True Kids 1
Grants Awarded
Founded in 2023, TK1's program Kids, Screens & Phones (KSP) has successfully educated thousands in New Mexico about conscious integration of screens into their lives. Acknowledging the crucial role of outdoor activities in combating screen addiction, TK1 plans to launch the Outdoor Digital Detox Program (ODDP) as a summer camp and a school year program by 2026, engaging local youth in outdoor recreation while promoting self-control and conscious use of technology. The program aspires to support families in achieving a balanced digital lifestyle, promote outdoor activities as alternatives to screen time, and strengthen local non-profits in serving the digital needs of the community. Through rigorous evaluation, TK1 also plans to share the findings with other organizations to achieve scalability.
True Kids 1 (TK1) is a youth media-and-technology nonprofit in Taos, NM. We are the largest teen center in Taos County, and serve over 60 unique youth every week during the school year (aged 12-22), and another 32 during our summer camps (ages 10-14), with each camp capped at 8. Our center has two production studios — one for video and podcasting, one for photography — a Gear Lending Library of high-powered laptops, drones and cameras, a kitchen stocked with healthy, free food, and six full-time staff serving as mentors in our always-free, hands-on and project-based out-of-school (OST) time programs. We are walking distance from Taos High School and currently offer 12 OST programs, from entrepreneurship to our Youth Council to our Video Lab, with students dropping into our center starting at 11am every day. Creating and nurturing this teen center is our most important accomplishment yet. Today’s teen needs to be held differently, with our mentoring focusing on their screen use, diet, and mental health as much as on our programs. Our media-oriented fee-for-service work allows us to pay hourly wages to over 30 students. Through this, they gain real skills — including core soft skills — that will help them into their next phase of life, be that college, a gap year or two, or the local workforce. Our funding is a basket of grants (the PED, foundations), donations (businesses, individuals), service contracts (with schools for classroom instruction), and fee-for-service contracts with businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies.