Madison/Manhattan - Alma Garcia
Madison/Manhattan is an afterschool program based at Madison and Manhattan Boulder Housing sites, hence the name. We meet every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to do activities ranging from healthy eating to pottery.
We have a consistent group of 18 kids which makes us a tight knit group and focus on building healthy relationships with the kids and parents. More activities that we do are arts and crafts, educational days, home work help, swimming, and lot's of time in boulder's parks when its nice out.
We partner with BHP to utilize their community centers and program onsite. Other partners are Pottery Lab, Boulder Public Library, Open Space and Mountain Parks, Posh Art Studio, Growing Gardens, and Recreation Centers. Collaborating with partners allows us to bring outside resources to program for free.
GettingFit – Madeline Gross and Alma Garcia
The mission of the Getting Fit program is to facilitate the positive development of youth participants, by connecting them to opportunities and resources that will empower them to make positive choices for healthy lifestyle and leisure pursuits. We are a tight-knit group comprised of teens who reside in affordable housing or manufactured sites.
We meet every Tuesday & Thursday and transport youth from their school to our location. Getting Fit is what it sounds like, an opportunity to be healthy and push yourself physically. Since we have reliable transportation, we expose our youth to a variety of opportunities, such as: rafting, fishing, canoeing, rock climbing, sports, hiking, skiing, tennis, dancing and much more!
The reason for the start of the Youth Service Initiative program, over 16 years ago, was from direct feedback of the needs of the community to address vandalism, gang related violence and provide a safe place for youth during out-of-school time hours. Since then, close relationships have formed within the youth and families in our Youth Service Initiative and Getting Fit communities.
Over the years, with our youth and families’ feedback and input, our staff continue to shape the development of the program to meet the needs of the community. The feedback from Getting Fit youth, in particular, play an integral role in the decision-making process for designing Getting Fit program activities and are a driving force within service delivery.
Prior to the Getting Fit program, recreation center usage was minimal within the age and demographics of the youth being directly served. The support of this program provides, not only in terms of subsidies for activity fees and the provision of transportation, but also through the leadership and positive role modeling of staff and volunteers. This enables Getting Fit participants to access parks and recreation facilities and programs. Throughout the year the youth perform 20 hours of community service through leadership workshops, trainings and collaborations through local partners.
Healthy Together – Jahmiel McLawrence
Healthy Together or H2G, is a collaborative effort by 3 organizations ( YSI / IHAD / BHP ) all with the common goal of providing a safe space for low income kids to have fun and participate in athletic after-school activities .
At the start of the 2019 school year UNPLUGGED: Seasonal Sports Club was launched under the Healthy Together umbrella where we revamped the after-school curriculum to a more sport based approach. UNPLUGGED enabled us to change main activities focus after blocks ( 7 weeks ) .
The other part to Healthy Together is the adult fitness, which we provide fitness classes that’s lead by instructors from the BHP communities. Classes include but not limited to Zumba, outdoor fitness, dance and weight room classes with childcare provided by YSI staff . We also do Quarterly workshops for the adults for this community with the goal of education and enlightenment targeting various topics such as ( Finance , Heathy Foods , Parental controls , fitness etc ).
Our motto at Healthy Together is – Health is Wealth / Salud es Riqueza
Recreation on Wheelz (ROW) - Corina Garcia
Rec on Wheelz is based at four manufactured home sites in Boulder; Boulder meadows, Ponderosa, Vista Village and Orchard Grove. We deliver fitness based activities, life skills development and expand the kids creativity through crafts. We serve kids ages ranging from 6 through 18. We’ve eliminated all barriers to fitness and recreation by bring the recreation to them! That's what makes this program so unique.
We kicked off in August of 2019 and by December we've recruited over 100 participants. ROW performs in a bicultural and bilingual setting so that all participants feel included.
Mentor Program
The mentor program is a youth opportunity to help young people gain job experiences to prepare them for the workforce. Every year during the summer we interview interested youth between the grades 6th-12th and pick around 30 to work in our various summer programs.
At the end of the summer once mentors have completed their hours they receive an $800 check. We provide leadership trainings and ongoing mentorship from an experienced leader.
This program is a great start to youth interested in building their resume and learning what it's like to have a job.
Summer Learning
In a partnership with Boulder Valley School Districts, Youth Services Initiative provides after school care to their Summer Learning program. Our after care consists of camp activities like the SPARK curriculum which is an evidence based program for disguising exercise with fun! We also do arts and crafts, team building games, and have outside guests to bring new things to the table.