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Gloria: Community center needed to provide assistance to children in Valley of the Sun Estates

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With your help we can build a community center to provide immediate and low-cost assistance to all the children of the Valley of the Sun Estates who find themselves in a state of crisis.

Mary Gloria

The center will host programs and develop strategies that will help parents at all levels of need, so that they in turn will be strengthened to fight the never-ending battle that their families face. The community is growing and so is the need for the children and parents of the neighborhood to find assistance nearby, when needed.

We can no longer stand aside and watch as our future leaders struggle emotionally, physically and mentally. Without funding and community involvement, the children of the Valley of the Sun Estates will continue to fall below the average level of education.

In the book “Consequences of Growing Up Poor,"  Greg J. Duncan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn write: Many investigations demonstrate that although income clearly creates disadvantages, it does so selectively and in a wide variety of ways. Low-income preschoolers exhibit poorer cognitive and verbal skills because they are generally exposed to fewer toys, books, and other stimulating experiences in the home. Poor parents also tend to rely on home-based child care, where the quality and amount of attention children receive is inferior to that of professional facilities. In later years, conflict between economically stressed parents increases anxiety and weakens self-esteem in their teenaged children.”

The Valley of the Sun Estates Community Center will provide health, social and educational services.

Our goal is to help shape a child’s development and give them a place where they feel safe to grow in more ways than they can imagine.

With the nearest school or grocery store located 6 miles away, the families can benefit from all that the community center has to offer, such as tutoring, health checkups, dental screenings, nutritional programs, language classes, after-school/preschool early learning programs and summer lunch programs. Other assistance includes income tax filing, adult computers classes, computer lab, school and social services, as well as, a senior center. At the end of the day, our real mission is to create a place for families to build their community.

Now is the time to get involved. You can help make our vision a reality for the children of the Valley of the Sun Estates and surrounding area. 

To find out how you can change the lives of these children, call 480-688-6326, email: mary.gloria@pandevida.tv or send a donation to P.O. Box 745, Queen Creek, AZ  85142. All donations are tax-deductible. We are also a non-profit “State Credit Organization.”

Mary Gloria
Executive director
Pan de Vida Foundation
Queen Creek