An edition of the Littleton Independent
WEEK OF MAY 22, 2025
VOLUME 24 | ISSUE 25
$2
Estate-plan tool saluted by chamber The Nokbox helps ease path for survivors BY ISABEL GUZMAN ISABEL@COTLN.ORG
ing homelessness. This side of the building contains 49 beds for unhoused individuals who are seeking housing placement and other services. The Ready-to-Work (RTW) program is a year-long residential employment program designed to help people experiencing homelessness move into a full-time working and housed lifestyle, said Scott Medina, director of community relations for Bridge House. “These trainees will live in the RTW program for, on average, a year while they work for us and are paid an hourly wage,” Medina said. “The goal is to graduate within a year’s time with a full-time job and housing, both of which we help them to get.”
Many families find themselves in a scramble trying to organize funeral arrangements, managing estates and tracking down accounts after losing a loved one. For Maria Fraietta, a long-time Littleton Public Schools teacher and real estate agent, the challenge became personal when she and her brothers struggled to find all of their dad’s possessions and documents when he died in 2021. “We spent hours at my brother’s kitchen table guessing passwords,” Fraietta wrote on the website for her business, The Nokbox. “After realizing the mound on the table was only growing by the day, we headed to the local office store to set up a box for all of the keys, paperwork, important documents and cards that we kept finding.” Thus, the first Nokbox — Next of Kin Box — was born. In 2024, only 32% of American adults reported having a will, according to the 2024 Wills and Estate Planning Study by Caring.com, an online senior care platform. Since many don’t have estate plans, families are left behind in confusion during times of loss. Tools like The Nokbox help bridge that gap. The Nokbox has since grown into a comprehensive organizational system designed to make life easier for families during difficult times. The Nokbox offers an array of products such as the original Nokbox, which includes folders, checklists and document protectors, among other items. Also available to purchase is the Nokbox fireproof box, the Nokbox Lite, password books and Nokbox Lite group packs. Each Nokbox kit covers 15 essential categories, which includes everything from life insurance policies and funeral directives to veterinary records and storage
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Representatives from the Tri-Cities Homelessness Initiative, City of Englewood, Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners, Bridge House and more cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Tri-Cities Homelessness Navigation Center and Bridge House Ready-to-Work facility, which is located at 4675 S. PHOTO BY ELISABETH SLAY Windermere St. in Englewood.
Navigation center for homeless opens doors Tri-Cities program offers range of services at Englewood facility located on South Windermere Street BY ELISABETH SLAY ESLAY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The facility in Englewood that houses the Tri-Cities Homelessness Navigation Center and the Bridge House Ready-to-Work program held its opening ceremony May 15. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Englewood City Manager Shawn Lewis said the opening of the center was a great day for the city. “It’s an incredible moment for Englewood and the Tri Cities and really the whole region, in terms of our response to homelessness and the good that this organization has done in other places and will now be doing here in Englewood,” Lewis said. At-large Englewood City Council member Kim Wright said the facility will be extremely beneficial to those who need its services.
“I think there’s a large population in Englewood that needs services that this has to offer,” Wright said. Chris Charles, the housing manager of the Englewood Bridge House facility, is a graduate of the Ready-to-Work program. He said it is great to see the vision for this faculty come to life. “It’s been a long time. I was in the program when all of the groundbreaking and everything on this started, and it’s cool to be able to walk in and see it all come to fruition and everything’s done and being a part of it,” Charles said. On one side of the 13,150-square-foot facility, located at 4675 S. Windermere St. in Englewood, is the Ready-to-Work program of Bridge House, a Boulder-based nonprofit that provides services for adults experienc-
VOICES: 12 | LIFE: 18 | CALENDAR: 21
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