Residence Inn by Marriott Denver Downtown's Monthly Fundraisers supporting the Denver Kids, Inc. Project

Sign up today and become part of a year round effort of giving
The Denver Kids, Inc.’s Teen Mother Education Project (TMEP) has been providing support and guidance to teen mothers for more than sixteen years.  The program is designed to help these young girls who are pregnant and/or parenting a child complete their high school education while improving the lives of their children. 

The goals of this program are to positively impact the lives of teenage mothers and their children by providing comprehensive services thereby increasing the participants’ personal and academic success.  The objectives of the program can be summarized as follows:  the provision of opportunities to learn parenting skills;  the removal of barriers to school attendance such as child care services for infants and financial obstacles for moms; access to prenatal care and information regarding child development; and the prevention of repeat teen pregnancies.

Although some recent reports show that the Colorado teen birth rate has dropped slightly in the last four years, in the City and County of Denver , the teen birth rate is 82 births per 1,000 or 5.5 with a slight increase over in 2002 from 2001.  

What is most startling is that 21% of children living in the City and County of Denver are living in poverty or with cash incomes below federal poverty levels.  Teen mothers who do not at least complete their high school education, are much more likely to be poor, engage in negative behaviors, and continue the cycle of poverty as they, too, are often the children of teen mothers. 

The fact that Denver currently ranks as the 6 th worst of the nation’s 50 largest cities for ratio of births to mothers with no high school diploma merely underscores the need for our project.  Furthermore, the impact of our project is a ripple effect by changing the social, environmental, and educational dynamic for young children and their mothers for many years to come.

Providing a Hand Up, not a Hand Out……