Bienvenidos,

On behalf of the National Latino Children's Institute (NLCI) and our partners at the National Education Association, Univision, Southwest Airlines and Ford Motor Company Fund & Community Services; and NLCI’s Board of Directors whom without their support forums like this would not be possible. As well as all of our presenters that have taken the time to share information with us on what we can do together with our Promesa network and other partners to create safe and healthy environments for and with our young people. I welcome you to the Second National Forum—Building a Nation of Hope for Latino Children: Leveraging community assets to improve educational opportunities for young Latinos.

In preparation for this forum I reflected on my life as a student and my experiences in public school and at the University and the one common denominator was there was always a caring adult, my grandmother, my parents, a teacher, a professor along my entire path and journey that is my life. It takes just one person to care and open a door to make a difference—imagine the possibilities if it were a whole community working together to ignite hope for the future.

Today many Latino youth in many communities feel a sense of hopelessness and that no one cares. However, this is not true in every community, but is the reality in which many youth are living; and it needs to be acknowledged and addressed. We need to work with community, including children, youth and families at the grassroots level and see how we can support their work that will restore our children’s hope and optimism—they have the answers.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center in their 2009 report Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America: Hispanics are the largest and youngest minority group in the United States. One- in-five schoolchildren is Hispanic. One-in-four newborns is Hispanic. Never before in this country’s history has a minority ethnic group made up so large a share of the youngest Americans. By force of numbers alone, the kinds of adults these young Latinos become will help shape the kind of society America becomes in the 21st century. In order to increase the high school completion rate the public and private sectors must work together with the community to improve public schools and neighborhoods. A variety of factors affect Latino children’s education, including language abilities, immigration status of the family, health and safety, as well as the quality of the school.

During this time when our national leaders are seeking new strategies for addressing the continuing inequities in education that impede the advancement of Latino children we are here today to bring together the local community leaders, as well as youth, and the national leaders to have an opportunity to share information and build a common advocacy agenda with NLCI with and on behalf of Latino children to present to policymakers at the local and national levels.

This is the first step as we build an ongoing strategy to further advocacy work that is beginning today. Together let us build a nation of hope for and with our Latino children. I hope you enjoy today and take back to your community new strategies and partnerships to assist you in your work.

¡Adelante juntos!

Sincerely,
Josephine F. Garza
Executive Director
National Latino Children's Institute