The Challenge

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado serves elementary school children living in low-income families with a single parent. This is where we find the greatest opportunity to change a young life. There are currently over 33,000 such youth in the Denver metro area, and that number continues to climb.

In today's society, there are many risk factors that work against our kids and make it less likely they will develop into law-abiding, contributing adults. In the final analysis, however, there is only one statistical measurement that correlates directly to every youth risk factor: poverty.

In the Denver metro area, our poorest neighborhoods are also those with the worst school performance, the highest crime rates, the most single-parent families, the greatest number of non-English speaking people, and the highest birthrates - both overall and to teen mothers. These are our inner city neighborhoods, and they are home to over 80% of our target youth.

These neighborhoods are also home to 90% of our area's underperforming schools. Consider the following:

• 2 out of every 3 DPS students qualify for free or reduced school lunch.
• 70% of non-white 9th graders in DPS will not graduate.
• This year there are a TOTAL of 33 African-American and 61 Latino 10th graders in all of DPS that are proficient in basic math.
• This year CSAP scores dropped in DPS for the 4th year in a row. As a result, 99 of Denver's 149 schools are rated either "low" or "unsatisfactory" in performance, making DPS the district with the lowest scores in the state.

These problems are not just isolated in Denver. All of the seven counties in the metro area have similar problems to varying degrees, and what affects one neighborhood ultimately affects us all. Causes and solutions to these problems will be debated indefinitely. In the mean time, a generation of children needs our help.