As a summer and after-school program, The Grove Neighborhood Network's Kaleidoscope Youth Program provides educational and recreational programs for youth at Island Grove Village Apartments and the surrounding community.

A completely volunteer-based program, KYP has successfully provided fun and safe alternative activities for the past two summers (KYP 2005 and KYP 2006), offering everything from sign language to crochet, from building a community garden to learning how airplanes fly.

In the process, KYP has received a Colorado Council on the Arts folk arts grant for our "Visiting Artist Series" and has provided 27 all-volunteer-taught classes for more than 1,460 hours of activities to 170 IGV and area youth.  During KYP 2006, we also hosted other organizations participating in KYP's fun, including the City of Greeley Recreation Department's "Summer Fun in the Sun" program and Greeley Habitat for Humanity residents.

Below is a chart of some of KYP's facts and figures.

In addition to the statistics, KYP accomplished a number of other goals during the past two summers that transfer will readily to its year-round, after-school homework program: 

• Introduce IGV and area youth to different people and cultures: Greeley citizens from different socio-economic backgrounds, Native Americans, handicapped teens, African-Americans, members of Greeley’s Police and Fire Departments
• Improve “image” of Northeast Greeley neighborhoods: volunteers and youth participants from throughout Greeley and surrounding Front Range communities invested talent, time, and money/supplies in safe, accessible, enjoyable environment
• Establish and maintain structured, disciplined atmosphere: behavioral rules, group commitment and goals, after-activity clean-up, “pleases and thank yous,” genuine appreciation for volunteers and participants, social skills with elders and members of different communities and backgrounds
• Foster pride in environment and accomplishments: end-of-summer art shows where kids showed off results of their efforts, Volunteer Appreciation celebrations, community policing of grounds and classroom
• Create sense of ownership in program, goals, results: can-recycling program to raise program funds, contribution of supplies and materials, bragging rights for accomplishments, kids get to tell their stories
• Expose KYP participants to new types of “culture”: youth string quartet taught and performed, then KYP kids attended classical music concert; Native Americans performed, sang, danced, and drummed, then kids played the instruments, sang the songs, danced in “friendship circles,” and pounded drums; hearing-impaired teen talked about deafness and taught sign language, then kids talked freely about her hearing implants and “sang” songs using sign language