From January to March 8, the Safe Spaces for Youth Action Team are holding a winter activities challenge to help local youths learn more about resources and safe places in the community.
To participate in the challenge, students from sixth to 12th grade can pick up a winter activities challenge card at the local library, Cortez Recreation Center or Montezuma County Health Department or download it online.
Once students have an activities card, they can go to the list of various locations mapped out by the organizers. While visiting each location, students are to get a signature or initial on their card to show that they visited that location.
Cards are due by 4 p.m. March 8, and winners will be drawn March 12. Every box filled out on the card is an entry to win a prize (up to 10 entries per person). The awards are $300, $150 and $50 gift cards.
“Winter Youth Activities Challenge is an effort by the safe spaces for Youth Action Team to engage youth, youths with some of the out of school programming that we have in the county,” AmeriCorps member Desiree Henderson told The Journal.
Students only need nine signatures to complete the challenge.
Henderson said they hope to help Montezuma County youths learn about different resources and areas around Montezuma County, should they ever need them.
“It's just a way to engage with youths and engage them in places that are safe for them to be OK,” Henderson said.
The challenge held by many different groups in the community, including Safe Spaces for Youth Action Team, School Community Youth Collaborative, Montezuma Inspire Coalition, Montezuma Youth Pride, Team Up Southwest Colorado and more.
“There's lots of different organizations, and we've been working on a couple of different projects through the fall that we're just kind of getting going now in the winter. And the youth, youths activities challenge was one of them. So it is a safe spaces for a youth, youths action team project but there's lots of different community partners involved,” Henderson said.
Henderson added that the mission of the Safe Spaces for Youth Action Team and the other organizers of the winter youth, youths challenge are to “promote the physical, emotional and mental well being of youth, youths in the community, and we do that through building different projects that help them get involved in the community. So I think that's our biggest goal is just building community around youth, youths that will be a safe place for them mentally, physically and emotionally,” Henderson said.
People interested in participating in the challenge can visit the event’s website at www.scyclistens.org/youthactivitycalendar.
