Supporting our Families, Supporting our Kids

On Thursday, DPS celebrated the grand opening of our newest Mile High United Way Center for Family Opportunity (CFO) at McGlone Academy, in the Montbello neighborhood of Northeast Denver. Families, students, teachers, support staff and partner organizations enjoyed fall festival activities and staff-guided tours of this new amazing community resource.

The CFO provides members of the school community, age of 16 and older, with a safe and convenient place to learn about financial empowerment, access GED classes, build job skills and more, all at no cost. Participants don’t have to be related to a DPS student — the CFO’s services are open to all members of the community.

“Our vision for the CFO was driven by our love and commitment to the Montbello neighborhood, Montbello kids and Montbello families,” said McGlone Academy principal Sara Gips Goodall. “This center is allowing us to empower our parents so they can continue to be the role models for their children as lifelong learners.”

This innovative CFO model helps us work toward many of the goals in the Denver Plan 2020, the district’s strategic plan. For example, it provides families with the tools they need to help their children build a solid Foundation for Success through early learning and literacy supports. There is even free childcare provided while participants are attending classes.

“The CFO is our chance to connect with and support our community. Parents are our most important partners in the success of our children,” said Superintendent Boasberg. “When we support whole families, we support whole children and we support whole communities.”

The CFO’s model of providing wraparound services to all generations of families has already shown to be highly effective and extremely popular, as we have seen at our first location at College View Elementary School. Over 1,200 participants have enrolled at the College View CFO since 2014 and there were 616 new participants enrolled between July 2016 and June 2017.

DPS believes that strong family, school and community partnerships will result in better academic outcomes and brighter futures for our kids. The valuable services that the CFO provides are at the heart of our vision in DPS – that Every Child Succeeds.

To learn more about the Mile High United Way Centers for Family Opportunity, visit DPS’ Family and Community Engagement website.