Colorado Youth at Risk

Today might have been one of best projects yet! Maybe it's the air, or the energy in town, but today's volunteers were extra enthusiastic about their service.

Today, our students worked for Colorado Youth at Risk. They helped paint the new facility at Manual High School in the historic Five Points neighborhood.

Colorado Youth at Risk is a non-profit conceived by Patti Bennett and 2 of her colleagues in 1992. The program has been providing youth mentoring services to Denver's inner city youth for more than 15 years now.

The program has served more than 2500 youth and trained over 1000 volunteers. The Steps Ahead program provides structured workshops and one-on-one mentoring designed to help 9th grade youths who are risk of dropping out of high school.

Touchstone is a program for tenth through twelve graders that supports youths who have completed the Steps Ahead program through "getting youth back in touch with the foundational skills they have learned, providing them with an environment to use these skills as they plan for their future. Touchstone focuses on grades, graduation, college preparation, interviewing skills, tutoring and career development projects."

Patti Bennett, the executive director of Colorado Youth at Risk, provided an inspirational video for our students which highlights the hopes and dreams of the youth at risk. Their stories are inspirational. Patti told all of us that she gets so much out of the program, not from what she gives in, but from what she gets out of the youth which she works with, whose lives may never have crossed paths without the opportunity to participate in the program itself.

For more information on Colorado Youth at Risk, or to volunteer, please visit the website at www.coloradoyouthatrisk.org.

Thanks to student volunteers Anna Cook, Jessica Weinacht, Kalilah Shelton, James Clover (hope we spelled that right, James), Tasha Maxwell, our our team leader, Danielle Sosias.

Special thanks as well, to Patti Bennett for introducing us to the opportunity to help Colorado kids and give back to the community.