Sometimes the impact of poverty is visible — such as seeing a homeless person’s tent near the side of a road — but often the steps that lead to a life crisis for someone struggling with poverty go by unnoticed.

That’s why the nonprofit Westside CARES seeks to give resources and compassion to residents living in the area south of the Air Force Academy, north of Fort Carson, east of the El Paso-Teller county line and west of Interstate 25.

With more than 300 volunteers who reach 10,000 residents a year with services targeting needs for affordable housing, food, health care, mentorship, administrative services and more, Westside CARES indeed lives up to its name.

“We want it to be easy to access resources,” said Kristy Milligan, the organization’s chief executive officer. “We work really hard to make sure we can offer multiple resource and intervention options.”

Milligan, who is Westside CARES’ only full-time staff member, onboarded in 2017, but the legacy of providing resources and kindness to residents in need dates far earlier. The nonprofit’s roots, according to its website, reach to the early 1900s with the El Paso County Poor Farm, which existed until the 1970s and functioned as a temporary shelter until 1984.

That’s when a number of the city’s west-side churches came together to fill the gap, with help coming solely from volunteers. By 2013, Westside CARES had some part-time staff and opened a location at 2808 W. Colorado Ave., where it still operates today as an interfaith organization.

Milligan is quick to stress that faith is not a prerequisite to receive help.

“We believe in relationship and person-first service,” Milligan said. “We want to be with people as they are, not as we want them to be.”

However, Milligan recognizes that many are brought into volunteer work because of their faith, citing the Bible’s call to “love your neighbor.”

For one volunteer, that inspiration led them to offer free showers at The Sanctuary Church on West Colorado Avenue, eight blocks from Westside CARES.

One of the foremost resources making an impact at Westside CARES is the Housing Navigation program, Milligan said, which serves 500 people a year and addresses the issue of affordable housing preventively and remedially.

Among the program’s recipients, 80%-85% are housed and have an income of some sort while 15%-20% are experiencing episodic or chronic homelessness.

“That could mean (helping) an older person on fixed income whose rent just doubled, so it could be someone’s Grandma,” Milligan said. “Or it could be someone who’s been homeless 20 years who wants to get inside.”

Milligan said there’s evidence the program is working. Since its inception in 2018, nearly 150 people have been housed with a retention rate of 90%. As of mid-October, 31 people this year were placed into housing. Nearly 70% of those were age 50 and older, with 30% age 60 and older. Plus, Milligan said, 10 children younger than 18 were taken off the street.

“That is just to say the vast majority that get housing take someone with them, and it’s often a child or grandchild,” she said.

Children also make up about one-third of Westside CARES’ food pantry recipients.

Whether young or elderly, Milligan said that maintaining human dignity is core to Westside CARES’ mission. That’s why the organization refers to those receiving resources as “neighbors,” not “clients” or “consumers.”

“It’s very important for us to have the trust of our neighbor,” Milligan said, because “it is very likely someone walking through the doors is often experiencing the worst day of their life.”