AGENCY HISTORY

     Abriendo Puertas is a dynamic, community based, human services agency serving the Little Havana neighborhood of the City of Miami, Florida.  The Annie E. Casey Foundation initially founded the agency in 1992 under its Mental Health Initiative for Urban Children.   

     The agency was incorporated as a 501-C-3 in 1995 as “The Abriendo Puertas Governing Board of East Little Havana.”  The Mental Health Initiative ended in 1999 and it was necessary for the agency to seek additional financial resources in order to sustain and support programs.  The agency currently has contracts with Miami-Dade County, the State of Florida Department of Children and Families, and The Children’s Trust as well as funding from the Knight Foundation.  Recently, the Board of Directors has participated in capacity building training in its efforts to diversify funding and increase revenues to sustain programs. 

     Over the past 10 years the agency has flourished into the recognized neighborhood resource center offering an array of services for the community’s children, youth and families.  The center provides intake and screening that identifies the needs of all family members and a system of information and referral with follow-up services to insure that no one “falls through the cracks.”  Cultural and linguistic competence is at the forefront of service provision.  Families are assessed from a strength-based perspective and a case plan, if needed is built from that strength and on what the family can accomplish. 

     At present the agency offers programs in three major areas, which are Adult and Community Education, Family Support Services and Child and Youth Development

     The programs serve over 450 families per year, over 1000 unduplicated individuals in the Adult and Community Education Programs and 300 children daily, including summer camp in its out of school programs.

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