Project Update: Escalando Fronteras
Changing the lives of children in Monterrey, one route at a time
By Nicki Simon | October 13, 2020
Escalando Fronteras staff, volunteers, and kids arrive to La Huasteca for a climbing day. La Huasteca is located within a national park that has thousands of square miles of climbing areas, just half an hour away from downtown Monterrey.
When you talk to a climber about Mexico, their eyes usually light up as they envision towering limestone walls and bottomless margaritas. El Potrero Chico and El Salto are world-famous rock climbing destinations, attracting countless numbers of visitors each year. While these areas are less than two hours from the city of Monterrey, few locals have the opportunity to enjoy the natural wonders so close to their home. One organization is trying to change that.
Brenda (age 10) and Alejandra (age 8) prepare to climb their project. Escalando Fronteras has seen climbing’s potential to empower women. They share that as an individual sport that demands a lot of skills beside physical strength, climbing becomes a perfect field for women to show what they're capable of.
In 2014, Escalando Fronteras (EF) was founded with the mission to use climbing and education as tools to empower at-risk youth in Monterrey. In the city’s most marginalized neighborhoods, children are exposed to gang activity, drug use, and violence from an early age. EF pairs rock climbing excursions with prevention workshops and community engagement initiatives that support drug prevention, sexual education, and goal setting. To learn more about their programs, check out this article.
Alejandro Medina, Community Outreach Coordinator at Escalando Fronteras, has witnessed first-hand the ability of their program to transform the lives of Monterrey’s most vulnerable youth by keeping them in school and planting the seeds for long-term change in the community. “We have been working with the same population for the past 6 years and we have observed considerable positive behavioral changes in most of the children and adolescents that participate in our climbing and drug prevention activities.” Last year, Escalando Fronteras connected with The Climbing Initiative to develop a method for quantitatively measuring the impact of their programs. Ludivine Brunissen, Director of Research at The Climbing Initiative, employed her background in social and affective neuroscience in young children to create a survey alongside EF which will be administered to participants pre- and post-program. The goal of the survey is to gauge how a child’s attitudes towards drug and alcohol use, education, self-esteem, and sexual health change during the course of the program.
The Climbing Initiative is thrilled to support projects like Escalando Fronteras that use climbing to improve people’s lives and reduce inequalities. “All around the world, we're seeing climbing being used as a tool for positive impact,” shares Veronica Baker, Executive Director of The Climbing Initiative. “Escalando Fronteras' founders saw the challenges facing kids in Monterrey, an hour from a world-class climbing area, and said, 'we can do something about this.' I am inspired by what they've been able to achieve in the past six years.” Brunissen adds that “it has been a true privilege to work with an organization that is so keen on continually learning from and improving their program to better serve their community. This is exactly the type of research-informed community engagement that we at TCI feel so strongly about. It was a privilege for TCI to partner with them and help them build tools to make their programs as effective as possible.”
The group of kids arrive to the climbing area in La Huasteca.
Medina believes these surveys will play an essential role in assessing the success of the program. “We have several success stories that go from stopping drug consumption completely to subtle changes in the way a kid relates with his peers. But it is one thing to watch positive changes and another to measure them in an impartial way. That is what The Climbing Initiative has helped us to do.”
The survey is in the final stages of adjustments now, and will be introduced to participants within the next two months. It is our hope that the results will give EF a better understanding of the areas in which their program is most effective, and the areas in which there is room for improvement. It will also provide them with more concrete data to show donors and gain more support for their program. “Once we have the results we will know what are the most vulnerable aspects of our participants. That way we can redirect our efforts towards those areas. Also, after a couple of semesters, once we have implemented the same questionnaire for a second time, we can see the changes we made along the way. This can help us get more donors, especially in the business sector which appreciates knowing that their money is being well spent,” explains Medina. Additionally, Baker notes, the project will help EF share the experience and knowledge they have gained to inspire other similar projects. “As climbers, we know what a powerful positive impact this sport can have on our lives. Being able to measure that quantitatively and track changes in participants over time will give organizations proof of the value of programs using climbing for social change.”
Vanessa (age 10) has had a difficult life. She and her four siblings have experienced parent negligence to the point that they had to be separated from their family and went to live in an orphanage. She has been diagnosed with TDA-H so she has a lot of trouble abiding by the rules and paying attention. Escalando Fronteras believes that belonging to a group of kids of her own age and participating in activities that demand concentration and persistence can help her better prepare for opportunities in her future.
Escalando Fronteras is changing the lives of children in Monterrey, and The Climbing Initiative is proud to help them achieve their goals. We look forward to watching the progress of this program and the growth of initiatives that use climbing as a tool for social change around the world.
For more information on Escalando Fronteras and to support their efforts, visit https://escalandofronteras.org/.
Learn about our other partner organizations around the world at climbinginitiative.com/partners.