Boettcher Foundation awards Valley nonprofits

VALLEY — The Boettcher Foundation Board of Trustees has awarded $615,000 in capital grants to 15 nonprofit organizations that are working to support Colorado communities including two in the San Luis Valley.

“These organizations work hard every day to provide important services to Coloradans in need,” said Katie Kramer, president and CEO of the Boettcher Foundation. “From providing meals to those who are struggling with food insecurity to helping our communities improve mental health treatment, we’re happy to support organizations that are positively impacting our state and its diverse residents each day.”

The grant recipients include Valley recipients:

La Llave Family Resource Center – Alamosa, $25,000: Toward the purchase and renovation of the organization’s new headquarters and programming facility. La Llave’s mission is to help families build strong, intergenerational, personal wellness skills in order to succeed in school and in life. It offers parenting classes, cooking and nutrition classes, emergency utility help when funds are available, family development resources, referrals and advocacy. The main goal of La Llave Family Resource Center is to provide empowerment skills to move families toward self reliance while providing literacy skills and building knowledge of child development.

La Puente – Alamosa, $60,000: Toward a comprehensive capital campaign to improve the functionality of the organization’s facilities. La Puente endeavors to meet immediate needs and to empower people to live independently with dignity. La Puente provides emergency shelter, food assistance, transitional housing, self-sufficiency services and job training for the homeless and other community members in crisis. La Puente began as a homeless shelter in 1982. It now is a multi-faceted organization that provides emergency shelter and meals, operates the Food Bank Network throughout the San Luis Valley, provides outreach services, moves families forward through the Adelante Family Services, assists children coming from traumatic and difficult backgrounds through the PALS (Positive Activities Lead to Success) Children’s Program, operates enterprises such as thrift stores and Milagros Coffee House to support the mission of the organization and promotes nutrition and gardening through VEGI (Valley Educational Gardens Initiative.)