Denver's Donation Meter Program has increased public awareness and civic engagement in its 10 Year Plan and reduced panhandling.

Denver prioritized public education and community engagement as essential to the successful implementation of its 10 Year Plan, Denver's Road Home. A Donation Meter Program initiated in the Spring of 2007 has provided an opportunity for individual citizens to participate directly and productively in Denver's Road Home to provide housing, employment, behavioral health treatment, and other services to homeless and at risk individuals and families in the community. The Donation Meter Program is a promising response to citizen and business concerns about panhandling.

Under the Donation Meter Program, parking meters are painted red, redesigned with Denver's Road Home decals, and installed in strategic downtown locations with significant foot traffic and panhandling issues. Coin donations can be made into the meters as a means to engage citizens and redirect money given to panhandlers into local initiatives that provide meals, job training, substance abuse counseling, housing, and other programs.

Local businesses are supporting the initiative by adopting the meters for $1000 each per year. Denver Public Works make collections from the meters, with 100% of the monies collected made available to support Denver's Road Home initiatives.

The collections are turned over to the Mile High United Way which is partnered with the city and county of Denver and is the financial steward for Denver's Road Home. The money is distributed to service providers to address gaps in homeless services including housing, employment, prevention efforts, and medical, mental health, and substance abuse treatment.

Homeless and at risk individuals and families benefit from the increased availability of housing, employment, and other services supported with the money collected from the Donation Meters Program.

Denver's Road Home benefits from increased visibility in the community and with that has come:

• greater awareness among citizens of the scope of homelessness in the community and solutions that end homelessness in their community
• greater understanding of the cost effectiveness of the investments being made through the Plan and the results being achieved
• more civic engagement through the act of donating

Residents and businesses in the Downtown Business District and other areas of the city where the meters have reduced the incidence of panhandling, leading to a perceived improvement in the quality of life.

36 meters were installed in the spring of 2007 at strategic downtown locations that had significant foot traffic and panhandling issues.

The first increment of meters expanded to 86 meters including 10 at Denver International Airport, and the Donation Meters Program generated $15,000 in coin donations from citizens in this first year.

$86,000 in revenue was generated from the business community where businesses adopted meters at $1000 apiece per year.

City officials say that the revenues collected in the first year totaling nearly $100,000 have "exceeded their expectations" and that the Donation Meters Program will generate over $500,000 in sustained revenue over the next five years to support Denver's Road Home initiatives.

The Downtown Denver Partnership reported an estimated 92% reduction in panhandling in the first year of the Donation Meters Program.

Just as Denver looked to the example of Baltimore's green "Make a Change" meter program in 2006, and Portland, Oregon's Business Alliance initiative called "Real Change, Not Spare Change," Denver's own launch created a new wave of inquires about replication from more than 20 cities. Denver reported coast to coast interest, as well as inquiries from Dublin, Toronto, and Montreal.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has said of his city that: " People choose to come to live in Denver because of Denver . . . the quality of life available here. So we have a population more willing to invest in itself and more demanding of solutions and positive outcomes." In 2005, Mayor Hickenlooper lead development of a 10 Year Plan to end homelessness, Denver's Road Home that was concrete about its intention: to invest in cost effective measures that would bring measurable results in ending homelessness in the community.

Mayor Hickenlooper and his public-private partnership in Denver's Road Home team - including former Department of Human Services Director Roxane White and 10 Year Plan Manager Jamie van Leeuwen - have continually sought new ways to engage the broader community in opportunities "to own Denver's Road Home" and be part of solutions. Denver became an early adopter of the Project Homeless Connect innovation and has convened 6 Project Homeless Connect events since December 2005. 250 congregations representing hundreds of volunteers have responded to the Mayor's call on the faith community to mentor at risk and homeless families. Through a combination of innovation and replication, Denver's Road Home achieved an 11% reduction in overall homelessness and a 36% decrease in chronic homelessness in its first two years of implementation.

The Denver Business Improvement District in 2005 helped commission a survey showing that that more than $4.5 million was being given directly to panhandlers each year in Denver. The survey also showed that over 42% of Denver adults had given directly to a panhandler in the prior year. City partners were determined to engage the community's good will and redirect it.

The Business Improvement District ensured that over 150,000 brochures about the initiative were distributed to office workers and residents, with posters and education materials in target areas serving as a reminder to the public to give in ways that have long term, positive impacts.

Denver Public Works, Denver's Road Home, Leadership Denver, the Downtown Denver Partnership, Mile High United Way, rabble+rouser, and OZ Architecture worked together to coordinate the meter design, decal messaging, printing installation, and meter sponsorships. Mile High United Way and Leadership Denver alumni coordinate annual meter sponsorship.

To learn more about the Denver Donation Meters Program and other Denver's Road Home initiatives and results, visit www.denversroadhome.org

To read about the " Give Your Change to Make A Change" Baltimore effort, visit the web site.

20 in 20, A Month of Innovations, continues on Monday with a Special Issue focused on:

Soldier On: An Employment Strategy with Results
for Homeless Veterans in Massachusetts

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