Community Impact Spotlight: Juntos Aprendemos’ Relentless Focus Delivers Big Results

Early learning is crucial to a child’s future, and no one knows that more than Carmen Rubio, Executive Director at Latino Network. Through her leadership, Latino Network’s early childhood programs support parents as their child’s first teacher and prepare children, from birth to five, for success in school and life. The organization’s focus on heritage and a strong foundation through programs that integrate Latino culture, early literacy, and parent education has made for an incredible partnership with SVP. We have invested a total of $86,450 in grants, $394,122 in leveraged funding, and 1,233 volunteer hours (not including work through the Encore Fellows program) in Latino Network over the course of our Partnership, and have aided in increasing their annual operating budget from $1.3 million in 2013 to $8.3 million today.

Through Latino Network’s Juntos Aprendemos early childhood program, SVP saw the immense opportunity for the organization to really expand and deepen its impact. Carmen and her team just needed help devising a roadmap to push them forward, as well as the capacity to pursue public funding in support of scaling Juntos Aprendemos. Lead by Partner Holly Levow and veteran Partners Val Ilsley and Wendy Weissman, as well as newer Partners Kelly Starkey and Bob Tate, this Partner team worked hand-in-hand with Latino Network to create a strategic plan to ensure the scalability of Juntos Aprendemos.

When we caught-up with Holly to reflect on her experience, she shared the following: “We have made tremendous progress with Latino Network over the 3.5 years that I’ve been a lead partner. Juntos Aprendemos has expanded to 12 schools starting this Fall, and in the last year, our SVP Partner team created a comprehensive business plan for scaling Juntos Aprendemos at an ever faster rate.”

The second part of the investment was to help Latino Network shape their policy and advocacy position. Through this additional investment, the organization pivoted to focus on policy. The funding helped Latino Network hire a consultant who helped shape legislative work to support the youngest members of the Latino Community, particularly surrounding culturally specific learning.

While we are putting the finishing touches on the official Impact Report, our growth projections based on the business plan shows that by 2022, Juntos Aprendemos has the capacity and capability to scale from serving 250 children to 3,000.  The organization has made a distinct and noticeable impact on the families it has served. The parents of these families face many barriers and Juntos has allowed them to be engaged in a culturally responsive way. They have become volunteers, advocates and role models in the community.

This amazing work wouldn’t be possible without your support. Our engaged Partners are the committed cornerstones of our investments, and we are incredibly proud of the hard work and passion they lend to our joint efforts.