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PAUL RAMSEY HAS SPENT HIS ENTIRE ADULT LIFE WORKING TO FOSTER COMMUNITY, as president of the Baker Historic Neighborhood Association, pastor of the Mayflower Congregational Church and now executive director of A Little Help, helping aging seniors remain at home.

Born in Seattle, he moved here in 1970 at age three when his father, an aerospace engineer, was laid off. “My older siblings were finishing out the school year, and Dad came out and bought a house just near 1st and Broadway before Mom saw it. The neighborhood was pretty rough. Mom loved the house, but couldn’t believe he expected the family to live there.”

The family later moved to Williams and Arizona east of Washington Park, where Ramsey attended Washington Park Elementary, Byers Middle School, and South High School just a block away. After graduating from South in 1986, he attended Abilene Christian University and Texas Christian University Divinity School before returning to Denver to complete his doctorate at Iliff School of Theology.

The call to the cloth evolved slowly for Ramsey. “I grew up in a family that was extremely church-going and pretty conservative,” he says. “There was always a kind of love-hate relationship around church because I really liked the people, but there were a lot of do’s and don’ts and the explanations were not satisfactory to me even as a little kid. It was interesting, because my parents were very intentional about staying in Denver during the integration of public schools. But they also really tried to live out their conservative faith. A lot of my life was in some ways a journey from right to left. The essence of the Christian faith was very, very sweet for me, and so I knew there was something I hadn’t experienced yet.”

In college, although unsure about his major, Ramsey found the required theology classes fascinating. “Even though only my very closest friends at South would have ever thought I would take this path, because I did not distinguish myself at all in that way, the ministry became a natural fit,” he says, laughing. “Part of it is, that in everything I’m involved with I’m not always the president, but I’m almost always the spokesperson. So as I became more and more serious about my own faith, it seemed natural that I would be talking about it: expressing it in words both spoken and written.”

When his mother died in a car accident his last semester of divinity school, Ramsey returned to Denver to spend time with his dad. “The university allowed me to finish the last few months at home. I was working here in the regional office of the Christian Church and then took a position at South Broadway Christian Church for the next few years.” In 2001, Ramsey accepted a post as pastor of the Mayflower Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) in Englewood, then on the brink of shutting its doors due to dwindling attendance.

“The first time I visited, there were 18 people and only two of them under 60,” he says. “One of the reasons I took the job was they had a very progressive history. They had a female pastor in 1914, for example. Englewood has always been a kind of working class town and there’s something really genuine to working class people – and open-minded working class people are even better. So they offered me a job, and there was a large poster board that detailed the 18-month exit plan. I told them I’d take the job if they took that down. Because we didn’t need a plan to die. Eleven years later, the church has just completed a $600,000 building campaign and is a stable, growing, open community.”

Once Mayflower had found its way, Ramsey began exploring other options in which to contribute while still maintaining his leadership role in the church. “I have two children who go to Lincoln Elementary – a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old – and then a two-year-old. My wife teaches art history at Cherry Creek High School. One of the things I love about Mayflower is that if someone dies, my kids feel it; when a baby is born, my kids feel it. I had helped cultivate that community environment and didn’t want to then steal it from the people who mean the most to me.”

After talking with friends and mentors, some of whom he’d known since age four, Ramsey decided to focus on securing a position in the nonprofit sector. “I started interviewing and really sabotaging myself because they’d ask me my exit strategy for Mayflower – and I didn’t plan to leave.” Then a friend told him about the executive director position available at Washington Park Cares, a nonprofit dedicated to helping local seniors remain in their homes as they age.

“I had just had the founder come and make a small presentation to the Baker Neighborhood Association. They’d hired a consulting firm to fill the job and had over 50 applicants, which says a lot about the job market. They’d had a couple of part-time directors and after several years needed a full-time executive director to carry out their expanding vision. I went through the interviewing process and they offered me the job. I said I still intended to be the pastor at Mayflower and they said, ‘That’s great as long as you realize you’re working for us full-time.’ The leadership at Mayflower was really happy as well. They are my advocates and wanted me to continue to grow.”

Ramsey took over the nonprofit’s directorship in December 2011 and was immediately captivated in a deeply personal way. “My first day on the job, I realized that a lot of folks that I delivered the paper to on my bike when I was 10 years old, 34 years ago, were members of ours. My parents had passed, but a lot of these people had been their friends. The next door neighbor when I was growing up, who is now widowed, is a member, and the neighbor who lived two doors down.”

The organization, launched by Bill and Pera Beth Eichelberger and other Washington Park neighbors in 2005 and now called A Little Help, strives “to provide opportunities for social connection and to help neighborhood seniors connect with services and resources to continue life on their own terms, with dignity and independence, in their own homes (neighbors helping neighbors).”

A Little Help’s broader mission involves connecting neighbors inter-generationally. “We did a service day Saturday, and we had a seven-year-old and a 78-year-old man, and they were both dusting and cleaning windows and hauling leaves. One of our board members was working on a house and her husband and I took our girls to help a man in Bonnie Brae. John and I were working on tasks like turning mattresses and dusting inside and pruning outside. Meanwhile, this man in his nineties who’s a retired geologist took the girls downstairs and showed them his rocks, and what they were called and made of. It was amazing how much his energy was elevated. This is a great vision for us to grow into. To find ways to facilitate that kind of experience programmatically so that we have numerous opportunities for young people to connect with older folks, to join what youth and age bring in powerful ways.”

A Little Help’s members also join the organization for its social aspects. “We have a lot of members in their sixties who are very capable but have been working and retired, or relocated here. This is a way for them to get to know people who have common interests. We have a book club and a monthly dinner at a local restaurant. People will bring their kids and grandkids. Really, the main thing we do for people aging in place is help them know they’re not alone.”

The longtime Baker neighborhood activist has lived in Baker for the past 11 years and just finished serving two years as president and (before that) two years as vice president of BHNA. “The overriding theme of all the things I’ve been involved with – Mayflower, A Little Help, and the Baker neighborhood – is really about building, fostering, and empowering community,” he says.

As neighborhood association president, Ramsey worked to form partnerships with businesses along Broadway as the area experienced a vital rebirth. “Dozens of new attractions, restaurants, and shops have opened here over the last few years. We’ve really become one of the primary destinations in the region. If you live in Wyoming and you want to come to Denver to shop in a funky place and eat in a great restaurant, you’re coming to Baker. We have worked constantly on developing cooperative relationships with businesses along Broadway. Now the biggest issue we’re facing, and beginning to develop a strategic relationship around, is parking. I’m sure there will be tensions, but at least a real relationship has been built that can help lead to consensus.”

Ramsey believes the association has done an excellent job “cultivating the understanding that these new attractions are why people are moving into our neighborhood. And for the first time since we’ve lived here, families are finally staying in our neighborhood rather than using it to purchase a starter home and then move out. Dozens of families are fighting to improve schools and advocate for things that will help them stay here and raise their kids. The new neighborhood president, who has been leading the move to reopen Byers (150 S. Pearl St.) as a Denver School of Science and Technology is a young mom who’s really invested in the future of our neighborhood.”

When asked how he juggles it all, Ramsey grows reflective. “The two organizations that I lead have allowed me flexibility to get all of this done without cheating my family, and it’s all energizing to me. I coach my daughter’s soccer team and drop my kids off most mornings and still am able to grow and cultivate my friendships. I have a lot of friends involved in the church. Some of my kids’ best friends from school are now coming to our church and going to church camp this summer. And that’s a beautiful thing for me. I have friends I’ve known forever who are weeding people’s lawns for A Little Help. I’m able to use my gifts and talents and really enjoy my life. I don’t feel too busy at all.”

(Editor’s note: Find out more about A Little Help at ALittleHelp.org, or call 720-242-9032.)