Lowry Family Center

Youth Employment Academy

The Academy helps low-income and at-risk youth get a head start on a career path.

Summer Camp

Lowry Family Center has run a summer enrichment camp every summer since 1995. The camp, at its most basic level, provides affordable child care for working parents during the summer months when kids are out of school. At the same time, the camp also exposes kids to experiences and opportunities they may not otherwise enjoy such as camping and swimming. The camp also teaches kids valuable life skills including conflict resolution, substance abuse prevention, financial management, cooking, gang prevention, and more. Our camp is a licensed child care program through the State of Colorado for 112 kids ages 5-14. Youth that successfully come through our Youth Leadership Squad are rewarded with a paid position working for the summer camp each year.

Youth Leadership Squad

Each year 10-15 youth apply to participate in the group. The leadership group runs itself as they pick their own officers and set their own annual goals. They do community service projects for Lowry Family Center and for other organizations in the community and will also bring in guest speakers to lecture on leadership, civic engagement, philanthropy, and other similar topics. Youth that successfully commit to the group for a year may be eligible for a paid summer position in LFC's summer enrichment camp. All youth are able to use their experience in the Youth Leadership Squad as a stepping stone towards higher education or employment.

After School Tutoring

Lowry Family Center provides academic support to school-aged children in a safe, encouraging environment.

Dance With Joy

"Dance With Joy" classes are exclusively for girls--led by Joy Reynolds in collaboration with the Mental Health Centers of Denver (MHCD). Lowry Family Center offers the dance classes as a way for girls to build self-esteem. We feel this is especially important since studies show that suicide rates are highest among teenage girls of color. In addition to dancing, participants go through MHCD's Gatekeeper training which trains teen girls to recognize signs of suicide and depression in their peers and gives them tools to intervene. The girls all perform at MHCD's annual fundraiser - a showcase of artistic projects from around the Denver metro area.

Dreams Becoming Reality

Dreams Becoming Reality is a youth employment academy. It's designed to give foster, runaway, homeless, disabled, parenting or low-income youth tools to graduate and start on a career path. We do after-school tutoring and monthly testing to help youth graduate on time or obtain their GEDs. Through job readiness training, youth learn how to create a resume, interview for a job, address conflict resolution in the workplace, and other soft skills that help youth successfully enter and stay in the workplace. For youth who want to go on to higher education, we work with them to apply for schools and find financial aid and scholarships. We also run a series of industry-specific seminars to expose youth to high-demand industries of interest and connect them with professionals working in those areas.