Vision and History

The Mission of El Viento came about in much the same way El Viento as an organization was created - through a vision and through networks of individuals, corporations, and foundations who shared that vision. The Mission matured through active dialog among friends and from the experiences of similar organizations such as the I Have a Dream Foundation. Indeed, the Eugene Lang dream and promise to a group of Harlem kids twenty years ago helped to define the El Viento Mission.

In 1997, mindful of the "Lang Promise", a group of local Orange County citizens came together in an effort create a program for the unique needs of a very special Orange County community - Oak View - in Huntington Beach. The promise of these community minded individuals was similar to that of Eugene Lang; stick with the El Viento program for the next eight years and you will be rewarded with a scholarship for college.

Today, as El Viento enters its tenth school year, we have eight groups of students in the program for a total of over 150 students. The first group, which is now in their sophomore year of college has been with the program since 1997. The parents and students of the first group have been profoundly affected by the El Viento experience.

Our plans for the future contemplate a constant stream of eight groups, moving from fourth grade through high school and into college. Our goal is to induct a group of twenty-five students each spring and provide assistance and guidance for eight years when they graduate from high school and begin college. At full capacity, there will be 200 students in the program each year.

El Viento will change the perspectives, expectations, and well being of the Oak View Community as a result of having literally hundreds of young people in that community who have had an opportunity to see the world through different lens. The Oak View Community will be gradually transformed from the downward spiral of underachievement and low expectations, crime, drugs, teen pregnancy and illiteracy, to a community that may take its proper place in Orange County. El Viento, through its basic mission of self-help, individual responsibility and a helping hand, may become the model for community transformation.