Learning Lunch
Wednesday June 11, 2025
11:45am – 1:00pm
Clara Brown Commons
3701 York Street, Denver
It’s no secret that Denver needs more housing units—lots of them—to meet our homelessness crisis. But under those roofs… how will life be experienced? What are the possibilities for genuine community that makes for a great place to grow up, or grow old?
We invite you to imagine and explore the role Beauty can play in the context of affordable housing. At Mile High Ministries we’re intrigued by the possibilities. Come join the conversation and contribute your own perspectives and questions.
Clara Brown Commons, our 61-unit apartment community, has been our playground and palette for incorporating beauty in shared living spaces and long-term neighborly relationships. At Joshua Station, our supportive transitional program for families, we nurture beauty with our residents as a way of healing from their traumas of homelessness.
Maybe you’re wondering…
- How beauty complements and supports MHM’s two other “ABCs” of Advocacy and Community?
- How does beauty in the built environment contribute to healing and flourishing?
- What cultivating a “community of the beautiful” looks like among those who have experienced isolation and life instability?
- What personal and communal practices help us grow “new eyes” for beauty within and around us?
- For faith-centered people, what are God’s beauty-making ways we might align ourselves with?
Presenters
- Jeff Johnsen has been Executive Director of Mile High Ministries since 1987. Heidi and Jeff married in 1983 and moved to Denver to play in a country-western dance band. How many urban leaders got their introduction to the city that way? Perhaps it foreshadowed how Jeff delights in, and is known for, innovative and creative approaches to some of our city’s most pressing challenges—and beautiful delights.
- Jeff Hoffmeyer holds a Ph.D in Theology, is an ordained Presbyterian pastor, and is VP of Advancement at Denver Institute for Faith and Work. He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two children. Jeff loves all things good and beautiful, including fly fishing, Wendell Berry, craft cocktails, and the Denver Broncos.
Optional afterward: Take a tour of Clara Brown Commons— Mile High Ministries’ new, beautiful, support-enriched, affordable housing community.
