My name is Al Velarde and I am the CEO for the Paso del Norte Children’s Development Center, better known as PdN Children’s. For the past 6 years, I have been leading the efforts of PdN Children’s. Prior to that, I was the Executive Director at the Child Crisis Center of El Paso. In total, I’ve been leading child serving non-profits for over 18 years. My first career was that of an El Paso Police Department where I worked for 21 years serving our community. I have been a community servant for almost 40 years.

I am asking you to help support PdN Children’s on El Paso Giving Day. Our mission is to help children with disabilities achieve their greatest potential and our vision is a world where all children thrive in an inclusive environment, recognized by their abilities and talents, rather than their differences. We achieve our mission and pursue our vision by providing a variety of services for children with disabilities. We start with children who are infants by providing Early Childhood Intervention services that include speech, occupational and physical therapies, we provide nutrician services, we help children with hearing and visual deficiencies and we support the entire family with Early Intervention Services (EIS) Specialized Skills Training and Case Management.

We have El Paso’s largest Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) program for children with autism. We serve children of all ages who have been diagnosed to be on the autism spectrum. We also have a robust Pediatric Service program where we provide Speech, Physical and Occupational therapies, a feeding clinic, auditory therapy, case management and parent training. Our Community Resources Center helps parents and family in the community with supportive services, parent training and referal services.

Our jewel of the agency is our Inclusive Early Learning Center. We are the only childcare operator who will accept children with any and all disabilities and we specialize in serving children with challenging behaviors. We do this in an inclusive environment because we also provide care for children who do not have disabilities. These children serve as mentors to other children in care and they learn that disabilities are normal and not something to focus on.

Coming soon, we will be opening our PdN Children’s East Inclusive Early Learning Center and Pediatric Therapy Clinic at 1410 Bob Hope. Stay tuned as we move forward with Grand Opening Day in the summer of 2024.

I can talk for ever about PdN Children’s because we do so much in our community. However, I just want to reach out to you and ask for your support during El Paso Giving Day and help us raise funds to continue to provide services to all children, regardless of the ability to pay.