FirstBank donates $10K to Fundación Cortés educational program
With the goal of keeping the development of workshops to impact more children and young people in public schools through the Educa Cortés Program: The Art of Well-being and Mental Health, FirstBank recently donated $10,000 to Fundación Cortés.
The Educa Cortés Program consists of the design of interactive teamwork and individual workshops to allow participants to express themselves creatively and apply what they learn in school, while receiving tools to manage their emotions and their mental health through art, dialogue, and reflection.
Fundación Cortés, which has been offering these workshops since 2012, has already reached 14,500 children and youth from public schools in Puerto Rico. The programmatic aspect of well-being and mental health was born while operating a temporary school after the passage of Hurricane María, when healing through art became an essential tool to address the pressing mental health needs in Puerto Rico because of the trauma caused by that atmospheric phenomenon, nonprofit officials said.
In addition, the experience of taking the Educa Cortés workshops has helped children and young people to face the pandemic in a proactive way, since they learn to channel their emotions, practice self-care and become empowered with their lives.
FirstBank has donated more than $50,000 to Fundación Cortés in the last five years.
“For us it is very important to support entities such as Fundación Cortés since they directly impact vulnerable populations for their benefit and growth. These workshops value art and the humanities as catalyst tools for individual and collective enrichment,” said Lilian Díaz, executive vice-president and business group executive at FirstBank.
“Atmospheric adversities have not stopped along with other social and economic situations, also the COVID-19 pandemic has brought other challenges that have especially affected children and youth,” said Adelisa González-Lugo, executive director and principal educator of Fundación Cortés.
“We thank FirstBank for their constant support during the past years, with this donation we will offer workshops to 106 public school students throughout Puerto Rico and continue integrating social values that are fundamental today, such as identity, culture, self-management, social justice, and dignity,” she said.
