As dawn was breaking over Nogales, Sonora,Alma Cota de Yañez,Executive Director of the Fundación Empresariado Sonorense A.C., Nogales Chapter (FESAC) was zipping down the main avenue of this busy border town in a car loaded with meeting materials. Alma was heading to the Nogales campus of Universidad del Noreste, where FESAC would be hosting a day- long training for local grassroots and nonprofit organizations.

Around the same time Maria Auxiliadora Quiñones was finishing up her night shift as a receptionist at a local hotel. Normally, Maria Auxiliadora would be getting ready to head home, get her two little girls ready for school and get to bed for a few hours of rest before starting her day a new. Not today.

Maria Auxiliadora had been asked by a group that she volunteers with, Asociación de Madres de Niños con Síndrome Down (Asociación), to represent the group at an important event. Even though, she was not entirely sure what the meeting was about, she knew it was important to her group. Maria Auxiliadora also believes in the power of knowledge and that everything she can possibly learn herself is learning she can impart to her two little girls. For these reasons, she was determined to be there.

The Asociación is a local grassroots support group for mothers and families of children with Down syndrome. It offers direct services to the children while providing educational and support services to the families of the children. Through direct advocacy, the group works to ensure that all local children with Down syndrome have access to quality education through specialized, competent care in the regular school system or special schools. As a mother of two beautiful little girls, ages eight and four, the youngest of which has Down syndrome, the mission of the group hits close to home. The Asociación has helped Maria Auxiliadora and her family deal with many of the unique aspects of nurturing a child with Down syndrome.

So on this day of the meeting, without sleeping a wink, Maria Auxiliadora set off to the university campus where the meeting was underway.

The meeting, a free day-long workshop for local nonprofit groups, was hosted FESAC Nogales. The workshop, ‘Como construir capacidades organizativas básicas’ (how to build fundamental organizational capacities) was co-developed by Fundación Reencuentro del Camino and Gestión Social y Cooperación A.C. The training offers a practical hands-on curriculum to local grassroots groups and nonprofits to help them strengthen their internal operations and ultimately increase the effectiveness of their important work. The training focuses on the fundamental competencies of effective nonprofit management and offers activities and exercises for helping people working in these organizations increase their mastery of communications and program development.

Maria Auxiliadora’s take-aways included important learning on how to plan effectively, tips for building greater cohesion and integration amongst the group’s leadership, team building and creating synergy. She also appreciated meeting and learning from many of the older, more established nonprofit organizations serving Nogales. For her this was a first opportunity to get to know the work of other groups and begin to perceive that she was part of a larger community of individuals and institutions working together to improve quality of life for Nogalenses.

"One of the most important things I learned that day was that quality of life is a shared thing in communities. It is not just about what can I do to get ahead. It is about everyone’s responsibility to participate with and in our communities to make things better,”" she said. That same day, after the end of the workshop, Maria Auxiliadora, went back to her group to share her experience. They immediately got started on some of the learning and lessons she brought back.

Thanks to the important work of the FESAC, Maria Auxiliadora’s experience on this day is important but not unique. It has been repeated countless times with a myriad of community volunteers and local nonprofit professionals. In addition to financial support through grant cycles, the FESAC Nogales chapter has taken an important leadership role in building the capacity and nurturing the networks of its local nonprofit and grassroots organizations that day after day deliver vital services to residents. By increasing the capacity of these organizations and strengthening ties amongst them, FESAC is helping to promote and strengthen civic participation in Nogales.

Alma Cota de Yañez, Director of the Nogales chapter says, “A community foundation is more than grant dollars. Through its efforts to rally and strengthen local nonprofits and grassroots groups the social fabric of our communities is strengthened and our communities are richer for it.”

learn more about the work of FESAC at www.fesac.org