Erika Righter is a social worker-turned small business owner, consultant, community advocate, and Mom. She worked for more than fifteen years as a caseworker in the foster care system, rural social work, and programs serving low income older adults. In 2012, Erika founded Hope Tank, a gift store that gives back in the Baker neighborhood in Denver. Over the course of 10 years, Hope Tank was able to engage with and educate and inspire over 200,000 people who would otherwise not have known about innovative, grassroots organizations in the community doing amazing work with the most underserved.

In 2021, following being priced out of her beloved spot on Broadway and losing her best friend and fellow Mom and small business owner to gun violence, she began the process of shifting her focus from using retail as the tool for connecting with the community, to more curated consulting work. Erika wanted to meet the growing need for small creative space to gather and having trusted advocates for both social justice and small businesses, and so she opened the Creative Event Space at Hope Tank in City Park West. This space provides a beautiful, playful, and accessible destination for folks to host small, creative, intentional gatherings. Hope Tank prioritizes offering space to small businesses, organizations, and projects that are BIPOC or LGBTQIA led.