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Project Esperanza Boys’ Home, School, & Program What is Project Esperanza? Project Esperanza is a non-profit that connects the Blacksburg, Virginia and the Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic communities in order to create positive change and raise cultural awareness in both communities. The majority of our programs serve the Haitian immigrant community in Puerto Plata. In Puerto Plata we have a home, school, and program for Haitian immigrant boys that work the streets shining shoes or selling eggs or sweets. We support schools begun in Haitian churches for kids that face difficulties entering into the Dominican public schools. We also support other such efforts led by community members themselves. What is the Project Esperanza Boys’ Home, School, & Program? This is a program for Haitian refugee boys who have left their country in order to search for life in the Dominican Republic, their neighboring country. Before entering the home, some live as servants in homes of other Haitian immigrants while others live on their own with friends and sometimes family members. This population is extremely vulnerable as they walk the streets facing a different language, different culture, and discrimination, while trying to earn a living shining shoes or street vending. Therefore, we have created a program that attempts to help these boys find what they came searching for: life. History of the Boys’ Home, School, & Program May 2006: Project Esperanza volunteers took their first trip to Puerto Plata, Dominican

Republic. Thirty volunteers served over the span of two months. In addition to serving a public school in the mornings, they ran a street census in the afternoons collecting information and building relationships with the hundreds of boys who walk the streets shining shoes and selling sweets or hard-boiled eggs. Information was collected on 140 boys. The average age was 15 years old. The large majority were from Haiti and had been in the Dominican Republic for less than two years. They had varying levels of Spanish skills depending on the time they had lived in the country. Education levels ranged from those who appeared to have never held a pencil to those who had completed 6th grade. The majority were below a 2nd grade level.

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June 2006: Boys from the street census discovered where Project Esperanza volunteers were staying and began stopping by to view pictures of themselves. Volunteers began a four hour program which served the boys lunch and provided lessons and structured activities such as musical chairs, hot potato, and soccer. July 2006: Project Esperanza took over the lease to the volunteer house in which they had stayed, giving the organization a stable presence and location to return to. November 2006: Project Esperanza leaders Kristin Preve, Caitlin McHale, and Caitlin’s mother Kathy McHale returned to Puerto Plata for a week in order to meet with community leaders, prepare the house for a volunteer trip in January, and let the boys from the program know that they were planning to have an ongoing presence. After learning that the one soccer ball that was left in July was popped after about a week, they collected and distributed soccer balls to about 30 boys. January 2007: A group of 14 volunteers traveled to Puerto Plata and served for two weeks. A

successful day program was executed which included lessons with a successful reward system, meals, and organized activities. Some volunteers also worked on the construction of a room on a nearby church which was later used to hold meals for the program. During this trip it was apparent that some boys were homeless. They began sleeping on mattresses on the floor in one room of the volunteer house. Other boys were determined to be living in abusive situations with deceived and worried mothers in

Haiti. Before returning to the U.S., Project Esperanza co-founder and director Caitlin McHale made arrangements with a few Haitian friends to stay in the rented house with a group of eight boys. One of these friends, Bernard Phiseus took ultimate responsibility over this arrangement. Three of the boys were brought back to their mothers in Haiti at this time. January to March 2007: The household developed. All members attended a grassroots school Project Esperanza began supporting in December 2006. The house was opened during the day to about 40 other boys not included in the residential program. A few more household members began living at the house. March 2007: A small group of volunteers returned. School supplies and tennis shoes were donated to members of the program who had been attending school, as well as to those who registered and attended three or more days of school during the volunteers’ stay. 26 more boys began attending school at this point. Boys began forming a self-

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run soccer team which they named Supesta. One volunteer, Noah Antisdel, stayed a month in order to help Bernard and others with the daily household activities. May 2007: Volunteers returned to Puerto Plata. A total of 25 volunteers served over a three

month period. Bernard who had left his previous home and job and had been serving voluntarily, left the program. Caitlin McHale and Kristin Preve took over leadership and worked closely with paid employees and the boys in the home. Volunteers ran lessons and activities with the boys. Soccer practice became a daily activity. July 2007: The activity at the home rented in the center of town became uncontrollable. Five boys were sent back to

Haiti at their request. The boys’ home moved temporarily to a ghetto on the west side of town. Meals continued, available for boys not included in the residential program as well, and were held in a partnering church facility. The soccer and volunteer programs continued. August 2007: Project Esperanza signed a contract to rent with the option to buy a large farmhouse sitting on 10 acres of land outside of the city. The boys’ home moved to this location, arrangements were made with employees, and a home school program began. January 2008: Project Esperanza director Caitlin McHale moved to Puerto Plata in order to oversee the organization’s activity, focusing highly on the boys’ home, school, and program. June 2008: A successful year of school was completed. The improvement students made was incredible! Soccer season started back up with members of the boys’ home, ex-members of the home who had returned from Haiti, members of the non-residential program, and new boys in the streets. July 2008: A “halfway house” for older members of the boys’ home as well as boys in the streets was opened in a Puerto Plata suburb. The term halfway house is used to refer to those transitioning to independent, adult life. This home had no paid employee to serve as a caregiver. A four bedroom house was rented with two rooms to house eight boys and two rooms to hold night school. A limited amount of food rations and other support was provided to members and members were encouraged to continue working during the day and maintain a certain amount of independence. September 2008: Financial difficulties for Project Esperanza began. Boys’ home employees also became burnt out. The farmhouse and land agreement was terminated. Arrangements were made for the remaining members of the home to be cared for by Project Esperanza leadership in various ways on a case by case basis. Some of these members were registered into Dominican public schools.

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September 2009: Landlord and neighbor for the halfway house also became burnt out living in close proximity with the members of the home and kicked them out in an abusive and illegal manner. This situation was brought to court and the judge ruled that members should return to the home for the remaining two months of the contract, giving time for arrangements to be made with a new facility. However, the landlord and neighbors did not accept and there was no law enforcement back-up to enforce the judge’s ruling. Therefore members of the home were forced to return to the streets. Project

Esperanza leadership took in a few younger members at this time as well. December 2009: New facilities were finally rented; this time separate facilities for a home and school. It was difficult to find facilities and this was done with extra thought and preparation. Members were reintroduced to the program and school began once again. July 2010: A second home was opened in the same community with a paid employee serving as caregiver to allow the acceptance of younger members who had been unable to enter since September 2008 due to the lack of responsible caregivers and financial capacity of the organization. Younger members (ages 11-15) are more difficult to care for and a responsibility that is highly considered. August 2010: The landlady of the new home displayed a zero tolerance rule and kicked members out after a fight. She threw all belongings out in the street, also illegally before the contract had ended. No effort was made to bring about justice in this case. Some members were then taken in by Project Esperanza leadership and others were forced to return to the streets. September 2010: Artisan classes began where skilled local artists teach their skills to members of the boys’ home in hopes of creating business opportunities. Household members and select members of the program who are not household members participated in these classes. Household members also participated in an ongoing soccer tournament, along with other members of the program who are not included in the residential program. Future Goals/Vision:

The primary goal of Project Esperanza’s Boys’ Home in Puerto Plata is to provide an environment that allows street kids who have lived in abandonment or abuse to grow into adults who are secure, educated, and empowered. With that ultimate result in mind, we have a series of goals that will bring the home closer to our desired success.

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1) Maintain positive group dynamics. This means accepting new boys into the home with care and screening, and being mindful of how their presence will affect the group as a whole. It also means keeping a healthy number of kids in the home at one time, keeping in mind the amount of resources available and not exceeding a 5:1 child-to-caregiver ratio.

2) Create individualized discipline and education plans for each boy. Refer to them on a regular basis when making decisions about behavior consequences and schooling. An IDP (Individualized Discipline Plan) defines a child’s problematic behavior, such as fighting or disrespect, and outlines steps to correcting it. An IEP (Individualized Education Plan) defines the skills that a boy possesses upon entering the home and what he lacks in order to continue on a certain level with the rest of the kids, who are themselves divided into different learning groups. The IEP should outline the steps needed to be implemented through individual attention so that the boy can then be integrated into an already existing learning level in the home.

3) Required/Encouraged bible study and church attendance/participation. Since the beginning of the boys’ home we have employed a mixture of requirement and encouragement when dealing with spiritual practices. We have the mindset that just as God gives man choice, we must allow members of the home to have a choice in their spiritual life as well. However, it is God that has led the boys’ home from the beginning and provided us with all that we have. It is therefore a requirement that all members recognize that and respect Him in such ways as attending bible studies and participating in Sunday worship activities. Such studies and services are led in opened and discussion based manners.

4) Maintain boys in consistent participation on our city soccer team. Our soccer team for street kids provides team and character-building that we wish the boys in our home to learn from. It also keeps them in relationship with kids who are still at-risk on the streets. In this way they can maintain a clear perspective of the opportunities that the home provides them, and can continue to have contact with a social reality that provides opportunities for learning about and discussing the continued issues and injustices around them. Our soccer team also allows us to consider potential members of the home and learn about their situation through interacting with them in a recreational atmosphere.

5) Develop a government-registered private school as a part of the boys’ home. The school currently operating in the home has Haitian, Dominican, and American educational influences. It also employs a certain kind of “homeschool” approach in which teachers provide students with creative tools that allow them to teach themselves and advance at an accelerated rate. The school is taught in Haitian Creole, which is the language the boys have grown up speaking. Spanish is implemented, the language spoken in all Dominican schools. English is also introduced and taught.

6) Provide apprenticeships and jobs for older boys in which they can earn and save money as well as receive vocational training in areas such as construction, carpentry, and auto-repair.

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7) Provide small business entrepreneurship education and opportunities that will encourage kids in the home to creatively use their resources and skills in innovative ways.

8) Provide gardening and animal husbandry opportunities to kids in the home. This allows house members to provide for the household that they are a part of while receiving the discipline, therapeutic benefits, and practical education that come with such tasks.

9) Become as economically self-sustainable as possible. This means finding local and regional opportunities to finance the boys’ home, thus using the local environment and resources to fundraise instead of relying solely on U.S. funds.

10) Seek out and/or maintain contact with the family members of boys in the home. This allows us to continue to learn about each boy’s situation and how to best plan for his future.

11) Aid the boys in defining the numerous problems that face Haiti, continually brainstorming solutions and encouraging each house member to make a goal to serve as an agent of change during his adulthood.

12) Prepare boys/young men to leave the house and successfully transition into society. Preparation should include the following:

• A house or apartment to rent alone or with others. • A secure job. • An opportunity near his new residency to further his education. • A church or Bible study opportunity near his residency.

13) Work toward gaining proper documents in order to allow boys, teachers, and other staff members to have a legal presence in the Dominican Republic.

14) Money management education and discipline for household members. This includes counseling on how to save and spend wisely, as well as eventual help with opening a bank account (only possible when a boy has legal residency).

Measuring Results

As the boys’ home continues to add more time to its operation we plan to be able to record more statistical data about the results of our home. Until this system is more developed and established, we will continue to measure individual results on a subjective, case-by-case basis and in the future integrate it into numerical statistics.

The following characteristics will be measured in each boy upon entering the home, during their stay, and upon leaving the home:

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• Educational level – Measured by reading, writing, math, and other subject assessment as well as records of school performance.

• Disciplinary level – Measured through a case-study method based on feedback from caregivers, housemates, and teachers. Specific aspects of discipline to be addressed include fighting, stealing, listening and respect, language, honesty, teamwork, and general manners.

• Physical health – Measured by examination of a physician, including observations of height, weight, blood pressure, presence of skin infections, parasites, or other health problems.

• Mental health – Measured by feedback from caregivers, housemates, teachers, and the individual himself, as well as through observations of his performance in school and behavior in groups.

• Personal history (only pertaining to initial entry of the home). – Collecting the personal history of each boy by recording his family situation and life events. This allows us to determine any other needs he might have for his well-being in the home and in his future.

Puerto Plata Social Work

This is for aid for boys in the program that are not residents of the boys' homes and for other Puerto Plata residents in need. Occasionally boys cannot pay their rent, have medical problems but lack the funds to seek medical attention, need aid registering into school, and face other similar challenges. The soccer team, which was begun by and continues to be run by the boys themselves, is included in this area. Participation in the soccer team is a great way to observe boys who are not included in the residential program and assess the possibility of entering them into the residential program. Ways You Can Help

• Other ways to support Project Esperanza:

1. Make an online donation at www.EsperanzaMeansHope.org/howtogive or send in a check to:

Project Esperanza 1291 Valley Mill Rd. Winchester, VA 22602

2. Search the Internet using goodsearch.com with Project Esperanza (Winchester, VA) as

your benefiting charity. Project Esperanza receives 1 penny for every search.

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3. Become a monthly sponsor. E-mail Sponsor@EsperanzaMeansHope.org.

4. Donate to a specific Project Esperanza program in the name of a loved one and receive a high quality, informational gift card, complete with pictures, to send to your loved one.

5. Purchase merchandise: t-shirts, artwork, jewelry, etc. E-mail

Art@EsperanzaMeansHope.org.

6. Hold a fundraiser among friends, family, co-workers, and others in your area and donate the profit to Project Esperanza.

7. Share this document and the Project Esperanza website with others that may be interested

in getting involved. For more information about Project Esperanza’s additional operational areas, please search the website or e-mail CaitlinMcHale@EsperanzaMeansHope.org for more literature.