Today we’d like to introduce you to Christina Collazo.
Hi Christina, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was raised in South Texas, along the border, in a small town called Donna. I was born to two very young parents. Although my childhood was filled with a lot of hardship, there was also a lot of strong familial connection to my mother’s family. I think it is because of their love, and the love of my mother, that we were able to survive a tumultuous childhood. I was a HeadStart kid which allowed me to foster a love of reading and learning. School was often my escape from the daily traumas that would shape our little brains and that would create obstacles along the way. When I was growing up I dreamed of getting away from the small town that did not seem to progress or offer real opportunities for all of its citizens, but I was really worried about leaving my mother and brothers. Eventually, our father was incarcerated and through his confinement I found comfort knowing that our family would be safe from his abuse for at least the 11 years he’d be in prison. His incarceration gave me the freedom to leave our small town in 1998 when I graduated high school. I moved to Austin during a time that it still had a small-town feeling to it. I attended Austin Community College and then graduated from St. Edward’s University. Upon graduation, I worked for a federally funded housing program in a very rigid work environment which showed me that this type of work culture was not for me. I started working in the nonprofit sector and eventually got the opportunity to start my own. There was a priest who had been reassigned to a church in East Austin and asked me to help “fill their empty education building”. I promised that whatever I created, that it would be an environment that prioritized family first for the community we served and for the staff that made the work happen. I took the job to heart and within three months had launched a dual-generation program in East Austin that is still in existence today.
In 2009, Todos Juntos Learning Center opened its doors to a very eager community seeking a place where mothers and children could go together to learn together and realize their goals… juntos. Today, Todos Juntos is a vibrant community supporting 150 individuals every semester with an intensive and inclusive learning environment that offers English language learning, school readiness, family strengthening, networks of support, and basic needs programming, including financial assistance, 1-1 mental health support, technology devices, PPE, food access, and more.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Personally speaking, there were many challenges. I grew up in poverty and in a very precarious home situation. The adverse childhood experiences we had were incredibly difficult and not normal. But I didn’t know any different. Each day was uncertain and left me unsure how it would unfold. It has been through my work and my own development as an adult that I can reflect now and see that the generational traumas created barriers for our family and that they had to be addressed and healed as much as possible through my own parenting. Professionally speaking, there have been many challenges, too, but each one has taught me something and prepared me for the next thing. For example, in 2012, we had our name and organizational identity stolen; in 2013 we were displaced and on the brink of closing permanently but found a new home on the last day of our search. Then that new building ended up flooding on the first day of classes and I recall sitting down and crying for the first time since starting the Center and feeling very defeated. But my team, as they always do, rallied around and together we all rose to the occasion and did what needed to be done in the moment to recover and forge ahead.
Then in 2013/2014, I suffered great personal losses with my very young best friend, and very young mother, passing within months of each other. Those early years were filled with a lot of tribulation and reflection. Was I present enough for my own family and children? Was I doing the best for Todos Juntos? Would we have a facility? Would we have enough money to continue? Through all of that, though, the resiliency and perseverance of our all-female team shone through and we overcame. Eventually in 2019 we were once again faced with being displaced and again, like a miracle, happened upon an amazing location opportunity that allowed us to finalize a space for the next ten years just in time for the pandemic. While the pandemic has forced us to reimagine the way Todos Juntos delivers its core services, it has also empowered us to recognize our position as a community ally who authentically serves and supports our immigrant and refugee Communities in the ways that matter most to them.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Childhood experiences shape our brain and childhood adversity, or chronic stress, can lead to lifelong problems in learning, behavior, and physical and mental health. Adversity can range from neglect, chaos in the home, economic struggles, or even stress from the fear of deportation. And while little ones’ brains are impacted by adversity – what about their parents? How are they doing? What are they feeling? What do they need? There was an article in the Austin American Statesman about Todos Juntos that was printed in September 2019. the article touched about childhood adversity, and in it, there was a little about my own experience with adversity as a child and how those experiences impacted my life and the lives of my brothers. What the article did not talk about a whole lot was the one constant through that difficult childhood – my mother. When my mother was happy, I felt happy. When my mother was safe, I felt safe. When my mother was accomplished, I felt accomplished, because my mother’s story was also my story. As a community, we want what is best for all children in our community, so we make investments in interventions and support to help children become school-ready and we make more investments once they’re in school. I believe that true school-readiness is achieved when you have a caregiver in every child’s life who feels safe, confident, supported, and hopeful, especially confident enough to help their kids navigate school and life, and all that comes with it.
At Todos Juntos we focus on comprehensive services because we know that parents, especially mothers, need to be seen, they need to be cared for, they need to be empowered and informed so that they can advocate for their children because no one will fight for a child the way their parents will. To do this, Todos Juntos offers computer classes because digital literacy helps you check your child’s AISD parent cloud. We offer parent book clubs because it teaches parents about serve and return interactions and helps them gain confidence in how to read with their child in a way that is engaging. We offer nutrition classes where parents learn more about how to make healthy lifestyle choices for themselves and their families. We also offer sharing circles and 1-1 therapy with professional therapists who help our adult students face day-to-day struggles as a parent but also as an individual. By enrolling with Todos Juntos, they become ACC students. English classes facilitated by professional Austin Community College instructors help them connect and navigate their community in the language that is dominant in Central Texas. And then we round it all out with the most important component – community. Community is the foundation that allows all of the other parts to work together. When our adult students feel engaged, confident, supported and entre amigos or among friends, that is when they get to breathe a bit and be vulnerable and know that these are shared obstacles and that we can accomplish more when we work together or todos juntos. Our learning community supports our parents so that they can feel better, increase their confidence and continue to evolve as their child’s first teacher. Parental involvement in children’s early development and education includes recognizing themselves as their child’s teacher, initiating learning activities at home, building positive relationships, engaging in preschool activities, and communicating with teachers.
At Todos Juntos we do all of this and more in partnership with parents. I have heard mothers say “before I came here, I felt depressed and alone but now I have friends and I get to learn something for myself for three hours each day and that makes me a better parent when I go home with my children.” or “now I know that you should read to babies at birth because they do understand. And I wish I had been read to as a child, and I also wish I had read with my older children when they were little.” Sometimes it is easy for us to take for granted what we know, like English, or that we should read to our kids – but our circumstances truly dictate that. We don’t know what we don’t know, but at Todos Juntos we work to guide parents and support them with zero judgments so that they can strengthen their families while also strengthening themselves.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Find a mentor. Or find two. Find someone who can offer you authentic and transparent advice. Bonus points for finding a mentor who looks like you. In my early years of starting this organization and leading it, I cannot tell you how many times I heard “no” or read the words “We had a lot of great proposals for funding but cannot fund them all. We regret to inform you that your organization was not approved…”. I cannot tell you how many times our organization was not given the time of day because no one knew who I was. I had no credibility in the non-profit community. It took white allies to help me build that credibility and support. While I am incredibly thankful to those individuals who I now consider friends, I also wish I had had a mentor who looked like me, had shared lived experiences, and who had faced similar barriers and maybe even dealt with the self-doubt that comes as a result of those barriers. So my advice would be to find a mentor, maybe even one who looks like you, do not discount lived experiences, and then keep trying because all they can say is no but you can always try again.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@todosjuntoslc.org
- Website: https://todosjuntoslc.org
- Instagram: @todosjuntoslc
- Facebook: @TodosJuntosLearningCenter
- Twitter: @TodosJuntosLC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHiyJpaRvEI8IMQpvB9P0xQ
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