A Child’s Place

Photograph by Chris Takagi

Maggie Tidwell spends her days working to bring stability to families whose lives have very little.

As executive director of the Colfax Community Network, Ms. Tidwell runs a charity that provides after-school care and a host of other services to children who live with their families in residential motels along a poverty-stricken corridor of East Colfax Avenue in Denver.

The families rent rooms by the night or week, and it is not uncommon for a family to move a dozen times a year, a vagabond lifestyle that takes its toll on the children.

“They are very difficult kids,” says Ms. Tidwell, shown here comforting one of the children she works with. “They are very angry. But they are also very grateful for attention.”

Ms. Tidwell, who started her charity two years ago, operates the group on a bare-bones budget — $62,000 this year. For nearly a year she paid herself no salary. Last year, she applied for a $5,000 grant from the Rose Community Foundation, in Denver, to help her charity get off the ground.

Foundation officials were so impressed with the charity’s work that they gave it a two-year, $40,000 grant — some of which Ms. Tidwell used to enroll in a leadership-training course to help her learn how to run a charity effectively.

Among its other services, Colfax Community Network offers a summer camp, meals, emergency clothing, and counseling aimed at helping families improve their living conditions. Ms. Tidwell says her next project is to start a mentor program for the young boys that she works with.