Escuelitas is an after school leadership & mentoring program that serves girls ages 8-14 and operates in 7 schools throughout the West & Southeast areas of San Antonio. Established in the year 2000, Escuelitas allows girls a safe and supportive environment in which they can learn more about themselves, their family, their community, and their culture while obtaining those tools necessary to make positive choices with regard to their personal health, relationships, education, and community involvement.

The Escuelitas program places great value on culture while encouraging girls to achieve their educational goals, realize their value as young women, and become strong leaders amongst their peers.

Some of the components of a typical, 2-hour, Escuelitas session are:

- Educational enrichment: Along with homework assistance and tutoring, girls also participate in educational games and/or activities in order for them to become excited about learning while improving their basic skills.

- Platica: Each week, our girls participate in a discussion circle pertaining to the topic for the week. This gives the girls the opportunity to improve on social skills, public speaking, and enforces the idea that their voice deserves to be heard.

- Lesson: Escuelitas delivers a culturally sensitive curriculum that is used as a tool to encourage our girls to think outside of the box about issues facing them and their future as young women, as well as their families, their communities, and their culture.

Escuelitas programming also strives to strengthen the belief that our girls are valuable members of their community and can bring about change that they wish to see in it. Escuelitas program staff partners with volunteers and other local non-profit organizations in order to provide our girls with the maximum exposure to leaders in our community as role models & to provide the maximum benefit from participating in community programming.