Community
Our Mission
When Kids Unlimited CEO and founder Tom Cole created Kids Unlimited in 1998 with a grassroots pilot program at a low income elementary school it was to do one thing, empower kids to believe. The belief that all kids, despite their backgrounds and economic limitations deserved accessibility to opportunities. Driven by the belief that through education, we could empower children and their families, Kids Unlimited became a conduit to hope and today our mission has become a community norm.
EmpowerPrint Unlimited was designed to not only help kids learn a new trade, but to also support the Kids Unlimited foundation. All profits from our printing, design and embroidery work go directly back into the Kids Unlimited programs which continue to support our community.
Meet Our Director
Tom Cole moved to Oregon in 1995. He graduated from Missouri State University with degrees in Sociology and Psychology. Tom, a former program director of a nationally recognized Boys and Girls Club in Missouri, move to Oregon to develop the region’s first Boys and Girls Club. Tom soon realized that the efforts to reach children needed to acknowledge the challenges of the local Southern Oregon, rather than a replicate a national model. In 1998, Tom established Kids Unlimited’s first after school program, designed to meet the needs of children of poverty with purposeful integration of Latino families.
Today, Kids Unlimited programs have been recognized for outstanding outcomes that continue to change the lives of kids, families and our community.
The Kids Unlimited Story
It’s been 18 years since our first after school program opened doors at Oak Grove Elementary for children of poverty in Medford. With the vision to eliminate barriers so that all children could find opportunity through education, Kids Unlimited was created. Since our inception, Kids Unlimited has become more than a program, it’s become a movement capable of transcending norms and barriers while transforming lives of our participants and our community.
Our greatest organizational asset continues to be our ability to grow and respond to immediate and emergent needs. Our programs and services have been a nearly two decade learning journey and the successes have been remarkable. Since the beginning, the foundation of our work has been the relationship to our kids and families. Together, we have shared, learned and evolved our programs to be responsive and conscious of overcoming the barriers of poverty.
As our programs grew, our children and their families grew with us and their successes became a living testimony of what can happen when opportunities for children are created. The successes of the mission have lifted spirits, inspired hope and changed norms. Kids Unlimited is committed to building on what we have learned and believe strongly in our Building the Block campaign to further our mission. We maintain trust in a holistic solution for supporting our children and families with integrated services available 7 days a week, that are embedded in a campus capable of providing education, after school programs, medical services, mental health supports, parent and family resources, early learning programs and community recreation. More than services, the expansion of our facilities and campus will provide a greater capacity for children to learn, eat freshly prepared meals, play and dance, explore, dream and ultimately, imagine their Unlimited futures.
The non-profit business ‘EmpowerPrint Unlimited’ was started in 2021 as a way to help raise money for the Kids Unlimited foundation and provide paying jobs and work experience for Kids unlimited alumni who are currently in high school. The students are not just employees, but treated as partners in the business by including them in each step of the process from bidding, art creation, job set up, job execution, packing, shipping, and clean up. We teach the students the ins and outs of all of these steps through our mentor, Kevin Williams, who has over 20 years professional experience in the business.
The entrepreneurial and printing class was started as an elective class to teach students about entrepreneurship and business using screen printing as the business model through Kids Unlimited Academy. We offer the elective class to our 8th graders that teaches the skills and discipline of garment decorating through screen printing, vinyl transfers and embroidery.
