IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Few organizations have had the kind of meaningful impact on the people of Immokalee, as the Guadalupe Center.
"I think it is 40 years of empowerment," Guadalupe Center CEO Dawn Monteclavo said.
Guadalupe Center supports children in Immokalee from a few weeks old, all the way through college.
Watch Immokalee Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
Monteclavo said they help at least 2,000 children a year, so with forty years under their belt, that's around 80,000 people.
She showed Immokalee Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades around the center's early childhood campus where they work with 545 kids.
"When you get to see all of them what does that feel like?," Rhoades asked.
"Happy. They're happy. They're safe. They're growing. It's just amazing to be a part of it and giving them opportunities that they would not normally have," Monteclavo responded.
Monteclavo said to break the cyle of poverty, the community needs the right resources, so children can succeed.
Guadalupe Center provides early education, food distributions, programs for parents, medical and housing assistance, after school care, and college prep.
Monteclavo said, "So many times, we talk about the kids in our program and what they want to be, but now after 40 years, we have all these stories of these students who are now young adults, and they can say I am."
Including, an alumni who reached out to Monteclavo, who now works for the Florida House of Representatives.
"He is now working to change the policy to help families like his and families we serve. It just made me so proud," she said.
Maria Plata is great example of the impact the center has made on generations of families, Monteclavo said.
Plata first went to the center for college prep when she was 14.
"It's awesome to be able to be part of a program that helped me...get to where I am today and have the opportunities that I have, and I know that now my daughter is in this program too and still has those types of opportunities," Plata said.
What's in store for the next 40 years?
"The next few years is gonna be adaptability about really looking at what the community needs," Monteclavo said.
