Our Caregivers Are Our Heroes

It is a pleasure to share an update with our community of contributors towards our project,

"Our Caregivers Are Our Heroes".  

This project was originally created to raise funds to sponsor the salary of 1 Caregiver for a year.  We operate our home with at total of 13 Caregivers working on 3 shifts (morning, afternoon, midnight).  

It was eventually adjusted to seek out funding for the annual salary of a second Caregiver.  The crucial role of qualified staff members is often overlooked by donors.  In our case, here at Casa Hogar, our frontline staff are what keep our operational program flowing.  

We had a great summer with many fulfilling field trips for our residents.  This required extra hours worked in particular by our morning shift.  Considering their 48 hour work weeks in a high stress environment we really need to salute their excellent attitudes and desire to invest into the well-being of the girls, boys and teens in our care.   

Most of the field trip outings were to outdoor sites to help cool off such as local beaches, freshwater springs, swimming pools, and even a water park.  These are excellent opportunities for bonding and adventure. In July the residents enjoyed a full moon beach outing which was a new idea for us.

Our kids and teens have also been passionately cleaning up community parks.   The idea is leaves spaces cleanier than when we arrived.    

Thank you very much for your excellent contributions in this season.  

Sincerely, 

Jayson Stirrup

executive-director@casahogarcabo.com

Links:

• Casa Hogar website

We are incredibly excited about 2023.  This will be an important year of growth and improvement.  

GROWTH in the sense that Casa Hogar is currently working on a Youth Community Center project next door which will be open to young people of our local community and IMPROVEMENT in the sense of the roll out of human development work.  

We have investigated significantly into sensibility sessions and training with our staff over the past 3 months.  The result so far is very promising.  Caregivers are working in small teams to create, present and implement improvement strategies or new initiatives to.   All the the focus of investing into the children and teens in our care.   

We have quickly seen an increased level of coworker appreciation, cooperation and harmony.  

Our Caregivers are tasked with many different responsibilities including driving the daily routine, encouraging and demonstrating positive habits, cultivating child-mentor relationships and responding to challenging behavior.  This is required throughout the day, every day of the year.   

Thank you for investing into this essential element of the valuable work of Casa Hogar.  

Our residents, the girls, boys and teens of Casa Hogar, are back to full-time in person classes.   The vast majority of our current 22 residents, study in the afternoons. There are not enough public schools in Los Cabos to meet the demand so many have split use with early morning and early afternoon start times.  

As new residents arrive to our home throughout the year, enrollment into public schools is generally much more feasible for afternoon study times.  There is more demand in the community for morning study times. 

This works out well for us allowing our Caregivers to work in conjunction with our Academic Coordinator to provide homework assistance and tutoring in the mornings immediately after breakfast.  

Our Caregivers are tasked with many different responsibilities including driving the daily routine, encouraging and demonstrating positive habits, cultivating child-mentor relationships and responding to challenging behavior.  This is required throughout the day, every day of the year.   

Progress comes slowly at times with occasional regressions. Our Caregivers hang in there when the times are tough. Indeed, they are our heroes.

As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.   We have a great team of staff members with a mix of experienced "veterans" and talented "rookies".

I'm proud of the commitment level our staff has demonstrated over the past two years. The vast majority of this time we’ve been operating with academic classes from home. Without that “break” during normal school hours opportunities for staff meetings, training, cleaning and organizing have been very limited. We needed to adjust. That was done by involving the kids and teens in these tasks and responsibilities.

As our residents are ramping up their in-person classes in their public schools, I wanted to take an opportunity to applaud the work of our Caregivers.

Our home is operated with 15 Caregivers working around the clock on 3 fixed shifts. Each works 8-hour shifts, 6-days a week. It’s really beautiful to have a group of mixed personalities as it allows our residents to make special bonds with the adult, they gravitate towards most. These mentor relationships contribute to a sense of safety and consequently the opportunity to expedite the healing of traumatic wounds.

Your contributions are vital to the fundamental work of the Caregivers of Casa Hogar. Thank you very much for caring!

(Photos shared are from a field trip with Cabo Adventures earlier this week.)

Links:

• main website

We are so grateful to our wonderful community of contributors.  Thank you so much for your ongoing support of Casa Hogar through GlobalGiving.  

In our last report we shared with you that we had reached 95% of our funding goal of the annual salary of a Caregiver for one full year.  The goal was fully achieved over the summer so the project was adjusted to fund the salary of a second Caregiver. We are about 15% towards this new goal.  

We enjoyed a productive summer season in the areas of academics, commradery and mentor-relationships with the children/teens and staff.  

We've continued to enjoy regular, edifying field trips.  All the local beaches have reopened with COVID cases now significantly reduced in our region.  Strangely, the vast majority of the public schools have NOT reopened.  Of the eight schools our residents are enrolled in only one has reopened offering classes for two hours, three days a week.  

As a result, the vast majority of the academic learning continues to occur onsite.  We are quite happy with this!  

Our Caregivers continue to play an instrumental role in the day-to-day successes achieved with the residents of Casa Hogar.  

Thank you for your ongoing contributions.  :)  

Links:

• organization's website