In Person

Life & Learning Center

A founding campus in Central America

The opportunity

Every year, adolescents across Central America age out of residential care and step into adulthood without the support, skills, or networks they need to succeed. The organizations that cared for them have often done so with deep commitment, but rarely with the structured, evidence-informed transition programming young people need most.

We are ready to establish a physical location in Central America, in close partnership with a strong local residential home.

Hope Institute has spent nearly a decade building the training experience, regional relationships, and organizational credibility to address this in a meaningful, scalable way. We are ready to take a significant step forward: establishing a physical location in Central America, developed in close partnership with a strong local residential home.

On the ground

Rooted in El Salvador, built in partnership for the whole region.

What the Life & Learning Center is

The Life & Learning Center is a physical hub for training, research, and direct program development, built in close partnership with a carefully selected residential care organization in Central America. It is designed to function as both a center of excellence and a place of deep, hands-on learning.

Hope Institute works shoulder to shoulder with a key local partner to develop, refine, and document what it actually takes to prepare young people for successful independent lives. This proximity to real practice creates a continuous feedback loop: what we teach is grounded in real experience, continuously refined, and returned to the field stronger.

01The strategic partnership

What makes this model distinctive is the depth of the strategic partnership.

Hope Institute brings

Evidence-informed practice, training experience, research capacity, and a strategic systems-level approach.

Our partner brings

Deep community roots, established programming and relationships with youth in transition, a physical location, and a genuine commitment to excellence.

Together

The two organizations are positioned to do something neither could accomplish alone.

02Three areas of work

Direct support

Working alongside young people in the final stages of residential care and the critical period immediately following their departure.

Program development and research

Designing, implementing, and evaluating transition programming informed by the best available evidence and adapted to the Central American context.

Knowledge sharing and replication

Documenting what works and making those tools and frameworks accessible to care organizations across the region and beyond.

Go deeper

The full case, when you want it

Hope Institute recently established a legal branch in El Salvador, enabling the launch of our Seeds of Independence training and advocacy program. This marks a step from building relationships at a distance to having a real and growing presence in the country.

The child welfare landscape in El Salvador is actively engaged in improving care standards and open to collaborative, evidence-informed input. Over the years, we have developed meaningful relationships across the community that create the conditions for the deep partnership this initiative requires.

There is also a deeper urgency. Almost no reliable data exists on what happens to young people after they leave residential care in Central America. A planned care-leaver survey will begin to address that gap, generating critical data that informs our work and contributes to the broader field.

What begins in Central America is designed to be replicable: a model that can be adapted across Latin America and other regions, creating a network of centers and a shared body of knowledge that transforms how the world prepares vulnerable young people for adulthood. We envision a future where no young person leaves residential care without a structured, intentional plan for their transition.

In the near term, success looks like a formalized partnership, a completed care-leaver survey, key hires in place, and the first cohort of youth engaged in transition programming. Over time, it means a growing number of organizations across Central America trained and equipped, documented improvements in transition outcomes, and a body of evidence that strengthens the field's understanding of what works.

The founding askFunds the launch team.A founding investment in Life & Learning Center, at the moment it matters most.

To be confirmedBecome a founding supporter

Progress and Accountability

Where this initiative stands today

What is already in place, what is underway, and what your founding gift sets in motion.

In Person