DENVER — Yoli Casas has memories of when she lived in Venezuela, but she said the country she remembers is very different from the one that migrant children living in shelters have described to her.
Casas is executive director of ViVe Wellness, a nonprofit that has worked alongside the City of Denver to help migrants since they began arriving late last year. Most of them are from Venezuela.
"The first time we saw them, and they told us their stories, many people had to go to other rooms, other small classrooms, to cry," Casas said as she remembered her first interactions with the families. "We have to get it out now, cry. We have to do this, strong, and come back to support them."
Last December, the city asked Casas to help organize a holiday event for the migrant children, she said. She organized a Christmas party and found a bus to pick up the shelter families and take them to the party.
That same bus soon became the means of transportation to take the children living at the shelters to a school that she hoped would help give them a sense of normality and also help them get ready for the U.S. educational system.
"It's for the children to come, learn English, feel a sense of identity and learn what school is here in the United States and also give experience, or time for the parents to work, to get their life together," Casas said.
That's how ViVe School came to be.
"Children are our future, for me, they are something very special, and we must help them, support them, take care of them, give them the best we can," Casas said.
ViVe School is held at ViVe Wellness. Casas said its purpose is to offer students, through teachers and volunteers, a place to learn and have a daily routine similar to that of other children. She said she is able to take about 85 children, but there are closer to 600 migrant children in shelters.
“We have moms who are waiting," Casas said. "There is a waiting list because they are desperate that they need to go to work, but they cannot leave any child alone. So that is why we are looking for opportunities for other spaces, to do the same. It would be great if you could support us, if you have space where we can create other schools for these children, every four or five weeks and prepare them for school, also giving the parents the opportunity to work.”
Casas said families with children stay in temporary shelters for four or five weeks until they find a place to live. The city has shelter stay limits of 14 days for single people and 37 days for families.
Casas said taking children to Vive School gives parents time to get out and look for work before the shelter's limits reach. Parents cannot leave their children at the shelter to go out to look for work.
Casas said the temporary school at the organization is also a better option for migrant children living in shelters because they don't know where they will live permanently and which school they will be assigned to.
There were 2,775 migrants in Denver shelters as of Thursday. Casas said many of them are children. There are at least 2,000 immigrant students enrolled in Denver Public Schools.
Anyone who has a classroom or space available to create other schools for these children can contact ViVe Wellness at 720-440-1235. The space would be needed for periods of four to five weeks.
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