We had a remarkable year at PILAglobal — one that would have felt impossible a few years ago, when we opened our first Nest education space for refugee children in Greece. In virtually every facet of our work — partnerships and collaborations, early childhood education and parenting classes, research and advocacy — we exceeded our benchmarks. In the last 5 years alone, we’ve grown to provide quality education and parenting classes to 5,000 children and their families in Africa, Europe, the US–Mexico border and Los Angeles.
I’m thrilled to share some of our highlights from the past year.
Canyon Nest Expansion In response to the record number of asylum-seekers sheltering at the US–Mexico border, we expanded facilities and programs at our Canyon Nest School in Tijuana. Now serving up to 300 children ages 3-10 daily, it is the first school of its kind providing free high quality education to migrant children at the US–Mexico Border.
Los Angeles Parenting Program In partnership with Echo Park Immigration Center, we launched the Los Angeles Parenting Program to serve immigrant parents living in the United States. The program offers caretakers a confidential space where they can learn parenting strategies and build community through parenting workshops based on Ruth Beaglehole's Principles and Practices of Parenting with Nonviolence.
PILAglobal Handbook This Fall we launched our PILAglobal handbook, a guide for organizations and individuals to use to implement their own Nest learning spaces and preschools in refugee camps, migrant shelters and communities experiencing displacement.
New Partnerships and Collaborations Of course, we can’t do any of this work alone. New partnerships with Art + Practice, Hauser & Wirth and UCLA School of Education and Information Studies are helping to support our teachers, bolster our art programs, and facilitate internships for educators-in-training.
And then there’s you, our supporters, who make all of this possible. Your generosity allows us to continue providing high-quality education and care to the children and families around the world who need it most. As the year comes to a close, we hope you’ll take a moment to celebrate everything we accomplished together in 2022.
With hearts full of gratitude, we thank you for being on this journey with us.
Happy New Year, Lindsay Weissert, PILAglobal CEO