Mayra Aguirre finds inspiration in the strength and possibility of communities, especially among those furthest away from opportunity.
“As a foundation, we exist to stand alongside and strengthen the work that’s already being done,” says Aguirre, president of the Hall Family Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. “There’s still a great sense of people doing right by one another, supporting each other in small but powerful ways. I saw that in my family and my community. It is how I learned what community looks like.”
Under Aguirre’s leadership, the Hall Family Foundation makes investments in education, family stability, economic mobility and the arts in six counties in Missouri and Kansas, guided by the voices of community members.
“Within our early education work, we asked what it would look like to foster resilience in everyone connected to the classroom — the teacher, the parent and the child — so that each person can thrive and reach their full potential,” she explains. “Our partners lifted up the importance of supporting mental health for all as essential to the well-being of families and communities.”
Aguirre sees the Fellowship as an opportunity to deepen her understanding of what it takes to move shared goals ahead, together.
Aguirre credits her parents’ courage as Mexican immigrants with shaping her sense of purpose. Because of them, she says, “I take imagining the world seriously. They believed something better was possible and that belief lives in me.”