Four organizations serve La Plata County’s youth, each in a different way. Episode one of “Our Kids. Our Community.” introduces who they are.
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Transcript
Boys and Girls Clubs exist because in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, four really wise women looked out and saw a whole bunch of boys that were doing nothing productive or responsible and said, “Hey, every kid needs some place to go where they’re surrounded by people who care about them.” I get this question a lot, like what does the club do? You know, for us, it is a high quality, accessible, out of school time program, experiences and activities. We serve kids between the ages of six and 18, and it’s year round, so we get the opportunity to serve kids each and every day.
Big Brothers Big Sisters serves everybody, right? It doesn’t have to just be kids that might come from specific types of families. So anybody, and I truly believe that anybody of any age, quite honestly, can benefit from a mentor in their lives. Our staff are going through quite a, a rigorous process to learn a bit more about the Littles, their families, their parents, and learning a lot about the Bigs as well. And in that way, it’s not just what’s in front of them, it’s not just that this big likes the same thing as the little, but actually that there’s some deeper connection, whether it’s that, you know, maybe the Bigs experience something that the Little has, or the Big brings attributes that the Little can thrive being around. We serve everyone ages six through 24, and we’ve got kids in the program, you know, that might be a part of human services and foster care. We’ve got kids in the program that have amazing parents. The parents just recognize that maybe one extra adult role model would benefit them as well.
The Hive is a youth-centered community hub. We focus on youth serving programs that include art, skateboarding, music, snowboarding, leadership, life skills. We’re also a community hub, but really the focus is on building the potential in anybody’s passion. So looking at somebody’s usually alternative approach to life, you know, if you’re not a kid that goes to school sports or school clubs, you come here, you can be creative, be a weirdo, be yourself, and we nourish that.
The beauty of this place is that there’s enough options that you can design where you fit in. You can find your own nook and your own niche.
La Plata Youth Services or LPYS is really concerned with a few different factors. One is alleviating barriers to access across whatever spectrum that is. And so we provide mental health and therapeutic mentorship support to young people that Have adverse life circumstances. And so that’s one kind of prong of the organization. Secondarily, you know, we’re really focused on bolstering protective factors amongst youth. And so we’re looking at confidence, resiliency the sense of connection. And third is really that prevention and early intervention based programming to get exposure and support to youth before they get to a certain stage of life where their choices may not have the ability to be reconciled, if you will.
Every single kid has a fun, safe, and supportive environment. That’s what the future looks like. And how we get there to be determined, where we’ll be, wherever kids are, every single kid deserves that and, and we’ll get there.
