The model
A real job on day one changes everything.
Employment social enterprises (ESEs) are mission-driven organizations that are two things at once: real, revenue-generating businesses, and on-ramps to work for people facing serious barriers to employment. That includes people coming home from incarceration, in recovery, experiencing homelessness, living with disabilities, or new to the country as immigrants and refugees.
ESEs hire the people most employers overlook, then pair a paycheck with the support to keep it. It's the most effective workforce model there is for people facing barriers to work, because the job is real on day one.
Here in Denver
Part of a proven national movement
National figures are cumulative since 1997, across 44 states and D.C. Denver's ESEs are part of the same movement.
Who we are
Practitioners, not consultants.
The Denver ESE Collective is the connective infrastructure for this growing sector. We're led by people who have built and run ESEs ourselves: Steph Frances, founder of Prodigy Coffee, and Andy Magel, founder of Mile High WorkShop.
We're an initiative of WorkWell, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit (est. 2023; EIN 92-1420199), and we've been convening and strengthening Denver's ESEs since 2024.
What we do
Connect
Quarterly gatherings, informal meetups, and a real peer community, so ESE leaders stop working in isolation. We connect ESEs with each other for shared business development and learning, and with the employers and community supports around them.
Support
Hands-on help with strategy, staffing, program design, and sales and business development; strategic-planning tools; and the Emerging Leaders cohort, which develops the next generation of ESE leaders.
Elevate
Storytelling, a public directory and interactive map, funder and community education, and policy work toward a Colorado definition of an ESE, modeled on Illinois's 2026 ESE law.
The math
The best philanthropic deal in Denver.
Every person an ESE moves into steady work replaces a major public cost. Independent estimates put the annual cost of one person cycling through incarceration in Colorado at roughly $19,000 to $81,000, and of one person experiencing homelessness in Denver at $41,700 to $104,200. Conservatively, that's $50,000 or more per person, every year.
So the question is simple: how many more people does a stronger ESE sector need to employ to cover the cost of the Collective? Try it.
Uses $50,000 in avoided public costs per person per year, the low end of the estimates above. It counts only costs avoided, not the wages people earn, the taxes they pay, or what they spend locally. National research on ESEs (REDF, evaluated by Mathematica) finds $2.23 returned to society for every $1 invested, as wages rise, reliance on public benefits falls from 71% to 24%, and housing stability more than triples.
We don't claim credit for everything the sector does. We only need to help it employ a handful more people a year to pay for ourselves. A sector of 40+ Denver ESEs already places far more than that, and everything beyond break-even is return to the community.
Where Denver stands, and our 2027 plan
A clear way to measure progress.
We track progress against Redefine Alliance's Ecosystem Maturity Model, which follows eight signals of a healthy ESE ecosystem across four stages: Emerging, Expanding, Maturing and Self-sustaining. Denver today is Emerging, and pushing into Expanding. Our strength is the number of ESEs already here. The biggest gaps are coalition building, policy and procurement.
| Signal | Where Denver is today | What we'll do in 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| ESEs: number, performance and outcomes | ExpandingOur strength: 40+ ESEs | Hands-on support for ESEs that want to grow, and the first State of Denver ESE report (2026 data). |
| Coalition building | EmergingA key gap | Four quarterly gatherings, informal meetups, and a regular sector newsletter. |
| Policy and public funding | EmergingA key gap | Convene a Colorado ESE policy working group toward a state definition of an ESE. |
| Capital for ESEs | Emerging | Three to four funder education sessions, and building multi-year support for the field. |
| Procurement (buying from ESEs) | EmergingA key gap | Connect ESEs with buyers, including through Purchasing with Purpose and Procure Impact.* |
| Employers who hire and promote people facing barriers | Emerging | Draw on our many employer relationships across Denver, and on networks like Recovery Friendly Workplace, to connect ESEs and their graduates with employers ready to hire them.* |
| Wider community benefits (housing, safety, family stability) | EmergingNot yet measured | Gather wage and stability outcomes from ESEs, using shared tools such as CEEMI's WORC project where they fit, and report them in the State of Denver ESE report. |
| A local backbone organization | EmergingActive since 2024 | Run Emerging Leaders cohort #2 (8 to 12 leaders) and serve as the sector's connective infrastructure. |
* Pursued as funding grows. Everything else is a firm 2027 commitment. We'll report progress on every signal each year.
Already in motion
- A live public directory and interactive map of 40+ Denver ESEs
- Quarterly sector gatherings since 2024
- Our first Emerging Leaders cohort, underway now
- Partnerships with Purchasing with Purpose (procurement) and CEEMI's WORC project (wage outcomes data)
- A monthly working group with Redefine Alliance, the national ESE network
- $40,000 raised in our first year from funders who already believe, including the Kenneth King Foundation and Redefine Alliance
The invitation
Help us build the Denver we're describing.
It's within reach. The ESEs are already here, hiring people every day. What's been missing is someone tending the whole ecosystem, so these leaders aren't doing it alone. That's what your investment makes possible.
We're inviting a small group of partners to commit for three years. Steady, multi-year support means we spend our time building, not chasing the next grant.
And the math is on your side.
Each person who gets and keeps a job saves Denver about $50,000 a year in public costs. If we help the sector employ just 12 more people a year, every dollar you invest comes back to Denver twice.
Per year, at our full-scale $300,000 budget. Try your own numbers in the calculator above.
Every partner also gets: an annual progress report on all eight signals, the State of Denver ESE report, an invitation to our 2027 funder gatherings, and an open door to visit ESEs with us.