(ARVADA) Colo, (KDVR) — Hope House Colorado, a nonprofit that helps teen moms become self-sufficient and pursue their dreams of higher education, is taking on their newest venture opening up an early learning center.

“Our mission is to empower them to become self-sufficient,” said Lisa Steven, Founder and Executive Director of Hope House Colorado.

Steven started this mission 21 years ago.

“My husband and I were teenage parents and so we really saw the need and the struggle that teen moms face,” she said.

Hope House Colorado serves about 265 teenage moms from across the Denver Metro Area. Their campus in Arvada has a residential program where six moms and their kids can live at a time.

19-year-old Rene Bruntmyer is one of them after joining the nonprofit in March.

“I found out about Hope House online, I was looking into pursuing to get my GED and a lot of other things for my son,” said Rene.

She had her son Leo when she was 17 and admits that times got challenging.

“So many things held me back before coming to Hope House,” said Rene. “It’s harder when you have a kid and you just don’t have those missing things to do the things you want to do.”

Rene is also working to get her GED through the nonprofit’s resource center. Among learning about renting, parenting, and building credit.

“I’ve learned a lot about good and bad and ugly relationships. I learned so much about renting and credit just things overall that we don’t really get to learn about as we’re younger and they’ve helped me get my license, and I’m almost done with school,” she said.

She’s extremely excited about a learning opportunity for her son with Hope House Colorado’s early learning center set to open in August.

 “I’m just excited about the time I’m going to have to pursue college, and all the things I can do for my son and to know he’s going to be in a safe environment in a place I can trust fully,” said Rene.

Founder Lisa Steven told FOX31 that there is an incredible need for licensed child care in Colorado.

“Our entire state is 90,000 spots short for child care, and for our teenage moms who all qualify for CCAP, which is the Colorado Child Care Assistance program, it’s even harder to find a spot,” Steven said. Very few childcare centers accept CCAP so it’s always been our vision to build our own learning center.”

The new center will have seven classrooms and will provide licensed care to 104 children.

“Our center will open with 50 spots and grow to 100 spots over the next 18 months or so,” said Steven. “We’ll serve kiddos between six weeks old and five years old. During the summer we’ll have a summer camp for the older siblings of our children.”

Steven says it’s an opportunity for teen moms to go to school or work full-time.

“I can tell you, teenage moms, they face so much stigma and so much judgment. People tell them they can’t do it and I’m here to tell you they absolutely can,” she said.

Hope House Colorado is currently looking for about six qualified early learning teachers before their public opening date on August 15.

Everyone is invited. You can find out more information about how to get involved through their website.

The Downtown Aquarium in Denver has a new resident—a rare orange lobster that was rescued from a shipment of crustaceans delivered to a Red Lobster restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado. A long-term employee spotted the bright orange lobster while unpacking a shipment last Friday and alerted restaurant managers, reports the AP. The staff named it Crush after the Denver Broncos’ legendary Orange Crush defense from 1976 to 1986. “Myself and many of my team are born and raised Denver Broncos fans, so as soon as we saw that orange color, we knew that Crush would be an excellent representation,” says Kendra Kastendieck, the restaurant’s general manager. “And we all want our defensive line to be that good again.”

When the Pueblo Zoo couldn’t take Crush, Kastendieck called the Downtown Aquarium, which she said was interested right away. Kastendieck packed Crush with ice packs in a container and delivered him to the aquarium on Wednesday. “As soon as they acclimated him to his quarantine tank at the Denver aquarium, he was very active right off the bat and was really exploring his little area,” Kastendieck says. Staff had set up a tank with a new generation Denver Broncos helmet on top and an older generation one sitting in the tank “so he can actually climb into it and play around it,” she said. Crush will be examined by a veterinarian and after 30 days in quarantine will be placed in the “Lurks” exhibit that houses other cold water North Atlantic Ocean species, aquarium staff said.

“We are thrilled to be able to share this very rare and extraordinary animal with the community and visitors to Colorado,” says Ryan Herman, general curator at Denver Downtown Aquarium, in a statement. Crush was shipped to the Pueblo restaurant from a supplier in Tennessee. It was caught off of Canada, says Kastendieck, but she was unable to confirm which coast. Genetic mutations can lead to lobsters that are orange, blue, and yellow. Downtown Aquarium has had one orange lobster previously.

(More lobsters stories.)

DENVER — We’ll have a bit of sunshine to start your Saturday with clouds quickly increasing by the afternoon. Look for scattered showers and storms to arrive just after lunchtime. So far, it doesn’t look like any will turn severe.

Daytime highs will be a bit below average, with highs in the mid-80s on Saturday. An even bigger cooldown arrives Sunday, with highs only reaching the mid- to upper-70s.

Storms make a comeback on Sunday afternoon too, with heavy rain falling in some spots. The National Weather Service in Boulder was calling for a half-inch of rain on the Palmer Divide, and increased flooding chances in Colorado’s burn areas.

Enjoy the rain and break from the heat. These weekend temperatures will be about 5 to 10 degrees below normal for mid-July!

We’re also likely to see some Canadian wildfire smoke drift into the state this evening and stick around through Sunday.

Warmer, drier weather is back by the middle of next week. Highs return to the 90s by Wednesday.

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