24 children who started last year waiting are starting this one with someone who knows their name, their teacher, and what makes them laugh. Every child in our program now has a Friend.

That is the heart of our 2025-2026 Gratitude Report, and it took two years to get here.

We opened our doors in 2024 with a model already proven across 33 years and more than 45 chapters, and a valley that had never seen it up close. We hired our first Friends, professionals in education, psychology, and child development, several of them from the Coachella Valley themselves. Then we sat down with school districts, caregivers, and teachers to find the children who would grow up with us. The kindergartners who joined that year arrived curious, funny, and ready. What they had not yet had was an adult outside their family whose whole job was to stay.

Now they all have one. Nearly 15,000 hours of one-on-one time have gone into those relationships since we launched, and 98% of the teachers and caregivers around our youth have watched them hit meaningful learning milestones.

You can see it in Isabella's* year, which took her from quiet at recess to dancing Ballet Folklórico and sharing the videos. You can see it in Aria* and Alejandra*, who each walked into a new school this year with their Friend beside them. You can see it in the choices youth make at our monthly Literacy Fair, counting out what they earned and deciding what it is worth.

By 2034, we want 240 children in 12+ year relationships with a Friend, and campuses serving East Valley, Mid Valley, and West Valley. Our founding cohort will be preparing for graduation, getting ready to collect a diploma that is far from guaranteed in this valley.

More children in our community are still waiting for a Friend. Everything above is what becomes possible once one is there.