READY TO TAKE YOU HIGHER

Our Philosophy

COMMITTING TO THE INDIVIDUAL

Leadership Development

Migrating to another country is one of the biggest and most impactful decisions any person will ever make. Each decision an immigrant makes throughout their integration journey can have dramatic effects, potentially altering the entire direction and success of their new life. To this end, we have specific leadership development programs focused on engaging immigrants throughout the different stages of their integration process.

The purpose of these programs is to help evaluate, assess and determine if the individual is moving in the right direction toward achieving the lifestyle they seek.

True leadership starts with the self, and our leadership programs develop and strengthen this innate capacity in those we serve.

a) Youth: Helps youth create a compelling vision for their future and determine best paths forward to make it real.

b) Adults and Senior Citizens: Helps adults identify and create the vision of the life they seek in this new country. Once the vision is identified, we help devise a strategy to achieve it.

EMPOWERING from the ground up

Education

One Puente partners with each immigrant to help him or her decide what areas they need to focus energy on in order to achieve a successful integration. We have designed knowledge-sharing systems available to address academic and technical development needs.

a) Early Childhood: Young parents program (coaching of young parents with recent newborns on parental best-practices to benefit the child), i.e.: Baby College

PROMOTING Quality at every turn

Health and Wellness

The quality of the entire integration journey relies heavily on the health and wellness of each individual. Low literacy on health and wellness topics, compounded by limited access to resources and proper healthcare, are common among those we serve.

Our programs create and increase health literacy levels among immigrants and refugees. By providing services and connections to address specific health and wellness needs, we help each individual gain control of their health. Our knowledge systems and partnerships emphasize preventative healthcare and promote wellness to increase healthy behaviors and minimize the use of reactive healthcare.

a) Food and Nutrition programs

-Healthy cooking seminars
-Healthy lifestyle seminars (free exercise classes)

b) Mindfulness Development

-Transcendental Meditation (Targeting PTSD & depression, among other symptoms)

c) Health fairs

-Health clinics

d) General Counseling and Linkages

-Evaluation of needs and referrals to other available health care and social services

CREATING MEANING AND PURPOSE

Community Building and Advocacy

Community building starts with the ability and willingness of members to contribute to the enhancement and sustainment of their local communities. Regardless of gender, sexual preference, race, religion, age or disability, we are all part of larger communities.

While our core services empower and improve the lives of immigrants on an individual level, we believe contributing to the enrichment of the communities where immigrants live is necessary for a successful collective integration. To this end, we offer support systems to better integrate immigrants and refugees to the social and economic culture of their new society. We offer training to increase cross-cultural competency and engage in a variety of grassroots advocacy campaigns to deal with and overcome the many challenges faced by immigrant families and their communities at a local, state and national level.

SPREADING THE WORD

Research and Publications

Immigration is a global phenomenon with real-life impacts and consequences on a local, state, national and international scale. We acknowledge that the issues justifying our existence as an organization are multi-variable, and influenced by a variety of stakeholders. A deep understanding of causes and effects relevant to immigration are essential to ensure the quality of our services and focus areas.

We have a dedicated team of analysts and research fellows monitoring and producing quality analyses of relevant issues in the immigration arena. Thorough understanding allows us to build effective advocacy movements from studying conflict regions and their possible impact in increased immigration to the United States, to analyzing local, state and federal legislative initiatives that can significantly impact the lives and opportunities available to those we serve. Our research enables us to be at the forefront of empowering low-income immigrants build better communities and improve public policies.