Starfish One-by-One

Starfish One-by-One educates and empowers young women to become leaders in their communities. It does so by unlocking the potential and talent of one of Guatemala’s most marginalized population: young Mayan women. Formally launched as a US non-profit incorporated in Colorado in 2007, Starfish One-by-One was founded on the principle of providing a high-quality program on an individual basis so that they in turn can promote the profound changes needed to break generational cycles of poverty for many. Through a unique combination of a scholarship and mentoring, Starfish One-by-One ensures a young Mayan woman’s sustained access and success in middle and high school. Each young woman in the program receives a scholarship and the personalized accompaniment of a mentor for the duration of her secondary and tertiary education. Additionally, each young woman in the program attends weekly peer support/mentorship sessions with 14 of her peers. Starfish One-by-One fosters the development of capable young women who are empowered to change their family, community and country. Starfish One-by-One currently operates in 3 distinct communities in Guatemala and serves over 150 adolescents, and each receives powerful information on the following subjects:

• Women’s rights
• Reproductive education and health
• Proactive communication
• Environmental stewardship
• Self-esteem and leadership
• Social responsibility/volunteerism
• Personal financial literacy

Collaborations

In the interest of efficiency and quality, Starfish One-by-One collaborates with NGO's in Guatemala and elsewhere to train mentors and provide field-tested materials for each of the critical subject areas that mentors review with young women. Many larger organizations are eager to utilize the unique mentorship space as a vehicle to deliver their services and information. Starfish One-by-One then makes any necessary adjustments to the material to ensure its complete relevancy to the program’s beneficiaries. Similarly, the supervisory staff integrates the topics of self-esteem, leadership and critical thinking into the subject matter. In just 6 months since initiating the systematization of the mentorship model, Starfish One-by-One has already established strong relationships of collaboration with the following organizations:

• Save the Children (financial literacy, participatory education) WINGS Guatemala (reproductive education)
• Friendship Bridge (parental support for academic success)
• JUCONI Foundation Mexico (institutionalizing a strengths-based focus)
• CasaSito (critical thinking and debate)

Starfish One-by-One plans on expanding by 20% in 2011 to provide services to 12 mentorship groups. Starfish One-by-One draws its name from the inspirational fable: http://starfishonebyone.org/wordpress/2009/08/09/the-story-of-hundreds-of-starfish/