2015: My husband and I formed the Mexican non-profit known as ‘Educarte’.

2016 – 2020: Educarte’s focus was on providing young people in Puerto Peñasco with a path out of poverty through education. We began our first year supporting 72 regular education students and operating one homework club in the community. By 2020 Educarte had grown to supporting more than 600 students and was operating four homework clubs.

March 2020 – August 2020: Soon after the pandemic led to a community lockdown, many local families were running out of food. The amazing Educarte team quickly shifted its focus to feeding those in desperate need and, thanks to generous support from so many of you, Educarte was able to provide emergency food relief for thousands of families in Puerto Peñasco.

August 2020 – January 2023: Over time Educarte had been receiving more and more requests for support from parents of children with disabilities. With no multi-discipline therapy clinics or private schools serving children with disabilities in the community, we saw a critical need and decided to try to meet it.

In January of 2021 we opened a multi-disciplinary therapy clinic and in the first year operating the clinic, Educarte formed a wonderful partnership with ASU’s College of Health solutions. This partnership and the dedication of our local team has helped the clinic grow and thrive. In January of 2022 the clinic moved into a property on Blvd. Fremont that was donated to use as a headquarters for Educarte activities. This property has given the clinic and the Educarte team a wonderful, permanent home.

January 2023 – present:  Soon after opening the clinic we learned that most of the kids served there were not attending school. Unfortunately, unlike in the United States, public schools in Mexico are not required to serve children with disabilities. Although there is a government funded special education school in town, this one campus is only able to serve a small number of students, Tragically, this has left most local children with disabilities without the opportunity to go to school.

By January of 2023, it had become clear to all of us at Educarte that young people with disabilities were the most vulnerable and under-served in the community and these were the kids and families who needed us most. However, with so few professional services available for this this population, we knew we had our work cut out for us. With our resources already spread thin, we decided that that our primary mission moving forward would be to support young people with disabilities. We have continued to operate and grow the therapy clinic while also laying the groundwork for an exciting future special education program.

Coming in August 2024: Escuela de Victoria!

We are incredibly excited to announce that, in partnership with Victory Autism Academy (VAA) in Arizona, the Educarte team will be opening the first private special education program in the community this fall. With teams operating three highly regarded special education programs in Arizona, VAA brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with our local team. The founder of VAA has also formed his own U.S. non-profit organization and has committed to raising the funds needed to ensure that this special project is successful.

The Educarte team is busy remodeling our current facility and I wanted to share these renderings to give you a sneak peak of ‘Escuela de Victoria’. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!