FAQ

Eva’s Heroes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of individuals with intellectual special needs by providing an inclusive setting built on four tenets: interact, grow, learn, and love. Based in San Antonio, the organization helps teens and young adults 14 and older, who have intellectual special needs, integrate and flourish in society. The organization was founded in 2006 by actress Eva Longoria and Board President Christiane Perkins-Garcia.

An intellectual or developmental disability, also called IDD, includes many severe, chronic conditions that are due to mental and/or physical impairments. IDD can begin at any time, up to 22 years of age. It usually lasts throughout a person’s lifetime.

Our community partners are sometimes well-versed with working with the special needs community, and we have opportunities to work with organizations who are not experienced with special needs. We customize and adapt to all facets of our community.

In its seminal year, the organization was funded primarily by a single fundraiser, Celebrity Casino Night. As the demand for our programs expanded, we have added additional funding sources. We have an active grant program, added two fundraisers, and partner with businesses and third-party supporters.

There are many programs for younger participants, but there is a dearth of programs for older particpants.

We love volunteers in a variety of capacities, from working with participants to performing administrative tasks! If you’d like to help, please visit our volunteer page. For the safety of our participants, every volunteer over the age of 18 has to pass a background check. After the background check is complete, we will contact you to talk about how to get started.

We welcome teens or as we call them our teen buddies. It’s a unique feature of Eva’s Heroes that typically developing teens aged 16 and older, participate in our programs. Our participants can model the behavior of their peers, and the typically developing teens learn how to respond to young people with special needs; they develop attributes such as compassion and patience. Everyone benefits.

Eva’s Heroes is always looking for new and innovative ways to make sure our programs stay funded. Contact us at info@evasheroes.org for any inquiries.

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