By Matt Landau | Project Member
It's always quite a fulfilling exercise to look back over the past three months and share what Esperanza has accomplished as a direct result of your support. We all need fuel. And without your words of wisdom, gestures of love, and simply unwavering inspiration, the gears of Esperanza would grind to a halt and we'd be stuck with nowhere to go. We are grateful and honored to share with you our collective progress and what happens when the gears keep shifting:
1) Esperanza's 4th Intervention In The Books!
We ventured into El Chorillo for the first time. Our newest group of beneficiaries (12 graduates in total) have adopted the name Mas Que Vencedores (More Than Victors) and is now beginning the labor insertion stage of social integration, which includes applying for jobs, showing up for formal interviews, and starting their own businesses. It was a big step for our team, requiring setting up a temporary field classroom and navigating very different social dynamics than we have in the historic quarter.
This intervention highlighted for us three things. First, San Felipe, El Chorrillo and Santa Ana are different but highly interrelated neighborhoods. Good work in one area creates demand by groups in other areas for their chance, and lasting peace in each area depends on peace in all three. Second, Esperanza's methodology must remain flexible because specific social challenges can vary dramatically over short distances. And third, we have to develop the capacity to sustain long-term support for past groups even while we reach out to intervene new groups. This can feel like spinning plates at times, but it’s integral to our mission.
We will keep you posted as we feed these lessons back into the program and as the results of our fourth group come rolling in.
2) A New-Look Esperanza Social Venture Club (ESVC)
If you know anyone on the Esperanza technical team, you may have heard about the incredible month of October in which we hosted three consultants from SAP (the German public company). These consultants -- all top performers in their respective fields -- qualified for the SAP Social Sabbatical Program, a month-long initiative designed to connect innovative professionals with innovative non-profit organizations in order to solve a specific problem. In the case of Esperanza, our SAP consultants were tasked with revamping the Esperanza Social Venture Club, the entrepreneurial arm of our intervention program. To say that the consultants' work will impact Esperanza for many years to come is an understatement...we wanted to officially thank Kate, Peter, and Jacques for their passion, insight, and complete framework which will be put to use almost immediately. You can read the SAP consultant's blog posts HERE.
3) Esperanza as McNulty Prize Laureate
Thrilling news! Esperanza was nominated as one of four international Laureates for the John P. McNulty Prize this year. Even though we did not win the big $100,000, our trip to New York City was one-of-a-kind. Sitting among some of the world's most cutting-edge thought leaders, our executive team took the opportunity to reflect back on our community of supporters -- you are what this kind of recognition is truly about. Not an hour at the ceremony went by, without us sharing how much our community of Casco Viejo and it's believers play a role in our success. So congrats to the entire Esperanza community for this achievement.
4) Fundraising Is Always Better When It's A Happy Hour
This past November also marked the first event of our Happy Hour fundraising initiative. The idea behind this campaign is that Esperanza is not your everyday non-profit and so our fundraising events should not be your everyday fundraisers either. Thanks to the amazing team at Tacos La Neta (Casco Viejo's best taqueria), the Esperanza team was able to host 50 new supporters in a cocktail hour that was part networking, part problem-solving. To hear each attendee introduce him or herself and their impressive worlds of industry and passion was a microcosm of the Esperanza movement: people who come from different walks of life and who simply believe in a common, better way. If you were unable to attend this first Happy Hour (or if you mistakenly did not receive an invitation -- sorry, we had tech problems) simply hit reply to this email to make sure we get you VIP'd for the next event!
5) Hot Off The Press!
Here are some exciting places that Esperanza was featured over the past few months:
As always, on behalf of the Esperanza team, our graduates, and our neighborhood, we would like to Thank You for being a loyal supporter. One of the most common things we hear from experts is how unusually passionate our base of donors happens to be. We consider it an honor to stand on your shoulders and look forward to sharing more good news early in the new year.
By Matt Landau | Project Member
By Matt Landau | Project Member
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