MURRAY — Some people might see teen parents and write them off as bad apples, but with the right help and concern, Martha Velasco has seen at-risk kids grow and take responsibility for themselves and their children.
Velasco is the program director for DDI Vantage, a nonprofit group that, among other things, helps get funding for Early Head Start programs in Utah.
She watched one teen father go from uninterested in everything to sitting on the nonprofit's board of trustees.
"We know it works," she said. "It's incredible to see the difference that we can make."
On Tuesday, local businesses and churches teamed up with government agencies to bring one such head start program to the Murray School District.
Cricket Communications, DDI Vantage and the LDS Church combined resources to create a new Early Head Start program for children ranging from infants to 3-year-olds so their parents can attend and finish high school.
"If (teenagers) have a baby, they typically can't afford to have that child in day care, so they have to stay home from school and not finish their own education," said Wendy Bills, supervisor of at-risk programs for the district. "This will allow them to return to school at no cost to them."
It's the first program of its kind the district has had in about 10 years, Bills said.
About $45,000 will be provided by DDI Vantage to fund the program. The nonprofit receives money for its Early Head Start programs from the federal government.
The district is providing the classroom, located in the Creekside School in Murray Park, with Cricket providing the playground and manpower to make improvements. The Humanitarian Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is providing wall hangings and quilts for the cribs in the day care.
DDI Vantage initially acquired federal funding in 2002 that it used to create an Early Head Start program in the Granite School District that is still running. Last year, the nonprofit received federal expansion dollars that allowed it to partner with Murray this year to fund teachers and materials for up to eight children. Currently, four are enrolled.
About 20 volunteers from the Salt Lake office of Cricket Communications worked Tuesday to rip out unkempt grass and playground equipment at the Creekside School that hadn't been used or maintained in years. They installed sod, painted the classroom interior, paid for plumbing for a toddler-sized toilet, put up a vinyl-coated chain-link fence, and installed new slides and teeter-totters.
"Cricket employees across the country have been out last year and this year donating their time," said Ashley Mills, area marketing specialist for the company. "We were given funds to do a project, and we reached out and found out that the Murray School District was doing this."
The cellular phone and broadband company generally partners with the national nonprofit Rebuilding Together, an organization that revitalizes homes for low-income and disabled individuals. Since there is no local affiliate for that charity in Salt Lake City, the local Cricket office opted to seek out a project that focused on "revitalizing the community, building up something and making it better than it was," Mills said.
The new Early Head Start program will be named Cricket Care and is located near the district's only high school. Students throughout the district who will use the program once it opens next month will be able to drop their kids off in the morning before school and pick them up afterward. In addition to day care, the Early Head Start program also funds home visits during the summer, socialization activities and a parents committee.
The opportunities the program will provide for both students and children are invaluable, Bills said. They will enable young parents to get better jobs and have brighter futures for themselves and their families.
"That's going to affect their entire lives."
e-mail: mfarmer@desnews.com