Every Wednesday, a group of 12th graders from DSST: College View High School in southwest Denver gathers together to build community, explore their interests and plan for the future.
For four years, these students have participated in the Colorado Dream Foundation’s after-school program, a free, holistic initiative that provides academic support, emotional wellness, and college and career development to Denver youth and their families.
While their school focuses on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, these seniors crave other opportunities to be creative and work different parts of their brain. Sometimes, though, it’s just a much-needed movie night or pumpkin-painting activity. There are also volunteer options, where students can help organize clothes for underserved children.
“Most of us are minorities or low-income,” said Claudia Puga, one of the program’s participants. “People like us don’t get these opportunities. I’m so grateful to have this program.”
The Colorado Dream Foundation began in 1988 on the back lawn of the Colorado Governor’s Mansion. The group of twentysomethings was inspired by Eugene Lang, founder of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation in New York. The group’s dream: “A world where every child has equal access to educational and career opportunities that will ignite their innate potential.”
The organization serves more than 300 Denver-area children from third through 12th grades each year.
Kids can get academic help through one-on-one tutoring and homework assistance, but the program also seeks to serve their social-emotional well-being. The foundation offers individual and small-group therapy sessions for ages 4 through adulthood.
“They come to us out of school; our job is not to make them feel like they’re back in school,” said Kaye Taavialma, the organization’s chief executive officer. “Their interests and characteristics and qualities and attributes all have a place and a space here.”
Most schools these days, she added, “don’t have the bandwidth or ability to really afford youth space to be creative in learning.”
Unlike other after-school programs, the Colorado Dream Foundation promises to stay with its young people even after they graduate high school. If that’s college, great. If it’s another opportunity, that’s perfectly fine, too.
“We are post-secondary agnostic,” Taavialma said. “We’re not here to have judgment over what youth want to do in their post-secondary life. We’re here to hold them accountable to a plan.”
For first-generation college students, the process can be daunting. Teachers with the program helped the high schoolers learn about scholarship opportunities, SAT prep and navigating college applications.
The program earns results, the organization says: Graduates of the Colorado Dream Foundation are three times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than peers in their communities. Meanwhile, 90% of youth in the program graduate high school, compared with 74% of youth from marginalized communities nationally.
“But it’s not just ‘college, college, college’ all the time,” said Melisa Sadaoui, one of the 12th-grade participants. “It’s less stressful.”
After graduation, the organization plans to keep these students connected through meet-ups during school breaks and mentorship programs.
More than anything, Colorado Dream Academy lets students explore themselves, figuring out what they want to do with their lives, said Elizabeth Tran, a senior in the program.
“It really has changed my trajectory,” she said. “When people believe in you, it makes you want to chase different things.”
Colorado Dream Foundation
Address: 1836 Grant St., Denver, CO 82023
In operation since: 1988
Number of employees: 22
Number of volunteers: None
Annual budget: $2.15 million
Number of clients served: 467
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