From Podcast to Prevention

During the COVID pandemic, there was an economic, moral, and humanitarian crisis occurring in our country and community around homelessness. Johnna Flood, CEO and Co-Founder, had worked in the social sector for 20 years, but never directly with homelessness. She felt there was potential to work toward solving this crisis, but needed to learn more about homelessness — what was causing it, what the experience was like, and what efforts were in place to address it — before knowing how and where her skills could best be used. With a small team, Johnna set out to learn more about homelessness and the systems that were in place to address the issue. They interviewed people actively experiencing homelessness, government agents, real estate developers, business owners, and nonprofit leaders to understand how we got to this level of crisis, where we were headed, and to find hope. Through these interviews, Johnna got an amazing education that went well beyond what was portrayed in the news, and created the Elevated Denver Podcast to share these stories.

Through the process of producing the podcast, Johnna saw gaps in the system. Knowing that one person (or small organization) could not solve homelessness, she looked for places where her skills aligned so that she could effectively focus her efforts. Three points bubbled to the surface:

• So many people are working hard to provide services to our unhoused neighbors, but no one is positioned to take a step back and see how all services are functioning together. Are we meeting the needs or are there gaps?
• How do we come together, across sectors, to close those gaps?
• Where are the people with lived experience at the decision-making tables? 

In 2022, Elevated Denver’s focus shifted to support the gaps in the system and put power in the hands of people with lived experience of homelessness. Before they could understand the needs, they needed to learn more. They conducted interviews with nearly 80 unhoused neighbors to identify the gaps and strengths of Denver’s homelessness response system, and presented the findings in a Community Landscape issue brief. The Community Landscape became a blueprint for how to understand what people experiencing homelessness need, and where the system was meeting — and not meeting — those needs. 

During this time, the Collaboratory model had been taking shape. The idea for Collaboratories, which bring together small cohorts from the government, private, and nonprofit sectors and those with lived expertise to tackle a problem, was sitting in Johnna’s head since 2010. Now the question arose: “How do we meaningfully bring people across sectors together, give people with lived experience permission to lead, and collectively design a solution to one specific problem?” By 2024, Johnna and her team had engaged the right facilitator and Collaboratory members to design a solution to connect people in need of resources with those that are available. Out of that, the Community Resource Connection Hub was born, and it launched in 2025. In its first year, it has proven to be a strong model for preventing homelessness that can be replicated in other neighborhoods and cities.

With the core desire to be the most responsive to the community and the needs that arise, Elevated Denver is in a space of constant learning and responsiveness. Through joint strategic decision-making by the staff and an advisory board, Elevated Denver takes a hyperlocal approach to listen, learn, and respond to issues in Denver with the intention of sharing beyond this community so others can benefit. Johnna strongly believes that the community we serve and support knows what they need best and just may not have access to the resources. Through storytelling, research, and collaboration, Elevated Denver can amplify and center the wisdom of those with lived experiences to help create amazing, supportive communities, in Denver and beyond. We envision cities where everyone, regardless of their situation or circumstances, receives the support they need, when they need it, and are treated with dignity and respect.