Earlier this year, representatives from the Palo Alto Housing Corporation (PAHC) and Family Resources in Palo Alto identified a vital need within the city for one-on-one, long-term tutoring accessible to lower-income families. Out of this initial vision for a tutoring program sprouted Dream Catchers, Inc., a non-profit organization whose goal is to provide free, private tutoring for students in Palo Alto who are falling behind in school and have nowhere else to turn.

Before Dream Catchers was created, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) was faced with underserved students who were struggling in school, and the district had nowhere to send these students for individualized, long-term help. In response to this gap in services, Sharon Murphy (with Family Resources) and Kate Young (with PAHC) came together and decided to find a way to implement a tutoring program where they could send struggling students in need of personalized academic support. To realize their goal, they brought onboard Stanford University undergraduate Sarah Mummah to design and implement a tutoring program that would serve the needs of students within the City of Palo Alto. Initially intended to be a small tutoring resource for only a handful of students, Dream Catchers is quickly growing into an organization in and of itself serving many more students than originally foreseen. The hope in establishing Dream Catchers as a full-scale non-profit organization is to promote long-term sustainability and to help as many struggling students as possible.