Rising to the next level: SVP and the Latino Network

In 2012, the growing Latino Network in Portland was helping children do well in kindergarten, but it needed a partner committed to its ambitious goals.

Social Venture Partners Portland (SVP) stepped up with a promise to provide the Network with $25,000 over the next two years, plus invaluable volunteer time and expertise.

Carmen CaballeroRubio, the Latino Network’s Executive Director, hoped SVP’s support would lead to a strengthened organization, and a sustainable revenue model that would allow the Network to maintain and grow its current programming, deepen the quality of its programs and allow for their replication locally and regionally.

SVP has focused on helping the Network grow 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. “It’s really aimed at the whole Hispanic community, which has one of the largest populations unprepared for kindergarten,” said Marie Jorajuria, SVP’s Lead Partner in its work with the Network.

Juntos Aprendemos is currently preparing 127 children for kindergarten at 5 Portland elementary schools: Glenfair, Rigler, Harvey Scott, Cesar Chavez and James John. 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 partnering with the Latino Network. “The goal is to build a scalable program so Juntos Aprendemos can rapidly expand the number of schools it serves ,” said Jorajuria.“SVP has already helped the Latino Network gain more credibility, which has helped them win some grants, “said Jorajuria. “We’re also helping them understand their own structure better and where they need people. We’ve been helping them with staff assessment, figuring out what the employees are doing, whether they are in the right spot, their titles match what they’re doing and they’re doing what the budget says they’re doing.”

Meanwhile, SVP Partner, Mark Fulop, is working with the Network on a strategic plan. “That’s been incredibly eye-opening to them as well as us,” Jorajuria said. “As we roll into the second year, we hope to start using that plan as a blueprint or roadmap to move forward. So we’ve brought a lot to the table in the first year in terms of if you want to scale here are some ideas.”Rubio is optimistic. “We had a very rapid growth spurt in the past four years; it was really wonderful and it was really hard,” she said. When she walked in the door in 2009, the Network’s total annual budget was about $500,000, largely from government contracts and funds from the Portland Children’s Levy. There were almost no private donations.

Today the Latino Network’s annual budget is $1.5 million, 75 percent of that still from government, but about 20 percent from grants and a small, but growing, amount from private donations, some from the Network’s first signature fundraiser, Noche Bella (Beautiful Night), held in August 2013. “We want to go into the next four years with really strong bones that can support our program expansion,” Rubio said.

Jorajuria is positive, too, and proud of SVP’s contribution. “When you put the right people together it’s really incredible to see what SVP can do for an organization,” she said. “It has been really rewarding that way, to see the impact we can have on a non-profit that doesn’t have, the financial resources to hire some of the people that are within the SVP network, amazing people with incredible skills.”