After two years of searching, H2 Academic Solutions Scholarship Fund (H2 ASSF), a nonprofit in Belen, has found a building it can turn into a teen center for at-risk youth.
After plans to renovate an old city building proved to be too costly, the City reached out to Belen Consolidated Schools to help the nonprofit, a recent KRQE news report said. As a result, H2 ASSF signed a Memorandum of Understanding to turn a district building into a safe place for youth who need to do laundry, grab a meal, shower or get free tutoring.
“We’re excited,” Holly Chavez, board chairman of H2 ASSF, told KRQE. “We never doubted we’d get here. We are nothing if not persistent. We have a big homeless community of teens here. If we can get them to a safe space, maybe they don’t become drug-addicted or gang involved.”
The nonprofit will get the keys to the building on July 1, and it hopes to have the facility up and running by August. The teen center—with the help of approximately 30 community partners volunteering their time and services—will offer everything from food and hygiene products to cooking and workout classes, mentoring, and behavioral health services.
“The idea is that the kid can go in there, and they’re going in for recreation and fun, that will all be part of it,” Chavez said. “But if there’s a problem, if there’s issues at home, there will be people, there will be resources there.”
H2 ASSF began looking two years ago for a building to turn into a youth center, a 2020 KRQE report said. It initially targeted the Old Belen City Hall building, which has been abandoned for decades. But the building needed approximately $2 million worth of renovations.
The district building is expected to serve 30-50 kids at any given time and will become a bus stop for Belen Consolidated Schools.
“Our biggest hope is that we can help these kids so that they don’t become police-involved, gang-involved, drug-involved,” Chavez said. “Our business deals with kids that are at risk of police contact or police involvement, and so we’re kind of hoping we work our way out of a job.”