About 4WRDMIA
Our MISSION
Our mission is to move Miami’s next generation forward with a holistic approach to education through wellness, recreation, and development.
By reimagining and revitalizing existing spaces at A Better Foundation (ABF) Learning Center in Homestead, FL, 4WRDMIA will bring mindfulness, creativity, growth, and playfulness to the students and staff of ABF. By assuring staff receives training to incorporate mindfulness into daily activities - whether it be learning, play, gardening, yoga, or reflection, 4WRDMIA will help move this and future generations forward. Research overwhelmingly speaks to the benefits of mindfulness practices to every person, but especially to the unique population of students, ABF serves.
Our TEAM
Team Leads
Nicole Kaiser
Valentin Arenas
Financial Representatives
Marco Pahnord
Yesica Maroli
Communications/Social Media Liaisons
Julissa Rivera
Sofia Debs
Fundraising/Events Committee
Julissa Rivera
Jessica Palomo
Nelly Hocke
Fieldwork Chair
Emily Brais
Team Members
Antonio Ponte
Chris Ferreira
Jameka Windham
Ryan Sember
Sergio Gonzalez
About ABF
ABF Learning Center strives to educate children through a culturally enriching process that uses traditional classroom curriculum as well as holistic learning to provide students with a rich, stimulating learning opportunity. The school currently serves about 135 families. Services include daycare for infants and toddlers, preschool, Voluntary Pre-K, and full-time kindergarten, first, and second grades, as well as an after-school program benefiting students from a nearby elementary school. 85%-95% of ABF Learning Center families benefit from government-subsidized programs. The center is located directly across from Chapman Partnership, which is a homeless shelter that provides emergency housing, food, and job placement to those in need and across from Camillus House’s transitional housing community. A vast majority of the children attending ABF Learning Center come from families living at Chapman Partnership or Camillus House, or that have recently moved from these shelters into temporary housing nearby.
The director of ABF Learning Center, Rocio Leiva, created ABF Learning Center in 2007 to educate the underserved population of Miami. Rocio’s goal was to provide the community with a quality learning center for the children of impoverished families. Now 12 years strong, the school has continued to grow, serving more children and more ages, and connects what the children learn in school to their life at home so that parents can also learn with their children. Rocio is truly a pillar to the community she serves through ABF.
Though they have been fortunate enough to receive grants and in-kind donations to get the school to its functioning level today, there are many underutilized areas of the school. Once these areas are activated, children attending ABF Learning Center will have the opportunity to learn more fundamental skills that will carry with them into adolescents and then into adulthood.
"ABF just had its twelfth-year birthday. We are an NAEYC accredited center. We’ve been part of quality counts since the very beginning. We service private, subsidized, and military families, and we won the Champions for Children Award with the Children’s Trust in 2017.
I am grateful and blessed for the opportunity to serve my community. I feel the love in return. Families return to say how well their children are doing in school, and to share their success stories.
There’s nothing better in life than doing what you love… I love what I do, and it shows!!!"
Rocio Leiva, ABF Owner/Director
ABF Learning Center
ABFlearningcenter.com
Rocio Leiva - (305) 257-5565
12767 Southwest 280th Street, Miami, FL 33032