For more than 30 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of the San Luis Valley (BGCSLV) has provided programs that help youth build social-emotional skills, academic confidence, healthy relationships, leadership skills, and career awareness. For families, BGCSLV provides stability through afterschool care, summer programming, fifth-day support during four-day school weeks, meals, transportation, youth substance-use prevention programs, and connections to community resources. Daily programming ranges from learning healthy lifestyle habits to the arts and sciences, creating safe, consistent, opportunity-rich places where young people experience belonging and learning.
In the San Luis Valley, BGCSLV’s work responds to the realities of rural communities including geographic distance, transportation barriers, four-day school weeks, workforce shortages, food insecurity, housing instability, and limited access to enrichment opportunities. Now, BGCSLV reaches approximately 775 young people annually across the San Luis Valley, and to expand the organization’s work in the region, BGCSLV is building an Early Care and Learning Center. This center is in direct response to one of the region’s most urgent family and workforce needs: reliable, high-quality early childhood care and education.
Located next to BGCSLV’s main campus in Alamosa, the Early Care and Learning Center is a nearly 17,000-square-foot facility designed to serve up to 160 young children in 10 classrooms and support more than 40 new local jobs. The facility will also hold observation and training spaces as well as family-centered resources. The project represents an approximate $10.5 million community investment and brings together local, regional, state, federal, philanthropic, and private partners. More than 600 individual donors also contributed through the 9News Word of Thanks campaign, showing broad community support for the project and confidence in its mission.
The Early Care and Learning Center will shape long-term outcomes for many children in the region. High-quality early learning gives children a stronger start before kindergarten, while consistent care helps parents work, study, and remain stable. Because the center is connected to BGCSLV’s larger youth development ecosystem, children and families can remain connected to supportive adults, enrichment opportunities, and family resources. The organization hopes this center will not only provide childcare, but also strengthen the early childhood workforce, support families, and serve as a model for other rural communities. By investing in the care and education of children, the organization plants seeds for their future and for the future of the San Luis Valley.
The San Luis Valley Regional Council is proud to support an organization that is expanding access to high-quality early childhood education and strengthening opportunities for children and families across the region. To learn more about Boys & Girls Clubs of the San Luis Valley, click here.
