purple Door Coffee on Vimeo .

There's been so much going on at Belay the last month that I've been struggling with blogging. Today, I read Madison Chandler's blog post, The Widow and the Lottery Ticket and I had to share. I am very excited to watch Purple Door Coffee grow under Madison and Mark's leadership. I talked about how we are working to raise money to open Purple Door Coffee and that we are also raising our salaries and spoke briefly about the stresses that come along with raising money. After explaining these things, one of the ladies, Linda, quickly reached down into her purse and pulled out a small, square piece of paper. She handed it to me and said, “I don’t have any money to give, but I just won $25 on this lottery ticket and you should have it!” Read the whole post here .

Check out this new video from Belay's Purple Door Coffee project which will serve young adults exiting homelessness. As one homeless young man poignantly shares, "I want a job...I really do." Please feel free to share as we strive for a September 2012 opening. Purple Door Coffee from Purple Door Coffee on Vimeo .

I've shared before how important our weekly Wednesday hood-check is to the success of our employment and job-training program at Bud's Warehouse . Madison Chandler, who along with Mark Smesrud is starting a Denver coffee shop to employ homeless young-adults under the Belay umbrella, writes about her first hood-check experience in a recent post on the Purple Door Coffee blog : Every morning before Bud’s Warehouse opens, the employees all meet for one hour with Andy, the manager of Bud’s. Depending on the day, the hour is devoted to education, personal check-ins or bible study. At the personal check-in meeting, everyone has an opportunity to talk about what is going on in his or her personal life. Some people talk about their children; some people talk about housing; some people talk about their relationships; some people talk about their addictions. It really is a beautiful time that is totally devoted to understanding the lives of the people that surround you e...

I am excited to welcome Mark Smesrud and Madison Chandler to the Belay team as they spearhead the development of Purple Door Coffee to employ young adults leaving homelessness in partnership with Dry Bones Denver . Over the next few months, they will be raising start-up funding as well as coordinating the numerous activities that need to be undertaken for an early fall opening. Mark has started sharing about his journey of opening a faithventure business here. I encourage you to check it out for a front row seat to watch this business as mission develop. Today, he writes about the idea of opening a "just business:" “It’s just business”. This is a statement people use when someone gets burned. Someone gets the short end of the stick. It’s become a qualifying statement for when someone has treated another individual as a business deal instead of as a human being. Because of this it seems that business has become something that is incongruent with the...