Latest news with #ChrisCharles
CBS News
30-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Helping unhoused Coloradans get back on their feet: Ready to Work program and navigation center opens in Englewood
A new facility just opened in Englewood to help unhoused people in Arapahoe County. It's a collaborative effort between the Colorado county, Englewood, Littleton and Sheridan to address homelessness with an approach being seen more in the state: putting work first instead of housing first. Bringing the facility to Arapahoe County also represents a milestone in the Tri-Cities Homelessness Initiative, which addresses homelessness in these communities. CBS The new Bridge House Ready to Work Tri-Cities location is located 4675 South Windermere Street in Englewood. The facility has two programs within it, offering long term and short-term resources. For Chris Charles, going through a similar program, was life changing. Charles found has his path out of poverty, but several years ago, he found himself in jail for 6 months because of DUIs after losing several family members. "My drinking was a problem for me, and I didn't know how to cope with the emotions. I lost everything, because I wasn't able to work, and I wasn't able to pay my bills," said Charles. He then got into Bridge House's Ready to Work program. It's a Boulder-based organization founded nearly 25 years ago that began the Ready to Work program nearly a dozen years ago. A second site also opened in Aurora where they continued to focus on the Ready to Work program, which helps people get out of homelessness and into housing and employed in a sustainable way. As part of the Ready to Work program, people live in dorm style housing for nine to 12 months and get paid work opportunities. The organization has contracts with local cities, where employed people do landscaping work. Bridge House also offer wrap around services to get people out of homelessness. Scott Medina is the Director of Community Relations at Bridge House. "We're playing the long game here, to really change people's lives permanently and to get those kinds of results, you need a longer, more in depth program to do it," said Medina. The new Bridge House Ready to Work Tri Cities location is more than 13,000 square feet and can house up to 50 people long-term. The program has an 80% success rate. While the other side of the facility is the Tri Cities Homeless Navigation Center meant for short term resources like showers and laundry facilities, and up to 20 overnight beds. The Navigation Center also provides walk-in services, housing assistance, employment services, medical and mental health care. Both programs in the new facility operate as programs under Bridge House. "There are very few ready-to-work options. Housing First is very popular across the country, which is fantastic, but we take it a step further by including the employment piece," said Medina. "We also have the navigation in the same building as the ready to work program. So, we can even serve a much wider range of people through that... There are so many reasons that people become homeless in the first place, so there needs to be a lot of solutions to get out of homelessness." Medina said more than 500 people have graduated from the Ready to Work program in the last 12 years. He added, all graduates end up getting a full-time job. Those in the program must also maintain sobriety. For Charles, he believes in the program because people are given the resources they need to get back on their feet. He added, toward the end of the program, participants work with employment specialists, who can also help with writing resumes and mock interviews to help prepare people to enter the workforce and find permanent housing. "It's not a handout. We're teaching people how to take care of themselves and advocate for themselves, and that is what saved my life," said Charles, who graduated from Boulder's program and spent 12 months there. Charles got the support he needed through the program and is now three years sober. He has been out of the program for over two years and currently oversees housing operations at Bridge House in Englewood at the Tri Cities location, with compassion for residents now in the program and giving back to them. "I wanted to be a part of something that saved my life, and being a part of saving other people's lives and helping them become successful is the most rewarding thing that I've ever done," said Charles. All say it's a group effort in addressing homelessness between Arapahoe County, Englewood, Littleton and Sheridan. In a press release from Arapahoe County, the County said, "the project's funding represents a significant multi-jurisdictional commitment," as each community has helped fund the effort, which is listed below: - Arapahoe County: $1 million (American Rescue Plan Act Funds) - Arapahoe County: $577,000 (Community Development Block Grants) - City of Englewood: $850,000 - City of Littleton: $175,000 (American Rescue Plan Funds) - City of Littleton: $1.5 million Housing & Urban Development grant - City of Sheridan: $250,000 - Additional support from foundation and operational grants "Addressing homelessness and harm reduction are top priorities for the residents of Arapahoe County," said Board Chair Leslie Summey. "Our $1.5 million ARPA investment demonstrates our commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for our most vulnerable community members." "They're really looking for some very effective services to get people out of homelessness in the area and really deal with the issues that they're facing. So, they've been very excited to get a Ready to Work program in this area that will permanently people out of homelessness," said Medina. For more information about the Tri-Cities Homelessness Initiative, visit
BBC News
13-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
The Cwmbran bakery helping to tackle pollution with cream cakes
They say your pudding will spoil your tea, but it turns out cream cakes could also save the salmon in your water from a south Wales patisserie is being used to grow bacteria which can replace chemical fertilisers in farming, reducing both water and air Creme Patisserie makes about 50,000 handmade desserts a week from their Cwmbran base for clients ranging from Cheltenham Racecourse to Liverpool FC, and even the royal their waste water is being used by a biotech firm to make pollution-busting bacterial pellets after the two unlikely partners were brought together by Swansea University. La Creme Patisserie's frozen cakes are precision-cut by high pressure water saws which create 250,000 litres annually of high-nutrient "effluent".Until recently, this waste water then had to be processed in water treatment Lux Biotech, based in Baglan, Neath Port Talbot, now use the effluent - rich in carbohydrates, proteins and fats – to make their pollution-busting bacterial pellets which can either be ploughed into soil, or act as a water filtration system. Chris Charles, founder of Lux Biotech, said the company grow three types of bacteria which are suitable for organic farms. These are used to fix nitrogen into the soil, increase crop yields, and reduce ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions into the atmosphere and waterways. "Along the River Wye here in Wales in particular, we have a huge problem with agricultural run-off from poultry farms which promotes the growth of algae, sucking up oxygen from the water and strangling aquatic life," he said. "But it's even better than that, because until now treating the cream cake effluent created six tons of CO2 per year, and used a quarter of a million litres of water. With our partnership we've removed that energy-intensive process, and the water is repurposed." Dr Charles said effluent water is pumped directly into a reactor at La Creme Patisserie's Cwmbran factory, where the spores are added and "cooked" for two nutrients provide the ideal food to grow three varieties of bacteria - glutamicibacter, pseudomonas veronii and sphingobium - which all occur naturally in soil but are more effective at higher the reactor, the bacteria is grafted onto a form of charcoal called biochar, where its porous cavities provide a habitat for pellets are then encased in 3mm beads formed from a species of Biotech and La Creme Patisserie were brought together by Swansea University's Applied Research for Circular Solutions (ARCS) project, which works with businesses across Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to support the introduction of circular economy ventures, reducing waste and costs. Hannah Morris, research and innovation fellow for ARCS, likened her role to a "sort of dating agency for companies"."I think that's one of the nice things isn't it? It's finding those opportunities for industrial symbiosis – you have something to dispose of, we know somebody who could make use of it – it's really great to take the research and bring it to life," she said. "As well as this partnership, we're working on ways to repurpose plastic packaging, bale waste from music festivals on-site to make it easier to transport, and using stone dust from quarries to make a more environmentally-friendly alternative to concrete." Rob Hindle, operations director for La Creme Patisserie, added: "We've been a family-run firm for over 20 years, we're massively proud of our locally-sourced ingredients and the customers who trust in us."Thanks to our partnership with Lux Biotech and ARCS, we can now also be proud of our efforts to be an ethical and sustainable business, reducing our footprint, saving on costs and hopefully giving clients another reason to choose us."According to Dr Charles, this is just the start. "The technology itself isn't that new, but until we found a suitable source of food waste it just wasn't financially viable," he said. "We're still in the pre-revenue stage, but thanks to ARCS we can scale it up and look at other ways of utilising it. The bacteria love cream cakes, but they can adapt to any food stuff, so wherever there's a take-away or a brewery for example, we can grow them."Dr Charles said there was no reason why, "given sufficient capacity", the firm couldn't make enough beads to make them available for home gardeners to buy at DIY stores like B&Q, Homebase or Dobbies "in a few years' time".
