Announcing the 2025 Impact100 Metro Denver $100,000 Impact Grant Award Recipient Awarded June 4, 2025
New Legacy Charter School
Located in Aurora, New Legacy Charter School offers a unique two-generational educational approach, serving both high school students and their young children. The school provides a safe, personalized learning environment tailored to the needs of pregnant and parenting teens, with an on-site Early Learning Center for children aged 0-5. This model empowers young parents to continue their education while ensuring their children receive quality early childhood education.
New Legacy Charter School will deploy the $100,000 from Impact100 to launch the 2025 school year with a seventh Early Learning Center (ELC) classroom. Historically, New Legacy begins the year with six classrooms due to uncertain enrollment projections. However, in recent years, demand has consistently exceeded expectations, requiring the school to open a seventh classroom midyear—a process that poses significant challenges. The primary obstacle is staffing. Hiring qualified teachers midyear is time-consuming and often delays student enrollment, leaving families in limbo. Starting the year with seven classrooms would eliminate this disruption, easing pressure on staff, streamlining enrollment, and ensuring students and their children have immediate access to the ELC from day one. This grant from Impact100 would enable New Legacy to proactively open a seventh classroom at the start of the academic year, allowing for smoother enrollment throughout the year and ensuring that no student is turned away due to limited classroom space. With the addition of one classroom, the Early Learning Center will grow from six rooms serving 58 students to seven rooms serving 66 students. Grant funds will specifically support the hiring of a lead teacher, an assistant and a floating teacher.
The two other finalists , Archway Communities and WeeCycle will each receive $53,222.
Archway Communities
Archway Communities is a nonprofit organization committed to providing affordable housing and supportive services to individuals and families in Colorado. With properties across the Denver metro area and Colorado Springs, Archway integrates housing with services like food security programs and social support to help residents achieve stability and self-sufficiency. Their innovative projects, such as converting former dormitories into affordable apartments, exemplify their dedication to\ addressing housing needs creatively.
Archway Communities plans to build a community garden at the Mosaic Community Campus, the site of Archway’s newest affordable housing development. This shovel-ready project will transform the shared quad between four apartment buildings into a vibrant, inclusive space featuring 25 garden plots—including one reserved for youth participating in the on-site Kids
Club program. The Mosaic Campus serves 154 units for individuals and families earning 30–60% of the Area Median Income.
Many residents face limited access to fresh, nutritious food, as well as social isolation and economic stress that can negatively impact physical and mental health. This community garden addresses those challenges while fostering connection, resilience, and wellness among residents. Gardening provides therapeutic, hands-on engagement with nature and promotes emotional well-being.
The garden will serve as a welcoming environment for residents to grow food, build relationships, and learn new skills. Archway will partner with Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) to ensure the long-term success of the project. DUG will offer residents education in gardening techniques, sustainability practices, and leadership development. In addition to growing produce, the garden will host community events such as harvest celebrations, cooking classes featuring garden-grown ingredients, and sustainability workshops. These programs will be coordinated by Archway’s on-site Supportive Services Coordinator to ensure they are accessible, inclusive, and responsive to residents’ interests.
This grant will enable Archway to create a thriving, resident-led community garden that strengthens social bonds, supports well-being, and enhances quality of life for all Mosaic Campus residents.
WeeCycle
WeeCycle is a Colorado-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting families with infants and toddlers by providing essential baby gear such as diapers, formula, and strollers. Through partnerships with local organizations, they distribute these items to families facing challenges like poverty, homelessness, and under-employment. Additionally, WeeCycle promotes environmental sustainability by recycling and repurposing baby gear, thereby reducing landfill waste.
WeeCycle will expand its volunteer programming. Volunteerism is central to WeeCycle’s mission and success—when individuals give their time, they strengthen the organization’s impact and increase its capacity to process donations for families in need. Following a recent move to a larger facility, WeeCycle now has the physical space to host volunteer groups of 50 or more—more than double the capacity of their previous location. They regularly receive inquiries from corporations, schools, and community groups eager to bring large volunteer teams, and this new space finally allows them to say yes. However, to fully realize this opportunity, WeeCycle needs funding to build out and support a robust volunteer program.
Volunteers play a vital role in sorting, counting, cleaning, inventorying, and packaging essential baby gear and hygiene items—ensuring that families receive supplies with dignity. These hands-on experiences also deepen volunteers’ connection to the mission. Many become champions of WeeCycle’s work, sharing their experience with others and often becoming donors themselves. This investment will help WeeCycle maximize community engagement while expanding its reach to families across Colorado.
