Nestoria Castillo
and Jaime Encinas

Nesti Castillo (46) speaks with her friend and colleague, Jaime Encinas (67) about their work with the "Illuminators," a church-based group in Boulder, Colorado that works to engage the community's unsheltered population through relationship building. Nesti has lived experience with homelessness and now works with the unsheltered community to identify their gifts and talents and connect them to resources. Nesti and Jaime reflect on how their relationship has developed and deepened through this work.

This interview was recorded on December 30, 2025, at StoryCorps (http://storycorps.org), a national initiative to record and collect stories of everyday people.

Excerpts

Photography by Kenneth Wajda