Kids In Need of Supportive Services
Grants Awarded
KISS promotes outdoor play for children to combat physical inactivity, stress, and obesity, which affect one in three American kids. By facilitating exposure to natural settings and introducing Wildlife Watching, the program aims to enhance children's fitness levels, reduce symptoms of ADHD, lower stress, and foster social interactions and community values, ultimately benefiting both participants and the local community.
The KISS program aims to increase outdoor play among children, addressing health issues linked to sedentary lifestyles by promoting physical activity and vitamin D exposure. By encouraging time spent in nature, the program seeks to reduce obesity rates and alleviate symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), ultimately fostering healthier children and a more active community.
Our program provides after-school and summer activities for at-risk and low-income youth ages 4 to 18, promoting life skills, education, anger management, and motivation. By enhancing communication, raising drug awareness, addressing domestic violence, and boosting self-esteem, we strive to empower participants and foster a healthier, more resilient community.
Kids In Need of Supportive Services (KISS) provides therapeutic family services including child and parent groups, court ordered visitations and exchanges, individual and family therapy (in the home and at the office), and services that connect families to community resources. We also provide child care to families that are living on a low/fixed income. The afterschool program allows children to come into our care while their parent/parents work to provide for their child/children. We try as much as possible to take our children to activities around the county on a weekly basis. In the summer, we try to take them out twice a week. Here in Grant County, we have three lakes where we take the children to learn how to fish and then learn how to clean the fish then our staff cooks it for the children to eat. We also have the City of rocks where the children get to go explore the huge rocks that are six times their size, and get to walk around them and play with each other in a different outdoor element. We also have the Cliff Dwellings that we would like to take the children to soon. Almost every single one of our children rarely leave the city limits. Our goal is to show them how big our world is and to spend more time exploring the outdoors. With this grant, our hope is to keep taking the children to more places and let them explore our amazing outdoors.