What is our current community need?
In FY2022, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) received over 129,000 unaccompanied minors from various countries. With funding and oversight from ORR, Neighborhood Ministries’ Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) program has welcomed over 950 of these vulnerable children, some of whom were victims of human trafficking or other forms of child abuse and neglect.
Nueva Esperanza provides these unaccompanied children ages five to 12 with safe, age-appropriate care using a trauma-informed approach. The program provides wraparound services including food, clothing, housing, education, case management, family reunification services, and mental and physical healthcare. Nueva Esperanza utilizes foster families licensed by the state of Arizona to provide loving homes and bring the children to Neighborhood Ministries’ downtown Phoenix campus five days a week for school, clinical services (e.g., counseling and play therapy), and medical care.
Funds Needed To Complete the goal
The new building, which will replace the former metal shed building, will serve as a safe and welcoming space for children who arrive and are placed in our care. This space will be the hub where all services run for them. Foster parents will drop off and pick up the children throughout the week for a little rest. The kids in our care will be immersed in a school which fosters curiosity and wonder. This will be the first school they have ever attended for many of them. They will also receive clinical services like counseling/play therapy and meet with their case manager who will walk with them through the process of being placed with their sponsor here in the United States.
Our fundraising goal is to raise $804,943 to help us complete the building.
The Nueva Esperanza Welcome Center
The new building, which will replace the former metal shed building, will serve as a safe and welcoming space for children who arrive and are placed in our care. This space will be the hub where all services run for them. The kids in our care will be immersed in a school which fosters curiosity and wonder. This will be the first school they have ever attended for many of them.
They will also receive clinical services like medical check-ups, counseling/play therapy and meet with their case manager, who will walk them through the process of being placed with their sponsor here in the United States.
Nueva Esperanza Building Design Inspiration
The building design concept for the Nueva Esperanza Building was inspired by the program, site, climate, solar orientation, and the simple utilitarian building forms of agricultural and industrial buildings.
Red Development, Oakland Construction, Nelsen Partners, and Neighborhood Ministries team have partnered to create a new building on the existing Neighborhood Ministries campus that will provide offices, classrooms, and temporary housing for the Nueva Esperanza program.
The new building will be built on the site of a former industrial metal storage building previously used for storage.
The new building connects the existing silo building, the recently completed new Diamondbacks Playground for ages 3-5, and the proposed new infant and toddler playground.
The Nueva Ezperanza Building will replace the former metal building located next to the completed Diamondbacks playground and newly renovated Classroom and Silo Building.
