Se Colorado News

PUEBLO—The City of Pueblo and Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo County formalized a partnership to launch a safe and positive place for teens called “The Loft”. The Loft is open on Friday and Saturday nights throughout the summer from 1:00 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. and hosted at El Centro Del Quinto Sol.

“The City of Pueblo is proud to partner with Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo County with the new teen center “The Loft” during the summer months,” said Mayor of Pueblo Nick Gradisar. “We know engaging youth and offering them safe opportunities on Friday and Saturday nights is a benefit to those young people but also the rest of the Pueblo community.”

Free, fun and safe programming is being offered to high school aged teens each weekend at The Loft with support of $153,178 from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars. The ARPA dollars were allocated by Pueblo City Council and authorized use of the El Centro Del Quinto Sol facility with Pueblo Parks and Recreation.

The program provides experiences for teens to gather in a safe place this summer. Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo has provided positive and engaging programming for teens for over 51 years. This partnership is providing the opportunity, for the first time, to expand the hours to 11:30pm on both Friday and Saturday nights.

Director of the site, Selina Valdez remarked, “We have great offerings coming up at The Loft such as free CPR/First Aid Certification, Servesafe certification and much more. We will also be going to Elitches, FanEXPO, the movies and other field trips. The best part is that it's free!”

Registration for The Loft is through Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo County. The program runs weekly on Fridays and Saturdays. It began Friday, June 16th and will be available through Saturday, August 12th. For more information about the program, call Selina at 719-920-8809.

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