Editor's Note: this is the latest article in the Co-op Cares series that celebrates organizations doing good things in the communities served by the Southern Plains Co-op. Thanks to the Co-op for the sponsorship, and to these organizations for all they do.聽
Cornerstone Family and Youth is an important organization for the Carlyle area, providing programs for families that are accessible and often free.
鈥淭hey provide programs for new moms, and it鈥檚 a way for new moms to get to know other new moms in the community, and for young children to start learning that socialization process at a very young age,鈥� said Lauren Hume, the vice-chair of the Cornerstone Family and Youth board.
Children will enjoy activities that are planned for them, to go along with games and materials.
鈥淲e usually have a mother鈥檚 time, and we try to invite people like the public health nurse to talk about things of interest to young moms. It might be something on vaccinations or something on feeding your child or toilet training or helping your children sleep through the night,鈥� said Hume.
After school promote art and physical activity, among other topics, and they have activities on days in which there isn鈥檛 school.
Families are typically very positive in the feedback they offer for Cornerstone Family and Youth.
A few of the programs do have a registration fee, but most are free. There might be a cost for a child to attend a summer camp.
鈥淪ometimes there are families that can鈥檛 afford a low fee, so we do have things in place where we can help families out if they鈥檙e financially needing it for the programs,鈥� said Hume.
The COVID-19 pandemic has kept Cornerstone Family and Youth from having in-person programs for more than a year. For a while, they tried some programs in people pre-registered for the time they would be there, allowing them to have two or three families together in a bubble.
But the restrictions that were in place for much of this year prevented that from happening as well.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been making Make and Take kits, and these are things that 鈥� families can do with their children, like a Father鈥檚 Day card or a bird-watching Bingo, which is what we have ongoing right at the moment,鈥� said Hume.
Those kits have proven to be very popular, with people trying to get them ahead of time. Cornerstone Family and Youth has been supplying 30-40 kits per week.
A girls group for teenage girls is a mentorship program with older girls.
鈥淲e do activities together as a group, and the girls have an older girl who is not a sister or a mother to look up to and talk about things,鈥� said Hume. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a very successful program over the years, and this year we鈥檝e had to go to Zoom for it. Hopefully in the future we will be able to go back to in-person programming.鈥�
One thing that Cornerstone Family and Youth does not have is a designated location for its programs. They have made use of other spots in the community, such as the Carlyle Public Library. They are looking to eventually find a permanent home that would be suitable.
鈥淲e had reached the point where, pre-COVID, we had nearly outgrown the library,鈥� said Hume. 鈥淲e were having some days where we would have 40 or 50 children there. It was more than we could handle.鈥�
Cornerstone Family and Youth has a dedicated group of volunteers and the board is a good group to work with, Hume said. They have worked hard to keep the programs going. They also have a full-time co-ordinator in Carli Wolbaum.
