Mr. Alvarez had contact with Johnny Dorsey, James Buchholz and Roger Guerrero in January, 2019, and shared his vision of starting a program that would serve young people living in minority communities.  He believed that if these young people were given the proper guidance through positive adult mentoring, and recovery programs geared toward helping them to stay away from drugs, alcohol and gang involvement, they could be encouraged to finish school, graduate and attend college, trade school or become gainfully employed. This vision became a reality in January, 2021 when we formed A Way Out, The Path to Recovery as a non-profit corporation, and began offering service in the form of a young people’s recovery program in the Englewood community.

 

Mr. Alvarez has donated seed money in the amount of $100,000.00 over the first three years of this program’s initial offerings.  Since our beginning in January 2021, we have served over 500 young people in our program which offers recovery support, mentoring, school-based education, gang prevention, and job readiness training.

 

We are now at a place in our development where we need to expand beyond the limits of what Mr. Alvarez, on his own, can provide.  This is where we need your help.  With the donations that you give to A Way Out, The Path to Recovery, we can begin to offer more comprehensive college and employment preparation services.  We hope to employ a job development specialist who would engage with local employers and contract with them to place appropriate candidates for employment in their businesses.  We would also like to engage a part-time college placement specialist to assist the young people we serve in selecting and applying to colleges, universities or trade schools.  We would want this individual to assist the families of these young people to navigate the complex process of locating and applying for financial aid as well. Please consider making a donation that can make a difference to these young people who need your help.