A Home Away from Homelessness for Kids Living in Colfax Hotels

 

 

 

Colfax Community Network’s Cheers for Children fundraiser is September 26

By Deborah Cella
CCN Board Member
According to the Piton Foundation and the Children’s Corridor, of the over 15,000 children that live near East Colfax Avenue in Aurora, 85 percent are on free or reduced lunch. Many live with their families in a room in the old motels along Colfax. Unlike the Holiday Inn, these motels do not provide toilet paper, soap, shampoo or towels. Most motels are home to drug addicts, prostitutes and sexual predators. Not exactly a safe place to raise children!
Who is trying to give these children an opportunity for something better? Colfax Community Network has been working in the trenches supporting families with children living in the motels since 1999. Walk into CCN any day after school and you will see a group of 25 eager and active children, ages 6-11, involved in a variety of activities. If it is early in the afternoon they will be enjoying a nutritious snack. As the afternoon progresses there will be time for homework, reading and play.
Each summer CCN runs a six-week day camp for the children culminating in a four-day camping trip. The energy level is high with lots of laughter and some tears, even anger. But no matter what, there is a sense of community, belonging, stability and friendship, something that is lacking for children of the families who have no permanent address, live in isolation and poverty – children for whom the rundown residential motels along East Colfax are home.
One of CCN’s newest programs is the Summer Food Program. Last summer, in partnership with Hunger Free Colorado, CCN fed 140 children healthy lunches five days a week. This summer the program has been feeding more than 600 children at seven different sights. A recreation component was added this year as well. Another program of CCN is the Parent-Child Education Group. Parents and their infants and toddlers engage in appropriate play together in a fun relaxed atmosphere. Parents learn parenting skills and gain access to helpful resources.
These are just a few of the ways CCN’s hard-working, dedicated staff of five, along with its many volunteers, are helping these children. You can help by participating in our biggest fundraiser of the year, Cheers for Children, on Thursday, September 26, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Wynkoop Brewery. Tickets are $60 for one, $100 for two and includes appetizers a drink ticket, silent and live auction, and cork sale. Event sponsorships are still available and donations of silent auction items welcome.
Please help CCN continue to be a “home away from homelessness” for these kids. For more information go to colfaxcommunitynetwork.org, call 303-360-9175 or email CCN Executive Director Jennifer Herrera at jennifer@colfaxcommunitynetwork.org.