In the Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras), communities face protracted cycles of violence due to gang-related, intrafamilial, gender-based, and community violence, resulting in some of the highest rates of crime and homicide globally. Compounding this issue are the debilitated public education and health systems, impunity, and a lack of trust in institutions, which create a dynamic that also fuels the current forced migration crisis. Children and youth living in these communities are often those most affected. In the Northern Triangle, one in four schools report being impacted by gangs. Of those young people who join gangs, three out of four do so before their twelfth birthday—making early adolescence a critical window of opportunity for intervention.
Chronic and acute exposure to violence results in trauma, and the most effective way to address trauma is to re-establish healthy, strong social connections. Glasswing International leverages existing community resources—like schools and hospitals—to enable holistic healing and interrupt cycles of violence. It equips public hospital staff and first responders to deliver psycho-social support to victims of trauma. Its primary scaling unit is their Community Schools approach which integrates evidence-based after-school programs focused on life skills development, and non-clinical, community mental health interventions at public schools located in stigmatized and marginalized communities. These volunteer-led programs not only improve students’ academic performance and resilience—while decreasing absenteeism and aggressive behavior—but also create a more restorative community ecosystem and provide safe, positive, alternatives to crime and violence.
Glasswing International is working towards reimagined public education and health systems in the Northern Triangle, Latin America, the Caribbean, and New York City, broadening their mandates beyond the academic and medical, to focus on the needs of the ‘whole’ child. Glasswing sees a future where public schools and health facilities become critical hubs for repairing the social fabric; where communities heal, and violence is not perpetuated; and students believe in themselves, have aspirations for their futures, and thrive as leaders in their communities.
Northern Triangle of Central America, communities face protracted cycles of gang-related, intrafamilial, gender-based, and community violence, resulting in some of the highest rates of crime and homicide globally.
Glasswing leverages existing community resources—like schools and hospitals—to enable holistic healing and interrupt cycles of violence.
In 2007, Celina de Sola, along with her brother Diego, and her husband, Ken Baker, founded Glasswing International to foster change by investing in a community’s existing strengths and resources—its infrastructure and its people.
Glasswing’s Community Schools model operates in 10 different countries, in 173 public schools, affecting the lives of more than 88,000 children.
At-risk communities are safe and resilient. Public schools are community havens, and public service providers are equipped with the skills needed to mitigate the consequences of violence and trauma.
Glasswing International partners with national governments and NGOs to transfer and scale its methodology.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Glasswing International
Co-Founder and President, Glasswing International
Celina de Sola, Co-Founder and Vice President of Programs, is a Salvadoran national with over 20 years of experience in international development and social change. She is an alumna of Harvard University School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Social Work. Celina serves on the Advisory Council of the Inter-American Foundation and on El Salvador’s Consultative Council on Children and Youth. She is an Obama Foundation Fellow, Tällberg Global Leader, Ashoka Fellow, LEGO ReImagine Learning Changemaker, and a Schwartz Family Social Impact Fellow. Ken is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Glasswing International. He and Celina are married and have lived in El Salvador for more than a decade. Ken founded Glasswing International out of the conviction that strong, local organizations are key to sustainably addressing development challenges. Prior to Glasswing International, Ken held management and marketing roles in the private sector and served as Vice President of Corporate Relations at AmeriCares. Ken also worked abroad with the State Department in over ten countries and served two terms as a City Councilmember. Ken is an alumnus of Northeastern, as well as American University, where he obtained his Master’s degree.
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