Why Do We Need
La Puente?
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Colorado’s San Luis Valley is a vast, isolated, geographic expanse that experiences national-high rates of poverty.
Poverty begets hunger, homelessness and other crises that destabilize families.
For nearly four decades, La Puente has been the embodiment of our community’s values. In the San Luis Valley, community is not a noun, community is a verb set in motion each every day. It is a feeling of fellowship with others that breeds joint ownership, participation, and responsibility for one another.
In these small towns, that most know little of, we have pledged to judge the health of our community by those with the least among us. Seeking to practice love, compassion, empathy, respect, and dignity; we have created a safety net and safe harbor for those of our neighbors that have fallen on hard times.
We are a community of people helping people, but more than that, together we are family.
La Puente is our community’s response to address the effects of poverty by providing a safety net of services, where individuals and families get what they need to stabilize, heal, strengthen, and ultimately thrive.
Annually over 16,000 individuals and family members receive at least one of our services, including emergency shelter, nutritious food from one of our 15 pantries, housing with supportive services, after-school youth-stabilization services, educational gardens, homeless prevention resources, soup kitchen meals, home outreach visits, and more.
With the objective of meeting the needs of the homeless and community members in crisis, La Puente’s services both restore and strengthen people’s lives, so that they can live independently, with dignity.
Each day, La Puente depends on the generosity of those who believe in the worthiness of our mission.
With thousands of hours of volunteerism from youth and adults; donations to, and patronage of our Rainbow’s End Thrift Stores and Milagros Coffeehouse; and financial support from individuals, businesses, and churches, we are able to provide both hope and the services when families need it the most.
Please consider partnering with us to cultivate a compassionate community.
La Puente is our community’s response to the effects of poverty, providing a safety net of services that seek to meet immediate needs and to empower people to live independently with dignity.
The La Puente Family of Programs
Adelante Family Resource Center | Food Bank Network of the San Luis Valley | Outreach: Homeless Prevention Services | PALS Children’s Program | Rural Outreach Initiative | Emergency Shelter & Community Meal | VEGI: Valley Educational Gardens Initiative | Re-Threads Resource Center | Social Enterprises | Community Education | Volunteer Coordination