Ayuda was founded in 2002 as Velez Management Corporation by Maria Velez. Maria built a successful business by providing consulting services to other small businesses in the areas of business development, capture plans/proposal support as well as providing project management on staff augmentation, environmental and construction contracts. In May of 2006, the firm was accepted into the 8(a) program. In 2007, Sonya Yungeberg joined Maria Velez as partner and second employee. At that time, the company name was changed to Ayuda. Since 2006, Ayuda has grown from 2 employees to 45 full time staff members and has successfully completed over $150M in contracts for government and commercial clients in Environmental Consulting, Environmental Remediation, Construction and Construction Management.
In 2013, Ayuda’s owners made a decision to veer its future course away from traditional construction and design build construction to its grass roots of environmental consulting services, environmental remediation and construction management. Ayuda made a strategic move to become again a small business in environmental consulting services, NAICS 541620 and brought in-house expertise in chemistry, geology, archeology, cultural and natural resources, civil engineering and chemical engineering. Also in 2013, Ayuda began performing site investigations and human health risk assessments related to PFCs, an emerging contaminant.
On the remediation side of our business, Ayuda began performing MMRP/UXO services, and continued to perform our traditional remediation services such as soil and groundwater investigation and remediation; hazardous material surveys, abatement and air monitoring services.
Ayuda has never in its history failed to successfully complete a project regardless of the challenges faced. Ayuda operates with a total commitment to providing high quality cost-effective solutions, while keeping safety the highest priority. We take customer satisfaction very seriously and can prove it. We proudly hand out Past Performance books containing CPARS/CCASS and PPQs from our clients. In our 14-year history, Ayuda has received over 95% CPARS of “Very Good” or “Excellent” and CCASS of “Above Average” or “Outstanding”. Ayuda has never in its history received an “Unsatisfactory” rating. Ayuda rewards its employees based on these ratings, so this is a developed culture.
Ayuda is a client-focused organization that builds referral and repeat business. Ayuda focuses on providing and maintaining superior service to its existing customers and is currently looking to expand their client base. Our current clients include: USACE Tulsa District, USACE Omaha District, USACE Albuquerque District, USACE Huntsville District, USACE Kansas City District, NASA Johnson Space Center, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder and Gaithersburg , National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), City and County of Denver, Garfield County, City of Thornton, PFP Holdings, EnviroFinance Group, PCL, Horne LLC, Zurich National, Sewall School, and Denver Public Schools.