Mancos United’s Summer Hub Supports Local Families

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  Mancos United is a community organization that was launched about four years ago in response to some tragedies we experienced here. And we realized that we had amazing community, but there were some gaps. And so we learned that summers were really hard for families, for employers, and for kids. And we learned that basic needs weren’t always getting matched up and we learned that there was not a lot of accessible indoor space for folks. So we work in those three areas and our biggest area is Summer Hub. You’re watching the local news network brought to you by Keesee Motor Company and Blondie’s Trophy Room. We started by listening to the community and the community said it’s really hard for families to patch together summer care. So we responded by saying, okay, we need a full summer solution and we’d like it all day from 7:30 to 5:30 for working families. It gives a good community and a safe space for our kids throughout the week which helps out for all of us parents as well. Talking to other families and other friends, everyone kind of talks about it where it’s a relief. I moved here around four years ago and that first year of summer was really stressful with my parents working. They’re both artists and the next year we learned about Summer Hub and me and my sister both became students and I fell in love with it and the next year I unfortunately wasn’t able to be a student. I became too old and Katie offered me a volunteer position and now I am a full-time employee. It was definitely a big change for my parents. I noticed a lot of weight come off their shoulders. They didn’t have to juggle kids and juggle work at the same time. But also it helped me and my sister in the way that we were new and it just built, built such a strong community. This community has given me so much. And I feel like I can finally give back to the community I care about so deeply. We also hire licensed teachers. We pay well because we believe they’re doing the most important work there is in our society. You got to do the background check. You got to make sure that you go through all the certification and seeing all that and going through it actually was great to see, witness, and then also know that every single person here goes through all that. The CPR training, the first aid, how to deal with big emotions. We ask our parents this every year, how stressful would your summer be without Summer Hub and how stressful is it with Summer Hub? Without Summer Hub, our parents are reporting 7, 8, 9, 10 on a scale of zero to 10. And with Summer Hub, it drops down to zero, one, two, and three. Our community loves this so much and believes in it that we have businesses sponsoring, we have individuals donating. We have a huge scholarship fund for families that allows us to literally tell families to pay what you can. They get to pick their days so they can come four days or all 24 days. They can, and they can pick what they can afford to pay. And that is all because this community comes together to make it happen. For more information, visit mancosunited.org. And for more stories like this, visit LNN.news.