How dedicated are you to helping kids? Betting not nearly as much as Colorado UpLift .
The Denver-based program serves 5,600 students in 29 public schools, and employs staff who work as teacher/mentors and life coaches through more than 300 classes each week, and are willing to help out any hour of the day or not.
It may seem a drop in the bucket considering that UpLift says 60,000 kids in Denver schools know what it means to be "at-risk." At-risk means a lot of things, including kids who may be living in a home without the mother and the father, dealing with abuse, having parents inside the penal system.
But every bit helps. Colorado UpLift students see a 98 percent high school graduation rate, with 86 percent going on to enroll in college. That compares to the overall public school system, which has a graduation rate of just under 65 percent.