Where we work
Five places, chosen on purpose.
Four Mexican states and one Colombian coast. None of them is on this list because a grant was available there. Each one is somewhere one of us already knows the ground, and we enter them one at a time.
Phase one
Mexico
Four states, but two clusters — Chiapas and Oaxaca in the south, Guanajuato and Jalisco in the center-west. That is deliberate. A half-time coordinator can reach a second home in the same cluster by road, which is what makes a second site affordable at our scale. Four scattered states would not be.
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ChiapasFirst installation
The only place we already have a relationship. We visited a partner home in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in 2023, made a donation, repaired a dormitory wall and built garden beds. Everything on this website grew out of that week. It is also the poorest state in Mexico, and the first Pathways installation goes here. What Tuxtla is really like →
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OaxacaSame cluster
Neighboring Chiapas, comparable in need, and reachable from the same coordinator. The second site in the south, once the first one is genuinely working rather than merely running.
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GuanajuatoElvia's home state
Elvia was born and raised in Pénjamo. She has family, language and standing here that no amount of funding buys, and the difference that makes to a first conversation with a director is not a small one.
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JaliscoPaired with Guanajuato
Adjacent to Guanajuato, with a far larger economy and therefore a far deeper pool of employers, internships and technical schools — which is exactly what the Launch pillar runs on.
Phase two
Colombia
The Caribbean coast — Valledupar, Santa Marta, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Sincelejo, Montería. This is the part of Colombia we actually know. Scott learned his Spanish here, and the song the program is named after was written here.
Where Colombia actually stands
Three sites under evaluation.
We are evaluating three sites for fit: one in Santa Marta, one in Barranquilla, and one in Cartagena. None is confirmed yet, and there is no program or start date. We will say so here when that changes.
What has to be true: a site that fits, a local coordinator we trust, and its own budget, fully funded.
The rule
One at a time, and only after the last one works
The fastest way to end up with five shallow programs is to start five programs. So a region appearing on this page means we have chosen it and are building toward it. It does not mean we are operating there.
We will say plainly, here, when each one changes from the first thing into the second. Until a place has a partner home, trained staff and a baseline measurement, it stays in the column marked intention.
There is a version of this page that lists twelve countries and looks impressive. It would also be the first thing an experienced donor stopped believing.
We expect to expand beyond these five eventually. Expansion is earned, never assumed, and it will follow the same chain the program does: pilot, measure, improve, codify, replicate.