Purple Door Coffee Shop back in the Mile High City, helping fight youth homelessness

One coffee shop in Denver is continuing its mission of changing lives one cup at a time.

Purple Door Coffee Shop is back in the Mile High City after closing its Five Points location back in 2019 to focus on the roastery.

During this time, the shop also worked on creating a more accessible social enterprise for building jobs and soft skills for homeless youth and young adults.

At least 2,500 people under the age of 24 said that they are experiencing homelessness in the Denver metro area, according to the 2021-2022 State of the Homelessness summary.

The process of brewing coffee is synonymous with building a new life for yourself, one must tread carefully to get a tasteful result.

That's what David Jepson, a participant in the Purple Door Job program did in his process of rebuilding a new life for himself.

Grinding coffee beans at work and grinding in life, Jepson loves being a barista at Purple Door Coffee Shop, which is now located in North Capitol Hill at 1640 Sherman St.

"There's a certain amount of finesse in it that makes you feel good," said Jepson.

The 34-year-old has found this new passion through his hardships.

"Going through anything that involves structure after so long of being in chaos is always difficult," said Jepson.

He knows this because he turned to the streets after his mother passed away when he was 19. He then felt alone and found a home in the streets. He was homeless for nearly a decade.

"I ended up on the street because the street was the only place where those feelings made sense," said Jepson.

David says he was part of this new project and helped with the opening of this new shop through the Purple Door Job program. 

Though this isn't new for him, he started working towards a new life about 10 years ago, when he started the program at Purple Door's original shop in Denver's Five Points neighborhood.

"That program was the transformative period of my life, I had been preparing for it for months," said Jepson.

For 12 months, he dedicated himself to this program, learning life skills and how to work.

Matt Wallace is the executive director of the nonprofit Dry Bones, which supports teens living in the streets of Denver, and through the organization is how the Purple Door program was created.

"Our goal is to capture the motivation of young people early in their life and give them opportunities that they have just not received," said Wallace.

The program helps train and employ teens and young adults like Jepson.

"Our mission is to help young people become employable in a way that they can support themselves and re-enter society and never have to live in the streets again," said Wallace.

Change that Jepson was ready for, as well as more than 40 other young people who decided to join the program and change their lives for good.

"Being homeless taught me that there are no circumstances you can't overcome," said Jepson.

For more on how to get involved you can visit Purple Door Coffee's official website.