Breaking the cycle of generational poverty through relationships and accountability.
One mentor can make all the difference.
Mentorship
The EDGE Program
Empower playful connections between youth, families & law enforcement.
The Edge program is a family fun program held during the school year at Walker Middle School, where we serve breakfast and lunch, hold two open gyms, teach arts and crafts, play board games and much more. During the summer, The Edge transitions to our community learning center where much of the same functions take place. Between 112 to 235 attend the Edge during the school year at Walker, and between 50 to 75 attend during the summer months at Nuestra Casa.
Summer Camps
For the past 18 years we have taken between 75 to 150 children and youth to a week long summer camp. A camp where they swim, ride horses, ride a zip line, paddle in a canoe, or kayak, go on nature hike, learn to cook over a fire, do team building on a roads course and much more. For the majority of the children and teens, this is the closest thing to a vacation they will experience. It’s their one week stepping from beyond the confined of poverty to experience fun and adventure.
Click to watch Summer Camp Video
Field Trips
A dream without a goal is simply a wish.
We can talk to a middle schooler about college, but until they visits a college, college is simply a word. Since 2004 we have witnessed that when a child experiences something new, it becomes real to them, and that is the first step to working toward that dream. Our intent with field trips is to have fun, experience exciting things, and to broaden the vision of children, youth and teens. It is also a way to help them see a future beyond poverty. When they embrace that experience, our team can begin to work with them to set goals, and help them to plan to achieve those goals. A field trip to an art museum can ignite a passion in a child that changes the course of their life. The same is true about attending a sporting event, a play, and even a movie can help a child see past poverty to a life they want, and are willing to work for.
Movie & Game Nights
Our Movie and Game Nights provide children and families with a fun exciting experience together as community. We have dinner together, laugh and play together.
1 on 1 Mentoring
Today more than ever youth are struggling socially and emotionally. Many have embraced the imposed isolation created during the pandemic, and now are self isolating. A dark reality to self isolation is it is a dangerous breeding ground for depression, self harm, and diminishing social skills. Our method of mentoring is one of organic nature. We feel mentoring best happens during a meal, or on the way to a ball game, a movie, the beach or playing video games. It’s in those comfortable situations that bonds are developed, and youth open up and accept advice. It’s then that they allow us to walk with them toward a solution to the challenges that face them. To an outsider our Saturday Edge program looks like a lot of fun, and it is, but it is the perfect environment to identify a child, youth or teen who is struggling, and begin the journey toward a healthy and happy life.