HamiltonFamilyCenter

Making Dreams a Reality

Our services for children and youth are a critical component in our efforts to combat generational family poverty in our community. Project Potential offers family-centered education projects and daily recreational enrichment activities for children from birth to age 18.

Working in a safe, supportive environment where homelessness carries no stigma, children and youth are provided with the skills and opportunities they need to become self-sufficient adults. The program includes:

• Parental involvement in youth education, including a literacy campaign aimed at both the children and parents designed to maximize parental participation in school activities.
• A truancy prevention project that rewards students and parents for attendance at school.
• College and scholarship assistance to help homeless and formerly homeless teenage youth apply for and attend college.
• A youth mentoring project and summer internship program.
• On-site child developmental screening and education program for children ages 0-8.
• On-site clinicians who are available to meet with families and host a range of support groups that include: women’s empowerment, play therapy for parents of infants and toddlers, and parent groups.

Family Success Story

Kitzia Esteva-Martinez, once homeless, is now studying at UC Santa Barbara.
When Kitzia Esteva-Martinez was a sophomore at Newcomber High School, she and her family found themselves homeless in San Francisco with very few options available. Her family, originally from Mexico, moved to the U.S. after discovering that her nephew – who already had Down Syndrome – was also diagnosed with leukemia. Her mother and sister were granted the opportunity to bring the child to San Francisco in 2002 to receive medical treatment at UCSF. Kitzia followed a year and a half later. After encountering difficult times, the family turned to Hamilton Family Center for shelter and support.

Kitzia has faced many challenges that might have kept the average person from pursuing a higher education, but not this eager student. Although she entered the U.S. high school system without proficient English skills, Kitzia worked hard to master the language and excel in the classroom. With the support of her family, the Hamilton Family Center’s after-school program, and her high school guidance counselor, Kitzia graduated near the top of her class and was accepted to college, and was awarded a full scholarship by Children of Shelters.

“I feel like I need to be reciprocal with my community because I have received so much from groups like Hamilton Family Center and Children of Shelters. I now have a responsibility to give back to not only my family, but my community as a whole”. She is studying at UC Santa Barbara with the hopes of earning a degree in Political Science, an interest that stems from a desire to make changes in public policy and the education system.

“I plan to start volunteering at a high school in Santa Barbara and become a mentor to an immigrant student. I know what they are going through and I hope to show them that education is a right – not a privilege. You have to work for it.”