A merger of two like-minded Colorado Springs nonprofits will expand services for the homeless population, people exiting incarceration, and others in the community who need help attaining sobriety, getting off the streets and returning to a better life.

Hope COS — founded in February 2022 by a former Colorado Springs Fire Department Homeless Outreach Program employee Melissa Oskin to provide street outreach for the homeless population, life-skills training, recovery support and popup winter warming shelters — and The Redemption Project — which launched just over a year ago with sober living quarters and programming for men — are combining their skills and resources under the name Hope COS.

While The Redemption Project will dissolve as a 501c(3) nonprofit, its work will continue as a program of the restructured organization, said Oskin, executive director of Hope COS.

The new offices of the combined organization are at 1647 S. Nevada Ave. The former motel had been remodeled as a homeless shelter for families with children, which opened in February 2020 and closed in July 2022, citing financial problems.

The location then became a respite center for convalescing homeless people, but that operation also was short-lived.

For the past year, The Redemption Project has been leasing the old motel for a sober-living complex that houses up to 31 men who were in prison or living on the streets. Participants work a program to sustain their sobriety from alcohol and drugs, gain employment, take classes, volunteer in the community and become self-sufficient.

“I think the merger will provide more opportunities for the people that want to do something different,” said Jesse Sandlin, who entered the program seven months ago and is scheduled to transition to traditional housing next week.

He also has been hired by the organization as a peer recovery specialist to coach clients.

“There are a lot of sober-living homes in Colorado Springs, but I feel our approach is unique with the peer coaching, and the relationships the staff have with people in the program really help you out,” he said.

Sandlin often is the overnight on-call guy, who responds to a request that might come in at 3 a.m.; for example, from a mother whose adult son is receiving fluids at the hospital while detoxing and has decided it’s time for a change in his life.

“We’ll pick them up whenever they need us,” said Keith Ziebart-Knouse, who spent 52 days in The Redemption Project’s sober-living program before getting hired as a peer recovery specialist.

The organization will open two new sober-living residences — one for men and the other for women — in the next 30 days, said Dominque Knowles, who was executive director of The Redemption Project and is now associate director of Hope COS.

And in February, Hope COS will take possession of the defunct Circle S Motel next door at 1639 S. Nevada Ave., and turn it into a men’s sober-living facility, she said.

The existing sober-living center will switch from serving men only to serving women in recovery and their children, said Knowles, who’s also a certified parent and family support specialist.

The growth will bring the organization’s bed count to well over 100.

Boards of the two organizations approved the merger last week, Oskin said.

“We’ve been working together since The Redemption Project opened last year, and we realized it just makes sense to be one organization instead of two,” Oskin said.

Many of the sober-living clients came from street outreach by Hope COS, which also has provided scholarships for men who cannot afford the program.

Most of the 12 employees — all who were formerly incarcerated or homeless — transitioned from volunteers to paid staff a few months ago, Oskin said.

“So they’re able to say, ‘I know the struggles you come from. I know the pain you’re in. And people can see the end of the tunnel,” said Patrick Callas, peer supervisor, reentry supervisor and shelter supervisor.

Hope COS will continue to provide “harm reduction” emergency sheltering for homeless people when overnight winter temperatures drop below 20 degrees. The Sanctuary Church will remain the primary host, Oskin said, with Vista Grande United Church of Christ as a secondary popup site.

The organization’s Hope House at 5440 N. Union Blvd., where its offices have been located before the merger, will serve as a third temporary shelter. The center will continue to host recovery meetings, life-skills training, support groups and other programs.

Most clients of The Redemption Project helped out at the warming shelters, Oskin said, which Hope COS started in December 2022 after a homeless man froze to death that November.

“Some of our guys started to volunteer at the shelters because they felt a need to give back for their recovery,” Callas said.

Clients pay a $150 one-time intake fee and $670 a month for the sober-living program. Participants must meet requirements such doing random urine and blood analyses, having a sponsor and a peer coach, attending pro-social activities, working or volunteering, and learning how to live on their own.

“It’s one thing to go to detox and get sober, but after that housing and community come into play in maintaining and sustaining their recovery,” Knowles said. “Our model includes peer support, housing, basic needs and spirituality. You learn to live in recovery, day in and day out, for the rest of your lives.”

While Hope COS is not a faith-based organization, spirituality is a component of the holistic approach to sobriety that it uses.

“We serve from the heart,” said Callas, who was in sober living for nine months.

“We work so people are able to have a life that doesn’t include getting high or getting drunk every day,” he said. “We want you to keep growing and pushing and have a new life.”

The program has an 87% success rate of maintaining and sustaining recovery, among nearly 90 men served in the past year, Knowles said.

“I don’t think I could have been anywhere near where I am now without this type of assistance,” said Ziebart-Knouse, who has been clean for four years. “The thought that I can be a person who helps other people is mind-blowing to me.”