ABC Employee and Program Spotlight with Angelica Guerrero
For the past two years, Angelica Guerrero has been making a difference in her community working as a social worker in the Healthy and Fair Start Program of Any Baby Can. She grew up in Mexico City and has been in the United States for 14 years. She also lived in Spain and California before moving to Austin, Texas. Angelica Guerrero has spent many years educating others. She was a civics, sociology and anthropology teacher in Junior High and High School in Mexico. With her experience in education, Angelica was able to work in the States as a teacher where she obtained her experience in child development. She began volunteering as a hot line worker at SafePlace. Eventually she became staff at SafePlace while studying to obtain her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin.

Angelica was drawn to work with Any Baby Can because she loved the idea of working with immigrant families. Coming from a Latino background and having the immigrant experience herself, she finds natural her understanding and empathizing with immigrant families. And she finds it rewarding to work with people in need. “The most wonderful things about the Healthy and Fair Start Program of Any Baby Can,” says Angelica, “is that we truly care about helping people in need. We accept all people interested in our program. We help making positive changes in the lives of families that welcome change and that are ready for change. We are agents of change, simply catalysts that help to accelerate what often is potentially ready to flourish among our families.”

Angelica Guerrero holds a special place in Any Baby Can’s heart; she is responsible for 20 families with whom she works with on a weekly basis. She teaches struggling parents to handle difficult behaviors by modeling respect and healthy boundaries. She teaches child development strategies, parenting skills, and home safety to ensure that the children reach their full potential. She spends one on one time with the children. She screens them to make sure that they are developing correctly to live successful lives. “Identifying early on that a child has a serious developmental delay and to refer and make sure that he/she receive the right services, is one of the most gratifying features of the Healthy and Fair Start Program.”
Angelica believes that little and big success is part of the social worker experience.

“My most successful story at Any Baby Can has to be with a mother who immigrated to the States. She was escaping a long experience of childhood and adolescence abuse. She was in silence until she disclosed her painful experience to me. I felt honored to be the first person where she felt comfortable opening her heart. I also felt responsible to work hard to help her heal. I began validating and normalizing the feelings she had towards herself and the person who abused her for so many years. I helped this parent to break the isolation she was living in, emotionally and physically. She began attending English classes and field trips to museums, the zoo and other trips organized by HFS. The parent read information regarding the issues she was dealing with. I also helped her to communicate her experience with her husband. I helped her to deal with her children’s difficult behaviors related with the dynamic that had to do with her unresolved issues. HFS also provided financial help. Month after month the parent work hard with my support and help. I also referred her to SafePlace where she began receiving long term counseling services. The parent’s healing process has been successful and it was possible thanks to the resources invested from Any Baby Can and other community services.”

Angelica’s ultimate goal is helping as many children and parents in need as possible from any background. She is very interested in making a difference in the more needy sector of the community. She wants a more educated and healthy community where everyone has the opportunity to reach successful lives.
The Healthy and Fair Start program is available to any family with children 0-5 that are not attending school and have a mild developmental delay or a behavior problem. If you are willing to make a change in your child’s life, and would like more information about the Healthy and Fair Start program or would like to help out call (512) 334-4455.