Meet Angelese Calderon of Eagle Pathway in Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelese Calderon.

Angelese, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in a broken home filled with suicide attempts, drug use and abuse. Having lived on my own when I was only 15 years old, I know many of the struggles these adults face. For the past 22 years, I have worked with special needs children and adults to improve their quality of life. I fostered both children and adults until 2013, when the court finalized the adoption of my fifth child.

After reading the statistics on the youth who age out of foster care I was horrified that so many end up homeless within the first 18 months of leaving the system. With a desire to do more and a love for tiny homes, October 15, 2015. I founded Eagle Pathway, a 501c3 Arizona Nonprofit Corporation with the intent of to develop a Christian-based, safe, educational home environment for youth, young women & their children who are exiting foster care programs.

Has it been a smooth road?
I would say one of the biggest struggles we have come into is with building. The building departments have a hard time with zoning and size requirements. And communities aren’t always welcoming when you build homes for the foster or homeless populations. Not in my back yard.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
As our program has evolved over the past two years, we now have several programs and resources available to those who have experienced foster care or homelessness.

We have a mentoring program where our volunteers provide support and assistance to young single mothers who have aged out of foster care or living in a foster group home and getting ready to age out of care.

We also offer resources for education, food, clothing, transportation, and classes for parenting, cooking, budgeting, and other life skills. We have several events each year:
1. Stockings of Love we provide assistance to single mom’s and those in foster care with Christmas dinner ,toys for the children, and stocking with gift cards and other stuffers.
We served 200 last year for Christmas.
2. We serve youth who are in foster care and those who have aged-out of care and are in college with new back packs, school supplies in Aug.
3. Totes for Teens is a program where those who are aging out of foster care or have recently been homeless can receive a tote full of house hold items like, vacuums, dishes, pots & pans, silver ware, shower curtains and other items needed when you move out for the first time. We also work with organizations to provide them with furniture.
4. We provide support groups throughout the valley where young single mothers can come enjoy lunch with other single moms and learn things like parenting techniques or cooking tips. It is mainly for a way for these youth to connect with others that are in there situation and support one another.
5. We stand out because we work more on the preventative side by connecting these youths with a caring individual that will walk along side of them and give them the support and resources they need so they don’t fall victim to their circumstances and become homeless like a lot of their peers. I am not aware of to many organizations that mentor this population after they age out of foster care.
6. Soon we will have affordable tiny homes where foster care youth can transition to living independently that will allow them to have the wrap around service’s they still need.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes, I feel that most of the city’s in the valley are wanting to help those less fortunate. I do think that the lack of affordable housing place a hug role in the amount of youth living on the streets. I believe that by making regulations easier for organizations/individuals like ours to build more tiny home is the answer to our homeless crisis. There are hundreds of youth aging out of care in Arizona every year and about 40% of them end up homeless within the first 18 months.

Contact Info:

• Address: Eagle Pathway
  1095 E Indian School Rd #700
  Phoenix AZMailing address
  P.O. Box 51468
  Mesa AZ 84208
• Website: www.eaglepathway.org
• Phone: 480-225-6664
• Email: eaglepathway@yahoo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eaglepathway
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eaglepathway

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