Dear Friends,

America is facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions.  Literally 50% of all minority youth are dropping out before graduating from high school.  In our urban cores, this number rises to 70%.  Concurrently, 80-90 % of all those who are incarcerated are high school dropouts.  Simple math shows us that, if something isn't done to intervene, there will continue to grow in America a burgeoning underclass of the undereducated, much more likely to commit and be victims of crime, incapable of being self sufficient, and unequipped to fully participate in the American Dream.

What will work to keep our nation's teens in school and on the track to becoming self sufficient, contributing members of society?  It has been proven that small personal high schools with low teacher student ratios are very important.  Active participation in extracurricular activities such as athletics, mission/serving learning trips, and leadership camp are a major key.  Probably the most important factor is a very aggressive, proactive engagement by loving caring adults in the lives of these very needy youth.       

The Denver Street School (DSS) is now in its 21st year of providing just such an education to the troubled and at-risk teens of the Denver metro area.  When I founded the school in 1985 in a little house in the most troubled part of Denver, I knew that a quality Christ-based education delivered in a small personal family like environment would be a major part of the solution.  I also believed that sacrificial intervention on the part of our faculty and staff in the lives of our very challenging student body, often without the support of the parents, was crucial.  Twenty years of success have borne out my earlier contentions.  Students who would have dropped out, gone to jail, or been crippled by addictions have found great success in college, the workplace, and the military.  They all have caught a vision of a bright successful future and are on their way to attaining it.

The success of the Denver Street School has gone far beyond Colorado.  Through the National Association of Street Schools, the DSS model is now replicated all over the nation in thirty-one cities in twenty-one states.  The DSS model of interventionist education is nationally recognized through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Alternative High School Initiative.

I invite you to learn more about the Denver Street School and consider partnering with us in providing hope for Denver's most needy and at-risk youth.  If your adolescent or a teen that you may know is having difficulties in school, please do not hesitate to call.

For the Kids!

Tom Tillapaugh
Founder and Executive Director