Although students have returned to in-person learning at the Mission School, twelve children from the Mission Home continue to learn through our tutor program. These children range in age from 6 to 15 years old, and each suffered extreme educational neglect prior to arriving at the Mission Home. Many have never been to school before, most come to the home without being able to read, but all of them are eager for the opportunity to learn.

Evelyn’s classroom. Currently, Evelyn is teaching twelve children from the Mission Home ranging in age from 6 to 15.

Our tutor, Evelyn, works with this unique group of children. Evelyn is a certified teacher and every weekday you can find her creating individualized lesson plans to best meet each of her student’s needs. Despite the fact that her students begin at different academic levels, some have developmental delays, and all have survived trauma impacting their socio-emotional wellbeing, Evelyn finds a way to work with them all and ultimately prepare them to enter the formal school setting.

Most significantly though, Evelyn provides encouragement and motivation to children that have thus far been overlooked in regards to their educational wellbeing. Javier* is one such student. When he arrived at the Mission Home he was 10 years old and had never been to school. He should have been entering 5th grade, but instead he spent his childhood on the streets selling pieces of candy or anything else he could find to buy food and stay away from his abusive home.

Javier working on digraphs (two letters that make one sound). He has advanced significantly since beginning his education in Evelyn’s class 6 months ago.

When Javier started attending Evelyn’s class, he was extremely apathetic. Through an array of strategies including enlisting the help of his caregiver at the Mission Home, setting goals based on effort not academic success, creating a needs assessment identifying Javier’s strengths, and incorporating Javier’s personal interests (such as soccer statistics during a recent math lesson), Javier is slowly progressing. Even better than his academic achievements, he wakes up excited to attend class with Evelyn everyday.

The greatest gift of our tutor program is how it opens doors to children previously deprived of the wonders and benefits of education. Thank you for making this program possible.

We are excited to share that the construction on the new classrooms at the Mission School is officially complete! Over the past few weeks the team added the final details including painting the new staircase and moving the desks into these new learning spaces. With these 2 new classrooms, high school students will no longer have to learn in repurposed classes, and the library and video lab spaces can return to their original intended purposes. Check out a few photos of our new building and classrooms below, as well as a video montage of the construction progress.