Candace Cooledge understood the landscape created by domestic violence from her time as a prosecutor, but the 2017 conference in San Diego layered more paint on her canvas. She flew back to Jefferson County with a presentation in her head and immediately got the thumbs up for a new family justice center. Seven years later, PorchLight has built a community of more than 75 partners to service victims of violence and abuse, and Starling Salon is honored to be among them.
What is a Family Justice Center?
A family justice center serves communities with varied needs, but PorchLight welcomes victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, elder abuse, child abuse, and at-risk-individual abuse. They leave no stone unturned, which is what makes them unique. Besides opening their doors to people with such different experiences, they hunt down new service providers the second they discover gaps in their resource net. PorchLight keeps the legal, medical, and other necessary services on-site and accessible by staffing navigators, hosting their partners, and minimizing the intake application process.
The Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board’s annual report for 2024 reveals that 11% of Colorado’s homicides this year resulted from domestic violence, and almost 20% of those had protection orders against the aggressor. The hardest pill to swallow in these facts is the uneven ratio between domestic violence cases and fatalities. In 2023, Colorado reported 47 cases and 58 fatalities. Those extra 11 people were collateral victims, primarily children.
How does PorchLight go above and beyond?
“Childcare is always [a service] people don’t expect,” says Nicole Lopez, the deputy director of PorchLight. She acknowledges the added difficulty their guests with children face when trying to escape dangerous situations. The risk to their kids can weigh them down. The Board’s report says, “People stay in abusive relationships and do not report abuse for many reasons, including the difficulty for individuals to leave relationships when they have children or financial dependence with the perpetrator.” PorchLight hopes that by providing child-friendly spaces, they can chip away at this statistic.
Taking that idea a step further, Foothills Animal Shelter has marked its territory at PorchLight. When leaving family behind includes the four-legged members, their Better Together program ensures a safe space for the furriest children. Chelsea Hurt, the administrative assistant, says, “PorchLight is pet friendly, as long as they’re office friendly.” Last year, the shelter assisted 84 PorchLight guests and 173 of their pets. Temporary boarding for all animals until victims secure safe housing keeps families together.
Critical legal and medical services are supported with on-site civil and criminal courthouses, therapy, and medical examinations, but the remaining partnerships focus on lesser-known needs. “I Support The Girls keeps us in supply with their donated [undergarment] items that are all brand new,” says Chelsea. Their “Needs Nook” includes secondhand clothing and hygiene products, and Starling Salon visits to offer haircuts and hair coloring. Essentials aside, PorchLight’s best-kept secret is the sensory room. What might look benign to some is divine to others, and chances are five minutes in the wellness room will realign the naysayers. It’s hard to argue with the world’s most comfortable beanbag chair and the calming effects of water lamps.
Outside PorchLight, there’s only one other family justice center in Colorado, the Rose Andom Center in Denver. “We learned from them, toured their space, and got to know them and their wonderful partners, but we wanted a broader range of victim services here,” says Nicole. To say Colorado needs PorchLight would be an understatement.
PorchLight works to eliminate hopelessness
Your partner does it again. They screamed at you for some innocuous thing, and, as usual, it resulted in a violent act. While you dab Neosporin on your cut lip and squint at the bruise forming under your eye in the bathroom mirror, you wonder what to do. Is there anyone out there who can help? Where do you even start?
Google, probably. Searching “how to leave an abusive relationship” doesn’t provide much more than the National Domestic Violence Hotline and some blogs with tips about recognizing toxic relationships. PorchLight is Jefferson County-specific, so location does matter, but would you know that when asking for help? It’s already confusing, and this is a hypothetical.
Maybe you drive straight to the police station, but that would put you in the minority. In “Making Sense of a Global Pandemic: Relationship Violence & Working Together Towards a Violence Free Society,” Balbir Gurm and Jennifer Marchbank outline why so few people report their abuse and the reasons scroll down the page. Distrusting the police was a significant factor for victims who believed the police would be ineffective or biased.
Assuming the police believe you, your next stop might be the hospital. Depending on your financial situation, will the doctors call your abusive partner in to cover costs? Are they your emergency contact? How can you be sure? Now that you’ve talked yourself out of medical care, the next logical step might be contacting an expensive lawyer.
The future of Domestic Violence in Colorado
Or, assuming you’re in Jefferson County, you can skip all that and march into PorchLight, where they accept walk-ins and do the work of sharing your story with all the above parties. Most other organizations don’t connect you to every resource you need like PorchLight does. Assuming you aren’t in Jefferson County, there’s still hope.
“Candace meets with other counties working to open family justice centers,” Nicole says. Adams County and Boulder County are deep into planning their centers, and Larimer County and Arapahoe County are open to the discussion. The three years of legwork Candace spent meeting agencies, applying for funds and constructing documents to open PorchLight will bolster other counties through the process.
What does 2025 look like?
The looming question: If the rumors about the government defunding nonprofits in 2025 are true, how is PorchLight preparing?
“We talk about three funding buckets. [First,] Jefferson County provides ongoing annual support to keep our doors open. The second bucket is federal grants and foundation funds. We’ve already seen…a 33% cut in that for 2025. Our third bucket is individual and corporate donations, which needs to be the largest bucket,” Nicole explains. It should be the government’s job to fund resource centers like PorchLight, but if the alleged changes in policy pass, they’ll be relying on their community. That’s you.
“If we have those supports, PorchLight will be fine, but it’s a scary time,” Nicole admits. She hopes that since Proposition KK passed, those future funds will offset what’s lost in federal grants. Nobody knows what to expect next year, but they’re already experiencing heavy traffic from southern states and predicting an influx.
Easy ways to support PorchLight
This growing family justice center doesn’t expect their civilian neighbors to drop by with giant cardboard checks, so unclench your hand wrapped around your wallet for a minute. There are many ways to donate to PorchLight.
I Support The Girls accepts bras and hygiene products that they redistribute to shelters and centers, PorchLight being one of many recipients. Their website instructs visitors how to donate. If you have a King Soopers card, a no-brainer is buying your groceries from a business that’s already donating proceeds. “Connect your King Soopers card with community rewards…every time you shop, they give a portion to PorchLight. They give us a great percentage,” says Nicole. It requires a digital account with King Soopers and selecting the organization you wish to support, but there’s no extra fee to customers. King Soopers slides some of what you paid over to PorchLight.
If that still feels too time-consuming, there’s an even easier way to help: Spread the word. Growing awareness means that third bucket fills up with corporate donations rather than your disposable income. That’s PorchLight’s goal. Anyone wishing to donate above and beyond, their next annual benefit will be in September 2025.
Starling Salon is proud to donate its time to PorchLight’s guests, and they’d love to stop you on the street to tell you about this impactful organization. Stylists are known people-pleasers, and to them, there’s little more satisfying than gifting an hour of wellness to someone who’s walked across the coals for an ounce of safety. As empathetic humans during this highly publicized time of year, they ask you to visit the center’s website or activate your King Soopers card and spread the word. Remember the name PorchLight because it could save someone’s life.
Learn more about PorchLight.
Read the 2019 – 2024 reports from the Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board.
Donate your items to I Support The Girls.
Link your King Soopers card to community rewards.
Schedule your next salon appointment here.
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