About
Our Mission
Build women’s economic, social, and cultural capital because powerful women build healthy families and thriving communities.
Meet Our Team
Sade Cooper | sade@chicdenver.org
Co-Founder
Chief Executive Officer
”Our duties naturally emerge from such fundamental relations as our families, neighborhood, workplaces, our state or nation. Make it your regular habit to consider your roles-parent, child, neighbor, citizen, leader -and the natural duties that arise from them. Once you know who you are and to whom you are linked, you will know what to do.” (Epictetus)
I credit this core philosophy when leading and serving others. My roles, past experiences, relationships with others and connection to my community, are the leading factors to my innate responsibility to do the work I do.
”To start something is to change everything” – Sadé Cooper
Hilari Smith | hilari@chicdenver.org
Co-Founder
Chief Operations Officer
Being taught the importance of family and community relations at a young age, I know the positive affects of being surrounded with love and support in your life, and the difference it can make without it. I believe we often forget we have all been blessed with a superpower, which is the ability to Love. My personal commitment to invest back into my community and the women and girls who mirror who I am stems from my inherited responsibility to love.
”It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde
Katherine Casey, ED.L.D. | katherine@chicdenver.org
Chief Stratagy Officer
All young people are intelligent, creative, and filled with potential. After fifteen years in public education, I believe deeply in the power of our youth and the urgency of the work we must do to make our communities safe, equitable, and sustainable. With faith in children and refusing to accept inequality as a given, I commit to supporting allied efforts that enable educational, social, and economic justice. I believe that WE are the ones we have been waiting for: the change we need will come from the collective passion, wisdom, and capacity that exists within our communities.
”Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” – Fannie Lou Hamer
Director of Workforce
Every woman has insight and wisdom that needs to be heard. As women, we come from a place of compassion, intelligence and grace AND we are not run by our ego’s. Women have been and continue to be silenced, marginalized and oppressed by men, society and systems. We know our worth and are coming into our power as daughters, mothers, sisters, friends and colleagues. CHIC is changing the narrative and creating power, opportunity and wealth in the lives of girls & women. I could not be more honored to be part of this team of women who are working and living tirelessly to empower and support all of us.
“I raise up my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard…..We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” –Malala Yousafzai
Mercy Kibet
mercy@chicdenver.org
Executive Assistant
The importance of community was something that was instilled in me at a very young age. Community is where we find our sense of belonging and support. I was immediately drawn to CHIC due to community being in the name and one of the main objectives. It is through community that we are able to advocate for and create change. At CHIC, I am able to give back to and be involved with my community simultaneously.
“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.”
– Helen Keller
Michaela’ Lewis michaela@chicdenver.org
Workforce Coordinator
When I think of all of the constant love, support and positive energy that was poured into my life, especially from women, I know that I have to continue to invest in those around me. There are so many individuals that have not tapped into their full potential, and I believe I am at CHIC to help women tap into the greatness that lives within them.
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sheriece Hurd sheriece@chicdenver.org
Re-Entry Specialist
Dedication can become transformational when you are willing to follow your passion. I finally have the opportunity to help amend women’s lives from unfortunate circumstances and inequities that have limited their opportunities to success. As a result of following my passion I am happy to be a part of a team that is solution based, giving hope to those who may have lost it, and believeing in dreams that with support and resouces can easily become real.
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”
-Mahatma Gandhi II
Jamarian Evans jamarian@chicdenver.org
Re-Entry Coordinator
I believe that it is my duty as a woman to speak up and share my story to empower, uplift and model self-love to other women.
As a woman of color and mother I am commited and passionate about ending generational trauma and showing young women and their families that trauma can be turned into triumph with the support of community and people who genuinely care.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished…It’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.”
-Denzel Washington
Noel Emerson noel@chicdenver.org
Re-Entry Elementary Coordinator
You’ve got a friend in me! After working in education for 12 years I have a strong belief that every child needs someone in their life that will be their biggest cheerleader, supporter and caring person they can depend on. That’s my life long commitment to the families, students and community that I serve.
Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection
-Rita F Pierson
Jalesa Grace jalesa@chicdenver.org
Education Impact Specialist
Self Love, mental wellness and mentorship is important to me, as well as collaborative efforts with community leaders to create safe places of fellowship. I hope to plant my feet firm in CHIC and offer support and healing to women in Colorado and beyond.
“Passion is Energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you”
-Oprah Winfrey
Changing lives one woman at a time.
Collaborative Healing Initiative within Communities (CHIC) helps families break intergenerational cycles of poverty and violence. We strengthen families and communities by strengthening women and girls. We fill a critical gap in the landscape of institutions and service providers by offering culturally-relevant, whole-family, female-focused supports that directly intervene in the systems that most frequently fail communities: education, workforce, and criminal justice.
How We Work – CHIC Values and Working Commitments
Invest in women – We believe that investing in the health, wealth, and wellbeing of women strengthens families and communities.
Support families – We believe in wrapping supports around the families of the women we serve.
Mentor mind, body, and spirit – We believe in healthy living, health relationships, and healthy decision-making.
Develop positive identity – We believe in personal and collective pride, efficacy, and power.
Cultivate capital – We believe that connections between families, institutions, and service providers strengthens the social fabric in our communities.
Innovate – We believe that we must adapt to fill unmet needs, find unrealized opportunities, and better serve our changing community.
CHIC Denver
CHIC offers a variety of services in intervention and prevention that address economic deprivation, mental health, youth violence and the overall stability of the family.
Address: 10660 E Colfax Ave, Suite A | Aurora, CO 80010
Email: info@chicdenver.org
Phone: 303-993-8511