Educate, Engage & Empower Families for the Future
To empower low-income families to be healthy and selfsufficient community members through educational programs, family activities and preventative health services.
Humility, Respect, Hard Work, Sacrifice, Listening, & Reflection
Educational Programs, Family Activities, Preventative Health Services, & Advocacy
Every day Proyecto Juan Diego strives to make our mission a reality! The continuation of the pandemic brought many challenges this year. Using what we learned in 2020 about providing our services virtually to ensure our community is receiving the resources and services necessary to thrive in these difficult circumstances; we succeeded! But now—it's time to look towards the reopening of our building and once again providing in-person services. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome our community back into the building. Starting in January, we will be bringing programs back in a safe and socially distanced manner. We thank all our sponsors and supporters who have made our work possible this year. On behalf of Team Proyecto Juan Diego, We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year! Hit the “Play” button to view a short message from our staff.
PJD
Alberto Garcia
“I first visited Proyecto Juan Diego in 2012 when we were interviewing potential recipients of our Charity Golf Tournament donation. It was supposed to be a difficult decision with more than a dozen potential organizations—but watching the children, women and elderly coming in and out from the various programs and speaking with the enthusiastic staff it was one of the easiest decisions I have ever made. They were at the heart of the community and doing exactly what the community needed them to do. I am forever grateful to Proyecto Juan Diego for giving me the opportunity to work alongside them and participate in the great work they do in our community.”
Executive Board: Humphrey Thomas (Chair), Nancy Reed (Vice-Chair), Lupita Fragoso (Secretary/Treasurer),Sister Patricia Connolly-DC (Past Chair) -
Members: Sister Carol Keehan-DC, Daniel Keller, Carmen Nordyke, Paul Serafy, Alberto Garcia
Ximena Mendiola
Meet Ximena, our newest volunteer! She first came to Proyecto Juan Diego requesting information about our English classes and was motivated to start learning the language. Ximena said that her sister-in-law highly recommended PJD’s English classes. After a brief introduction of our programs and services and the impact they have in our community, Ximena became inspired to join the team and lend a helping hand! Ximena is currently assisting the immigration services department with administrative/clerical tasks and has been doing so with great affection and pleasure for over two months now. We are more than pleased to have her join our team of amazing volunteers who generously donate their time to help PJD live out its mission. Click here if you’d like to fill out our volunteer form.
SERVICES
Proyecto Juan Diego’s Community Health Workers (CHW) are trained to empower and educate each participant and their families on diabetes and hypertension. CHWs visit with the participants every three months and set goals with them to improve their diabetes or hypertension compared to their first visit. They do motivational interviewing with each participant wherein they ultimately discover the underlying problems. They mutually problemsolve to see what their goal is and define the obstacles which interfere with that goal. Then they look for ways to remove or diminish these obstacles step by step, and assist the participant through phone calls and visits to evaluate their progress in reaching that goal. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, in-home visits was stopped and communication with participants went virtual. And although it was a difficult transition for some participants, our Salud y Vida staff made it possible—by removing any technical barriers and bridging all communication gaps for the good of their clients. “We are glad to be back out in the community and visiting our clients”, said Zulema Medrano (PJD staff).
Zulema Medrano shared how she helped one of her participants find the root cause to her problem. “Exercise is extremely important when it comes to A1C levels, it can dramatically bring down the levels of A1C. My participant and I found out that this was the root cause and due to her work schedule she was unable to implement exercise in her daily life. She’s now exercising and her A1C levels have gone down from a 9.4 to a 6.2. It is truly amazing to see the joy in my clients’ faces when they see the results of the changes they’ve made.” It’s very rewarding for both the participant and CHW to find out that the next A1C or blood pressure is lower than the previous one because that means they were mutually successful. Each CHW has a participant load of 50-60 individuals at various levels along this continuum, often with complex and interrelated issues. Their listening, relational and observational skills are a key to participant success. This defines PJD’s community health worker. We are humbled and proud to be part of their success stories.
EDUCATION
Distribution Event
PJD Hosted a successful turkey distribution event on November 17th to many of our current participants. Turkeys were generously donated by Charlie Clark Nissan Brownsville. Each family represented also received hot turkey plates donated by OP10.33 and catered by Evans Catering and Events Decoration. A special thank you to Enactus RGV and CEO Brownsville, PJD staff, and volunteers for helping with the distribution.
We asked a total of 20 families in our IFP program to provide us with a “Wishlist” that included everyday essential items that they lacked in their homes. The lists were shared with our network of donors, sponsors and supporters who were invited to contribute an item or two. In a matter of a days—all of the items in each of the families Wishlists were purchased! We are more than grateful to have a large group of compassionate and generous individuals who love to give back to their community. We hope to see you again next year!
Toy Drive for PJD A huge THANK YOU to Texas Community Bank, Port of Brownsville, Express Employment Professionals, CEO Brownsville, Elizabeth Garza, and the Brownsville Junior Service League for their continued support in this annual toy drive. Each of these organizations and their employees generously contributed to gifting a child one toy for the children in our integrated family program.
Toni Snelson
Toni Snelson is originally from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico and graduated from the School of Public Health and Nutrition of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. In 2017, Toni began contract work with the Health Care Services department at PJD. She prepared and coordinated several nutrition clases for the participants of the family program. In August 2021, Toni offically became part of Proyecto Juan Diego as the new Coordinator of the GED Program. Toni closed a successful year in the GED program and is looking forward to the coming year. Registration for the Spring semester class has closed. The number of students allowed to register has more than doubled, which means our classes will now be 200% larger than before. Toni will also be coordinating our English classes which are scheduled to start on January 10, 2022 from 8:30am12:30pm.
SERVICES
Over 230 of our citizenship participants became naturalized citizens despite having to maneuver across obstacles and barriers due to the current pandemic. There are still a total of 245 participants in our citizenship program who are still en route to become U.S. citizens in 2022. Click here to find out if you are eligible to become a U.S. citizen and start one of our citizenship programs.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
We want to Thank Brownsville Wellness Coalition, Catholic Charities and specially Father Tony from San Felipe de Jesus for their continued support throughout this year and for giving us the opportunity to assist in delivering food to the most needed families. This year we delivered food baskets and gift cards to more than 2,200 families who were affected financially or medically by the corona virus and its mutations.
Meet Maggie Navarro, a participant of the Integrated Family Program. She has been one of many who received aid from our COVID19 Relief Program. She received food baskets along with a gift card to help her get through the year.
Watch Testimonial
Events
LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
On behalf of Proyecto Juan Diego, we would love to thank all who participated in our 7th Annual Business and Leadership Conference, both in-person and virtually. Thank you to speakers, Pastor Jaime Loya and Dr. Sylvia Robles, for sharing such valuable information. Our sponsors De Sela Consulting LLC, Brownsville Housing Authority, Sola Fide Logistics and Maximus Call Center for sponsoring at the top 3 levels. And a big thank you to our staff for working arduously behind the scenes to ensure this event was a success. See you all at our 8th annual conference!
Sisters on the Run is a fundraiser that started as “The Running Nun” by Daughter of Charity, Sister Liz Sjoberg in 2020 by running the McAllen Marathon. Her goal was to raise funds and increase brand awareness for Proyecto Juan Diego. This generated quite the buzz at the race—among her friends and family—and throughout our social media. Every year since, Proyecto Juan Diego hosts this great fundraiser that keeps on delivering amazing results. In the 2021 Sisters on the Run fundraiser, Sister Liz ran her second full-marathon here in Brownsville joined by another Daughter of Charity—Sister Sharon Horace. Hence the name, “Sisters on the Run”.
This year, Proyecto Juan Diego is kicking off the 2022 Sisters on the Run fundraiser with a team of local runners as well as Sisters and friends from all over the US.
Visit 2022 Fundraiser
FUNDRAISER 3
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Pictured above are the winners of Proyecto Juan Diego’s first ever Car Raffle fundraiser. 1) 2022 Hyundai Elantra Winner. 2) Weekend Getaway Winner. 3) Smart TV Winner. 4) $250 Gift Card Winner
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