Family Wellness

what do we do?

Abraham Maslow came up with a theory of human needs called, "The Hierarchy of Needs". In the info below, you will see how we at the Albuquerque Adult Learning Center, through our Family Wellness program try to address most of those needs for our participants.

physiological needs

These are the most basic need we have. As humans, we need to breathe air, drink water, protect ourselves from the environment, eat food, get some good sleep and reproduce. Some of those needs get taken care of on their own, but others need some intentional effort. We focus our efforts on shelter, nutritious food and clothing.

shelter

Our wonderful partner Heading Home NM not only provides temporary shelter to our participants, but also helps them transition to a more permanent housing situation.

food

Thanks to the Street Food Institute and Three Sisters Kitchen, our families, get very well fed, but also learn how to use the microwaves in their rooms to cook great meals and get food that support local farmers.

clothing

We practice a sustainable way of providing ourselves with clothing in a regular basis by organizing clothes swap every change of season.

Safety needs

We need to feel safe about keeping our physical integrity, personal belongings, and our network of support. Our program encourages families to interact with one another creating a small community that can help each other in times of need or crisis. Our families increase their extent of neighborship which translates to their lives out of class. Here are examples of this:

internet safety education

Through a curriculum called "Be Internet Awesome" our participants increase their level of awareness about all the potential threaths that they can find during their journey surfing the internet. They learn to identify them and to protect themselves from such threaths.

Provide a safe space for learning

Parents and kids learn their preferred subject using the internet learning platforms. They sit together and work elbow to elbow, which reduces the amount of risk arising from interactions with other people in class.

Learning to have fun safely

Having fun in family is crucial for a harmonic family life. We provide the space and time to encourage parents to play with their children. We use a wide range of card games, board games or just old fashioned outdoor games like Duck Duck Goose, or Pat-a-Cake games.

love and belonging

Who doesn't need some love? While we can not guarantee you'll get the love you deserve, we can definitely make you feel safe and connected to your neighbors. In essence, the experience is the same for everyone in our classes and that creates the connection our families need to become part of a group that appreciates them and a group that they like as well.

esteem

We encourage our participants to share their skills and knowledge with others. We also encourage them to lead some of the activities once they already know the ups and downs of our daily routine. This approach provides them with opportunities to build self confidence, strength, earn the respect of their family members and the group. Take a look at these examples:

babysitting

gig

One of kid participants observed that there were a lot of toddlers in the classroom and that the level of noise and chaos was out of proportion. She took the matter into her own hands and started entertaining the children, which turned the class from chaotic to smooth.

honorary

instructor

One of our teenagers, while listening to our advice to prevent phishing and scams online, started explaining to us in more depth how things worked. Despite his young age, he happened to be experienced in the field and from that moment forward we rely on him for more detailed explanations.

event

planner

For Valentine's day a couple of our moms made it their mission to organize the decoration and organization of our celebration. The rest of the group forgot about the instructor's plans and they followed suit. No need to say we had a blast.

self actualization

Last but not least, we humans are always complaining about our lives. If you wonder why you seem to have everything but it doesn't feel like it, it's because you're lacking self-actualization. Yes, just like your phone, you need an upgrade to your operative system. Learn new things, improve yourself, get a new hobby, meet new people. At our program, we do all of that. Here's our go-to activities to self-actualize our participants.

Computer Skills

Academics

Cooking Classes

Robotics

testimonials

We know that we're doing awesome work here, but of you don't want to take our word for it, here are some of our participants testimonials.

monique martin

This is a great class and a great way to engage the family in a broad spectrum of activities. Great for overall mental and physical well-being and growth.

Tomas Gonzalez

I think it's really good. If someone needs help, they help and the food's good too.

Jennifer Benavidez

AWESOME!!!!!!!!

We greatly thank the institutions that make this project possible with their sponsorship

Thanks for making our work possible and alleviate some of the struggles our participants deal with on a daily basis.

Albuquerque Community Foundation

New Mexico Community Trust

these are our exceptional partners

This is becoming a powerful community of organizations ready to create positive empowering change among our most vulnerable population. Thanks a lot for keeping an open mind and adjusting your visions to fit this innovative project.

Heading Home NM

Heading Home NM does a fantastic job helping people transition from unhoused to happily housed.

Street food institute

Street Food Institute helps their students start a food business and is helping our project by providing us with delicious meals and awesome cooking, meal preparation and groceries budget planning workshops.

three sisters kitchen

Wonderful non-profit that supports local farmers and provide us with great dishes made with ingredients that are local, healthy and season available.

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