Kevin’s Story: Overcoming Educational Challenges

Simply because he is autistic, Kevin spent his early school years in a self-contained classroom. When he arrived at Esperanza Academy Charter High School, things changed. He suddenly found himself with twenty-three other students in his grade, free to experience the bustle of changing classes each period, and the support of a faculty mentor. Dr. Colon worked with him during and after school, modeling social scenarios and helping him to build the confidence to face academic and social situations. Kevin moved from working in small group settings to eating in the cafeteria with one hundred and sixty students- something he once found terrifying!  With the support of his mentor, and funders like the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania that support the program, today Kevin is thriving and taking full advantage of his educational opportunities!


Esperanza Academy and Esperanza College each celebrated 10 years of successfully changing lives, and are quickly becoming models for education that works in the Hispanic community. In 2010 the producers of Waiting for Superman made a film about our own work. Click here to watch the film.


 
Marie’s Story: A New American
Meet Marie: a native of Haiti and a lawful permanent resident of the United States, looking to become a U.S. citizen. As a single mother of five with chronic medical conditions requiring weekly dialysis, no way to work to pay for her application fees, and no transportation, the obstacles to becoming a citizen seemed insurmountable.

Marie learned about our ability to help through Esperanza Immigration Legal Services’ outreach to the Haitian community after the earthquake. Marie was able to receive grant resources to cover her citizenship assistance free of charge, and a fee waiver for her citizenship application. A volunteer tutor helped her to improve her English for her citizenship test. When her medical condition worsened, preventing her from studying and causing her to fail the first exam, Marie received encouragement from Esperanza to try again. In May of 2011, Marie became a citizen! She is now able to access disability benefits that will improve the quality of life for her and her children. 

Hope for Marie and many immigrants like her is made possible through your support. Donations allow us to cover the gap between what our clients can afford to pay, and the true cost of services, as much as $600 per case.


 
Vanessa’s Story: Obtaining Employment 
When Vanessa arrived at the EARN Center in December of 2009, she had experience working in day care and was eager to find full time employment in that field. Vanessa’s employment specialist, Aaron, found her a paid internship at a local daycare center for three months. Meanwhile, job developers at the EARN Center cultivated leads at other daycare agencies for full time employment, including “Know and Grow Day Care Center.” When “Know and Grow” set up interviews at the EARN Center, Aaron immediately thought of Vanessa. She interviewed and received another three month internship which led to an offer of full time hire in June of 2010. “Once I enrolled at the EARN Center, I started getting a lot more calls from employers and having interviews. Without their support and encouragement, I would never have been able to get a job and keep it.”  She met her six month retention, purchased a home, and has a job she loves!

 
Lincoln Leadership Academy: A Hispanic Capacity Project Success
Sandra Figueroa-Torres and board member Sis Obed was excited at the prospect of founding the Lincoln Leadership Academy Charter School in Allentown, Pennsylvania, yet their nascent organization faced some major challenges including funding and learning the “how to-s” of building “a brand-new school…from scratch.”

Luckily, the Lincoln Leadership Charter School was a participant of Esperanza’s “Hispanic Capacity Project-Pennsylvania”, a three year project offering training, technical assistance and sub-awards to emergent, Latino led non profits, and one of many ways that Esperanza has strengthened Hispanic-serving organizations over the last decade. Sandra Figueroa-Torres learned about fund development, marketing, and strategic planning, and staff from Esperanza’s own successful charter high school provided assistance drawn from their first-hand experiences as Lincoln Leadership Charter School was developed.

Today, Lincoln Leadership Charter is a fully functioning charter school, serving 6-10th grade students in Allentown. It also made Adequate Yearly Progress in its first year! Sis credits Esperanza with supporting the charter school through its challenging phase of development, “Esperanza helped provide stability during a very trying process of planning to open and opening a charter school. Thank you, your help was extremely valuable!”