MDC Alumni Create Young Professionals Board To Promote Casa Familia’s Mission

When Anthony Valenzuela was searching for volunteering opportunities this summer, he connected with Anay Abraham, the executive director of Casa Familia—a non-profit organization that fights for affordable housing for people with disabilities. 

Abraham, who has been a Board of Trustees member at Miami Dade College since 2019, encouraged Valenzuela to create a young professionals board to assist Casa Familia.

Valenzuela, who served as the Kendall Campus Student Government Association President two years ago, leapt into action. To bring the idea to fruition, he connected with three MDC alumni—Paul Douillon, Vanessa Garcia and Miguel Perez—in September.

The quartet will serve as the brain trust for the young professionals board and devise ways that they can augment Casa Familia’s mission. 

“I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself,” Valenzuela said. 

Garcia, who has a 50-year-old uncle with cerebral palsy, has a history of advocating for people with disabilities. At North Campus, she served as secretary of the We the Pieces Club, an organization focused on promoting disability-inclusion. 

The University of Miami journalism student will oversee the board’s marketing and social media channels.  

“I’m excited to meet more people who I can relate to,” Garcia said. “I just think of my uncle when I think of this organization.”

Garcia’s feelings are echoed by Perez, who has three cousins with Autism. The third year law student at St. Thomas University will oversee event logistics. He will secure speakers, reserve venues for functions and arrange catering. 

“This is a long-term thing for me,” said Perez, who also works as a planning and zoning board member for the City of Sweetwater. “The most important impact [of] this organization is bringing people together.”

Paul Douillon, who served as the Student Government President at Homestead Campus during the 2019-2020 academic year, will assist with fundraising. 

The organization, which meets monthly, is growing rapidly. They will add fifteen new members on Dec. 19.

“They know the importance of sharing and advocating for our cause,” Abraham said. 

The young professionals board will be advised by Michael Alessandri, a clinical psychology professor at UM who serves as the secretary for Casa Familia’s board of directors, and Abraham. 

Abraham has served as Casa Familia’s executive director since March of 2021. She joined the organization when it began in 2016 after seeing how people with disabilities at the WOW Center Miami—a special education school in Kendall—were left to mend for themselves after their parents died. 

So far, the group has brought more than 600 followers to the newly established young professionals board’s Instagram account—@casafamiliaypb.  

On Jan. 26, the board will host a networking and fundraising event at the Bay 13 Brewery and Kitchen in Coral Gables. It will feature a chat with a future resident of The Village of Casa Familia—an 11,000 square-foot state-of-the-art community for people with disabilities— that’s scheduled to open in Kendall in late 2024.  

The young professionals’ main mission heading into the future will be to promote awareness about Casa Familia’s mission through informational seminars, social media campaigns and fundraising events. 

“I have no doubt Casa Familia will become something very big in the next few years,” Valenzuela said. “We’re invested in Casa Familia at a young age, but we’re hoping to climb up the ladder as time goes on.”

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