A Perspicacious Venture: The Latino Network
Children don’t come with an instruction manual, but we know they can get a leg up on success in kindergarten with strong parental support and readiness training.
In 2012, the growing Latino Network in Portland was well-positioned to help children do well in kindergarten, but it needed a partner committed to its ambitious goals.
Social Venture Partners Portland stepped up with a promise to provide the Latino Network $25,000 over two years, plus invaluable volunteer time and expertise. The investment, SVP hoped, would strengthen the Network as a whole, including its Juntos Aprendemos (Together We Learn) program. The 30-week program helps Latino children age 3 to 5, as well as their Spanish-speaking parents or caregivers, prepare for kindergarten.
“We see the Latino Network and SVP as a good fit because we both want to get kids ready for kindergarten,” said Sadie Feibel, program director of Juntos Aprendemos. “It’s a natural partnership.”During the summer, the Latino Network’s staff, many of whom are trained parent graduates of the program, go door-to-door finding families with pre-school age children, telling people about the program and inviting parents to sign up. Staff also go to corner stores in Latino neighborhoods, weekend flea markets, laundromats and parks that attract Latino families. “We’ve found that the face-to-face connection and personal invitation is really what helps make families feel comfortable,” Feibel said.
The children and parents selected for the program attend gatherings once a week at their neighborhood school for 30 weeks during the school year. There they get an opportunity to get comfortable in a school environment, meet teachers and principals, visit classrooms and take advantage of special curriculum designed just for them.
For the children, the curriculum is designed to prepare them with such things as early literacy skills, letter recognition, recognizing their first name in writing and early math. They also learn some of the social skills they’re going to need in the classroom, such as focusing on tasks, raising their hand, listening and participating in story time, asking and answering questions, and other skills that will set them up for success when they start kindergarten.
Meanwhile, the curriculum for parents emphasizes how to support their child’s learning at home. Parents learn, for example, how to teach letters to their children, make and use educational tools, read with their children, and how to foster a positive relationship with their children through effective communication.In addition, parents are educated about expectations and opportunities for parental involvement in American schools so they are ready to be engaged as active partners in their child’s education.
Once the children are in school, Juntos Aprendemos asks kindergarten teachers to observe how the children are performing in the classroom in comparison to their peers. Teachers tell the Latino Network that they are seeing a clear difference in the children who participate in the program. They show up ready to learn, are leaders in the classroom, raise their hand, answer questions at story time and pay attention, the teachers report.
Juntos Aprendemos is now preparing 127 children for kindergarten at 5 Portland elementary schools: Glenfair, Rigler, Harvey Scott, Cesar Chavez and James John, which was added this year with SVP’s support. The program hopes to add one more school each year going forward if sustainable funding can be found. The schools, selected based on community need and demographics, all have a high percentage of Latino students, high rates of poverty, and an administration with high interest in the Juntos Aprendemos partnership.
Within four years, the SVP-Latino Network project is expected to measurably strengthen Latino Network’s programs while providing over 300 vulnerable Latino children each year with urgently needed kindergarten-readiness skills.
“What’s exciting to me about our relationship with SVP is that SVP has invested 100 percent in this partnership, saying we believe in this model, we believe it works, and we want to help bring the human and capital resources to bear to help the Latino Network grow this program to meet the need,” Feibel said.