How Creamos is weaving a stronger web of support. |
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What does humility look like for a nonprofit? Most recently, humility has come through a familiar reminder that we can’t do it all on our own.
We talk a lot internally about deepening how our programs work together. But even our strongest programming can’t meet the full range of needs a community carries. That requires a much wider circle of support, one that extends beyond our walls. Real, lasting change for the individuals and families we serve depends on how well that circle holds together. We're often the ones encouraging participants to lean on their support networks. Sometimes we need the reminder to take our own advice.
So we’ve been sitting with some humbling questions: Where do we need support? What should we be learning from others? What do we have to offer in return? How can we all work better, and more efficiently, together?
Referring a participant to a partner organization better suited to meet a specific need means putting that person ahead of our own program metrics. Learning from a peer organization's ancestral practices or vocational model means admitting we don't have all the answers. Showing up at the table with the municipality, local churches, community leaders, and peer organizations means recognizing when a challenge is too big to carry alone.
This season, Creamos is recommitting to being a good neighbor in this ecosystem: generous with what we know, open to what we don't, and always striving toward the best possible programs for the communities we share with so many others. En comunidad,
The Creamos Team |
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Please join us for a mindful moment |
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Think of a time someone connected you to a person or resource you needed — not because they had to, but because they wanted to see you succeed. What did that connection make possible for you? Breathe in with gratitude for the people and organizations who work alongside us, not against us.
Breathe out with a hope that every community can build the kind of interconnected support that lets no one fall through the cracks. |
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Building Bridges: A Multisectoral Meeting for Workforce Development
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This month, our Workforce Development team hosted its first-ever multisectoral gathering, bringing together 28 key community actors, including representatives from the municipality, community leaders, social organizations, churches, and other local allies.
The gathering was about strengthening existing relationships and building new ones with allies who can help identify and refer participants whose profiles align with our final three cohorts of the year: Gastronomy, Barista, and Professional Delivery Drivers. This is collaboration in practice — a network of partners connecting the right people with the right opportunities. |
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Learning From Our Neighbors: A Visit to Tejiendo Redes
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This month, Rossana, our Director of Accelerated Education, visited the Tejiendo Redes ("Weaving Networks") Extracurricular Education Center in Chimaltenango. The center promotes ancestral practices rooted in its community's identity, including the preservation of the Kaqchikel language and traditional weaving.
These visits are a reminder that building an ecosystem of care isn't only about referrals and logistics, but it’s also about learning. Organizations like Tejiendo Redes are doing profound, culturally-rooted work, and we're grateful for the chance to learn from their model and honor the practices they're working to preserve. |
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In August, the Education team also visited Kinal, a vocational training school in Zone 3, where students in their final two years of high school learned about scholarship opportunities for technical university careers. Partnerships like this one help us broaden students’ perspectives about what possibilities exist for their own futures. |
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Emotional Support: Graduations and a New Space for Healing
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August brought the conclusion of the second cycle of Mothers Parenting School, with 13 mothers graduating from the program.
The Emotional Support Program has also launched a new support group: Aquí Entre Nos ("Just Between Us"), a space for women who have experienced relationship violence to gather, be heard, and talk openly about the things that are hardest to say out loud.
Some of the most important work we do at Creamos isn't visible from the outside; it happens quietly, in circles of women who show up to listen and provide spaces of healing for one another.
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Creamos is the September featured grantee of Together Women Rise, a foundation partner that supports our Emotional Support program. Click the video below to hear the conversation about Creamos’ community-based mental health model! |
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Our Strategic Plan for 2026–2029
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Last week, we shared our Strategic Plan for 2026-2029.
If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, we'd love for you to take a look and see where we're headed over the next three years. Reply to us and let us know what you think! |
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