Guadalupe Center, Inc.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Guadalupe Center is to break the cycle of poverty through education for children of Immokalee, Florida.

Organizational Overview

The mission of the Guadalupe Center is to break the cycle of poverty through education for the children of Immokalee. Guadalupe Center has served the community of Immokalee for nearly forty years. From its humble beginnings in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Soup Kitchen, grew a dream to affect generations of children. Some of the early volunteers noticed an alarming number of children struggling with schoolwork and falling behind in class. They identified what education proponents today would define as learning gaps. They suspected, what data now verifies, children in lower socio-economic communities disproportionately face barriers to attaining education. To help alleviate this issue, an after-school tutoring program began. Over the next two decades Guadalupe Center expanded educational programming to include early learning, and college preparatory efforts, and eventually college support as well. Our reach grew from a few dozen students, to a few hundred, to today, more than 1,800 and growing. Guadalupe Center’s approach focuses on providing children and families of Immokalee access to high quality, innovative academic programs aimed at establishing a strong foundation, reducing the achievement gap before third grade, and preparing high school students for success in college and beyond. Three core programs focus on the key educational milestones to help students overcome the profound challenges of living in an impoverished community. Early Childhood Education serves 527 children at three campuses in a full-day, year-round program. In addition, our Smart Start initiative provides weekly child and adult classes for families that are not seeking full-time programming. In June of 2022, a fourth campus opened providing 154 more early learning students with this transformational foundation. Two Out-of-School Programs, After-school Tutoring & Summer Enrichment and Tutor Corps help 800 K-2 Immokalee elementary students close the achievement gap, while employing 117 Immokalee high school students. This unique model incorporates work-study and mentorship elements in a comprehensive combination that has been proven highly effective.