Our Ethos

Creamos exists to shift power back into the community. We do this by harnessing local wisdom, believing in the lived experiences of participants, and centering program design around participant-identified needs. Since our inception, Creamos’ growth has been guided by community-led initiatives with high involvement from community members. In recognition of the reality that organizational sustainability must be derived from participant leadership, we’ve hired nine community members to our staff team. Additionally, we’ve launched a Community Advisory Board (CAB), which is composed of six elected Creamos participants who work closely with our Board of Directors and program staff to discuss the organization’s anticipated impacts, make programmatic adjustments and boost participant involvement in both the development and evaluation of its programs.

We actively strive to eliminate barriers that impede our participants’ ability to access the resources and services they deserve. Creamos serves an adult population that has been systematically denied opportunities because of class and age. Many are working full or part-time, and the vast majority are parents. Our program provides the versatility and support this complex population requires through flexible education schedules, accessible mental health services, free childcare, and access to workforce preparation training regardless of age.

The neighborhoods surrounding the garbage dump house many nonprofit organizations that exist to address the myriad challenges facing this community. Each organization has its strengths and areas of expertise, in addition to its limits in resources and capacity. To maximize our collective strengths, Creamos acts as one of the leading members of a neighborhood consortium known as “The Red”. This network is designed to increase collaboration and efficiency of services, avoid duplicated efforts and establish sustainable solutions to community issues. Through this collaboration, we are investing in community partnerships, making client referrals, and sharing resources and knowledge with the goal of fully meeting the needs of our community participants.

We believe that each individual is born with an inherent capacity to achieve one’s goals when provided fair access to the knowledge, tools and opportunity necessary to do so. But within communities marked by extreme poverty, access to quality education and opportunities for dignified work is so limited that self-determination is nearly impossible. To promote equitable access to opportunities, Creamos offers subsidized training programs and scholarships, follow-up services for participants making the transition to the formal workplace, flexible education schedules, and free access to high-quality mental health services for our participants and their families.

Creamos is proud to surround itself with a diverse community of participants, staff, supporters, and partners whose varied life experiences and social identities motivate us to learn and evolve. As an organization, we carve out intentional time for professional development designed to create safe spaces for under-represented groups within our walls. Organizational policies center around the bolstering of racial, economic, gender, and ethnic equity by adhering anti-racist and non-discriminatory tenets. We also provide information to staff and participants about movements that promote social justice and freedom from forms of oppression.

Creamos’ female participants come from some of the most marginalized socioeconomic backgrounds in the country. They confront astronomical rates of gender-based violence (GBV), high-risk work, undignified wages, discrimination, classism, hegemonic masculinity, and a general lack of public infrastructure that supports women. Economic, social, and familial threats and insecurities are daily barriers to basic health and safety. Safety is often absent from the daily lives of women (and many other marginalized groups) living in Guatemala. To provide a brief respite from this reality, Creamos endeavors to provide a space free from discrimination, sexism, racism, and classism. Internal and external security staff ensure their physical safety within our facilities and during their commute, while an organization-wide commitment to confidentiality and trauma-informed care supports our mission of decreasing violence against women in all forms.

We understand health as a reflection of wellbeing and equilibrium across the physical, mental, emotional, and economic aspects of one’s life. Due to immense risks and dangers present within the lives of Creamos participants, achieving and maintaining good health is a challenge. From daily exercise classes to financial literacy courses, emotional support groups, and reproductive health training, Creamos provides preventative and interventional support to boost many aspects of our participants’ health.

Creamos’ clients are survivors who experience ongoing traumatization due to micro and macro forces, including but not limited to hegemonic masculinity, discrimination within the formal employment sector, and chronic poverty. Providing services within such communities requires an intentional approach. In response, we bring awareness and facilitate staff training to prevent structural violence and the re-traumatization of participants. We implement a non-punitive, restorative, and collaborative approach to conflict resolution and ensure that staff is trained in trauma-informed practices, policies, and approaches.