‘1 in 5’ Season 2 Episode 9: Meet Lourdes

As a child of immigrants, Lourdes saw the efforts her hard-working parents made to give her a memorable childhood, and how they always stressed the importance of education. Then, in high school, Lourdes became pregnant and the birth of her daughter inspired her aspirations for higher education, leading her to a career in nursing. As a single mother and nursing assistant, Lourdes was spending all of her time caretaking — at work and at home — and found herself living paycheck to paycheck. But Lourdes’ hard work didn’t go unnoticed, and with encouragement from her peers, she enrolled in a nursing program at her local community college. Local El Paso groups like Project ARRIBA and Workforce Borderplex gave Lourdes the training, resources, and financial support she needed to stay on course.

Project ARRIBA (Advanced Retraining & Redevelopment Initiative in Border Areas) is a community-based nonprofit that operates as a workforce and economic development initiative in the Paso del Norte region. Their mission is to assist economically disadvantaged individuals in gaining the education and job skills needed for demand occupations that pay a family-sustaining, living wage in El Paso, Texas.

Workforce Solutions Borderplex is a workforce development board that links people with resources that can help them graduate from college or personalize their career path. They specifically focus on the challenges and talent in the West Texas border region.