Kids Kabana

    The Kids Kabana program is an afterschool enrichment program for middle school students which accomplishes two goals:  1. To provide a safe enrichment environment for youth during identified at-risk hours at no cost to clients 2. To promote Life Skills and educational improvement for these youth especially in relation to self-esteem and respect for authority figures.  The program is available during the at-risk afterschool hours of 3-5pm and is open on a no-cost, drop-in basis to middle school students every day of the school year. 

The students are provided with snacks via the Food Bank of the Rockies Kid’s Café program and participate in enrichment and recreational program activities with adult staff supervision.  Our staff, AmeriCorps youth coaches, also provide mentoring opportunities for the students and are available for help with homework, peer struggles, and intervention issues as needed.  Other enrichment and educational program activities, such as the Girl Scouts Studio 2B program, cooking demonstrations, art instruction, finance education, etc., are made available as well.
            There are currently 2 Kids Kabana program sites: Downtown and Redlands Middle School. Last year ('08-09)the program served 395 unduplicated youth with a total program attendance of  6,038.
            The year 2008-09 was also highly successful for The Kids Kabana program in terms of program effectiveness.  Through evaluation research provided by the OMNI Research Institute, Life Skills improvement in student program participants was shown to increase in 4 out of 5 areas.  These improvement areas include: conflict resolution, healthy risk taking, time management, and social competence.  The Tree House also uses a customized evaluation procedure developed by the Partnership for Families and Children which includes pre and post testing, observations, and an evaluative database.  The Tree House utilizes an OMNI Life-Skills evaluation as prescribed by the CO Dept. of Public Health and Environment (Tony Grampsas Youth Services) in order to evaluate program effectiveness.
            Our program works closely with the Colorado Afterschool Network, a statewide collaboration of afterschool providers for the purposes of youth worker education and advocacy, as well as locally in Mesa County with and The Family and Adolescent Partnership, serving the requirements of Senate Bill 94 and House Bill 1451 in Mesa County.