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A Public Forum
Contents
Introduction
Demographics
A Youth Perspective
Education Round Table
Health Round Table
Investment in the Community and
the American Recovery Reinvestment Act
Conclusion
Introduction
Given the myriad of challenges that young Latinos face the public forum was designed not to just look at the demographics but to also showcase solutions through partnerships that are working effectively with young Latinos and their families to address issues around education and health. The forum agenda included a youth, a demographer, policy makers, researchers, and corporate, foundation, national and community partners.
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Demographics
Mark Lopez, Associate Director at the Pew Hispanic Center.
Mark Lopez reported that between 1980 and 2007, the Latino population had tripled, and that it was projected to triple again by 2050. He also reported that more than half of the nation's 16 million Hispanic children are now "second generation," meaning they are the U.S.-born sons or daughters of at least one foreign-born parent, typically someone who came to this country in the immigration wave from Mexico, Central America and South America that began around 1980. He also stated that first and second generation Latino children are less likely than third or higher generation children to be fluent in English and to have parents who completed high school; and they are more likely to live in poverty, but are less likely than third or higher generation Latino children to live in single parent households.
Additionally he stated that 60% of all Hispanics are native-born and 40% are foreign–born. Moreover, since 2000, Hispanic births far outpace immigration. Building on earlier research, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that fewer than one-in-ten of all Hispanic children are unauthorized immigrants. However, about one quarter have one or more parent who is an unauthorized immigrant.
Mr. Lopez also reported that in 1990, 236 counties with 15%+ Hispanics were concentrated mostly along the border; but by 2007 414 counties with 15%+ Hispanics population concentrations emerged in distant areas away from the border.
The Pew Hispanic Center population projections indicate that the generational composition of Hispanic children will change yet again between now and 2025. The share of Hispanic children who are second generation is projected to peak soon, while the share of Hispanic children who are third generation or higher will begin to rise in the coming decade.
He also stated that Hispanic children now make up one-in-five of all children in the United States - up from 9% in 1980; this population also represented 60% of all growth between 1990 and 2006. It was also reported that half of all Hispanic students resided in two states−California and Texas; and that 34% of Hispanic students have parents without a high school diploma.
The top three priorities of greatest concern to Latinos for the Obama administration to address were gathered from a survey by the Pew Hispanic Center and are: the economy at 57%; education at 51%; and health care at 45%. Immigration fell at number six out of seven priorities. (back to top)
A Youth Perspective
Julia Reynoso, Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)
Since its inception, NLCI has always included youth as an important part of any forum. Young people bring a unique and current perspective to any issue. Ms. Reynoso is one of the youth that attends many of the programs at the Latin American Youth Center, one of NLCI’s La Promesa de un Futuro Brillante award winner (1997). Ms. Reynosa spoke of the importance of having a community-based program such as LAYC that provides support, fun programming and mentoring for the youth of the community. She spoke eloquently of the struggles she’s had in containing her anger and how the programs have helped her in controlling her emotions and moving ahead. Ms. Reynoso is graduating from high school and going on to college. It is the programs at LAYC that have supported her in her efforts to complete school. (back to top)
Education Roundtable
Creating Great Public Schools
A greater percentage of the young Latino population lives in cities, many of these in poverty stricken neighborhoods with few advantages. Many attend schools with crumbling facilities, out-of-date textbooks and large class sizes, where teachers struggle through budget cuts and overwhelming policies to offer them a good education. Latino children are going to school hungry and ill prepared to face the challenges of a school day. Some struggle to understand English and are segregated in Special Needs classrooms, while others are “tracked” into lower performing classes.
Many community-based organizations and schools are working hard to change these conditions, and against great odds, many succeed. Many work with community and government partners to create safety nets for the children and to ensure that they graduate. This session focused on what organizations were doing to address the academic needs of Latino children, and identified solutions and best practices. It was obvious that communities need to work together at all levels from government to corporate partners to community based organizations to be successful.
Rita Jaramillo, NLCI board member and Senior Liaison at the National Education Association, (NEA) Minority Community Outreach.
Ms. Jaramillo served as the convener of the education roundtable. She spoke of the importance of not only teachers and their roles in student’s lives, but also of how community-based organizations could work with the schools to create a safe environment where children could learn. Ms. Jaramillo also highlighted some of the issues that young Latinos face every day while trying to get to school and the challenges they have once they get there. She spoke of the importance of having great teachers that are passionate about their work, about administrators that work for their students, and how everyone can work together to change the outcome for young Latinos.
Lily Eskelson, Vice President of the National Education Association, the mission of the NEA is to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the nation; to fulfill the promise of public education and to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world. NEA also believes every child in America, regardless of family income or place of residence, deserves a quality education. In pursuing its mission, NEA has determined that they will focus the energy and resources of their 3.2 million members on improving the quality of teaching, increasing student achievement and making schools safer, better places to learn.
Ms. Eskelson spoke of the teacher’s role in providing students with a quality education and the role NEA is playing in this effort to support teachers. Ms. Eskelson is a passionate teacher whose years of experience have taught her that there is a way to reach every child; that each child can learn, and that it is the teacher’s responsibility to find the key. She shared stories of her years of teaching and how each year was unique—fraught with challenges. She ended by encouraging everyone to become a partner with the schools in their community.
Lori Kaplan, Chief Executive Officer of the Latin American Youth Center, the mission of the LAYC Family of Organizations is a network of youth centers, schools, and social enterprises with a shared commitment to help youth become successful and happy young adults. LAYC provided information on creating quality experiences for children in and out of the classroom setting. They offer a myriad of services to provide for the needs of the hardest to reach youth and to those needing a place to go to and have fun including:
- Health and Wellness--housing, mental health counseling, substance use prevention and treatment, violence prevention
- Educational Support--in-school tutoring, homework assistance, college preparation, health education, charter schools, GED preparation
- Workforce Readiness --job skills, work specific literacy and math training, job placement
Ms. Kaplan shared the success of LAYC programs, including higher math and reading scores; playing youth in jobs; and GED completion rates; and recruiting and training foster parents.
Ms. Kaplan discussed the promotores model they are using to work with a minimum of 275 disconnected youth over the next two years to assist them in improving their quality of life. These disconnected youth have some or all of the following characteristics: homeless or in foster care; substance abuse or mental health issues; criminal justice involvement; at risk of dropping out of school; out of school with no diploma or GED; and unemployed or underemployed. This model is different from case management because the promotores address all the needs and continue to work with youth even after they complete services or programs for four to six years vs. 6-18 months for case managers. LAYC is a recipient of NLCI’s La Promesa de un Futuro Brillante award (1997).
Ida R. Eblinger Kelley, Director, Hispanic Outreach and communications, U.S. Department of Education provided information on how participants could access the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and explained how it was up to each state to determine how the money would be spent. Ms Kelley spoke about the four principles guiding the distribution and use of the ARRA funds from the U.S. Department of Education. The principles are: to spend funds quickly; to save and create jobs; ensure transparency, reporting and accountability; invest one-time funds thoughtfully; and improve student achievement through school improvement and reform.
She also spoke about addressing four specific areas that evidence shows make a critical contribution to student results. The four assurances are to: make progress toward rigorous college- and career-ready standards and high-quality assessments that are valid and reliable for all students, including English language learners and students with disabilities; establish pre-K-to college and career data systems that track progress and foster continuous improvement; make improvements in teacher effectiveness and in the equitable distribution of qualified teachers for all students, particularly students who are most in need; and provide intensive support and effective interventions for the lowest-performing schools. Ms. Kelley also spoke about the different ARRA funding and the time frames and process for distribution. (back to top)
Health Roundtable
Building Healthy Communities
Access to health care in the United States has reached crisis stage without adequate solutions to respond to the epidemic. Clinics and hospitals are overcrowded with people who have no medical home, while using those services as their primary form of health care. One out of five young Latinos are uninsured, yet roughly two-thirds are eligible for CHIP or Medicaid, according to their family income qualifications. Red tape and eligibility requirements often discourage families from using public health options.
In addition to the growing level of uninsured (34% in 2006), Latino families have been gravely challenged by not having access to advances in health literacy and education programs that are culturally and linguistically appropriate or support services that empower families to manage their preventive care and successfully navigate a complex healthcare system.
Researchers at key universities report that Hispanics born and raised in the United States are in poorer health than new immigrants, showing higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Childhood obesity is approaching crisis proportions; with Latino children having the highest rates of obesity/overweight. As previously stated, the majority of young Latinos live in urban settings, most often in the poorer sections of the city. These are often “food deserts’ areas where there are few or no grocery stores. Families shop at convenience stores where healthy choices are few and far between. There is a higher percentage of fast food places in these neighborhoods, and the fast, inexpensive food is often the only choice a family has. There are few parks, and in many cases, the park may be too dangerous for the children, or the walk to the park is impossible due to gang turf issues. The schools in the poorer sections of the city may have had their funding cut for physical education programs; and often, the schools contract with food vendors to provide the lunches.
Cities need community-based organizations that serve a family’s various needs—parenting, health education, clinics, etc. These organizations more often than not, step in where conventional health providers cannot to fill a breach in the continuum of care. It is critical that we expand access to quality healthcare, increase research and the prevention of chronic diseases, and make sure these services are provided in a culturally and linguistically appropriate context.
What are the solutions? It’s obvious that all levels need to work together from government to corporate partners to community based organizations. What models are successful? How does a partnership work and how can organizations and others access additional funding to embed new programs into a community? What programs are available that connects with the community to improve the statistics?
Dr. Deborah Mulligan, MD, FAAP, FACEP, NLCI board member and Director of the Institute for Child Health Policy & Professor of Pediatrics, Nova Southeastern University, served as the convener of this roundtable that included a diverse group of stakeholders to showcase different approaches to ensure that young Latinos had access to health care and to prevention education on developing healthy lifestyles. As a physician, Dr. Mulligan spoke of the importance of primary care especially during the early years of a child’s life. She spoke of the gaps in services, and how community based organizations, in partnership with foundations and corporations, could change the statistics within a community.
Angela Wiggins, Senior Manager of Community Involvement at Kraft Foods provided information on how a corporation created a partnership with a national non-profit organization, specifically the partnership between Kraft Foods and NLCI to develop the award winning Salsa, Sabor y Salud program to assist Latino families to create healthy lifestyles for themselves and their children. The curriculum is completely bilingual and uses Latino culture, traditions and values to deliver the sessions to the children and adults. NLCI received the 2007 American Dietetic Association/ADA President’s Circle Award for Best Nutrition Education program for the Salsa, Sabor y Salud curriculum. Ms. Wiggins explained the process through which the partnership had gone and the success the program had generated during the past six years in making a difference in the lives of Latino families. To date the program has reached over 26,000 family members and trained over 350 facilitators from 100 organizations to implement the program. Kraft Foods has provided support since 2002, investing over $3 million in the program.
Ms. Wiggins spoke of Kraft’s commitment to creating healthy lifestyles by not only investing in the creation of the program, but in the continued investment in community-based organizations. NLCI helped Kraft understand that while the creation of the program was the first step, funding organizations to actually run the program and embedding it in the community was the best way to achieve success. The program was evaluated by the University of Illinois with funding from Kraft, and was found to have a 86% success rate.
Miguel Centeno, Vice President of Strategic Business Development, NY, Aetna, spoke of the ways in which community-based organizations could get involved with a corporation and provided examples of how NY, Aetna has worked to provide health information in the community. Working through the steps of how to approach a corporation and how to tailor an initiative to meet the goals of the corporation, Mr. Centeno provided participants with a new understanding of the process. He explained that in these times, it was important to always understand the goals of the corporation and to tailor the message/initiative so that it was in line with their mission and goals.
Mr. Centeno stated that the Aetna Foundation is currently funding NLCI to expand the Salsa, Sabor y Salud program to additional sites to support healthy lifestyles for Latino families. The grant funds included pass-through grants for organizations to implement the program and NLCI along with Aetna developed an RFP process.
Madelyn Rodriguez, Director, Centro Mater in Miami, FL, described how they had implemented the Salsa, Sabor y Salud program and how the program helped to create a healthier community. Ms. Rodriguez shared information about the impact the program had made on Latino families and the changes they saw in the families eating habits and increase in physical activities. Ms. Rodriguez is a passionate believer in the program and has seen firsthand how the families have embraced the simple concepts. She shared a story from the latest session; a mother had found out that her 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with diabetes. She followed the steps of the program and in a month, the daughter had already lost 10 pounds. Another mother explained how she shared all the Spanish materials with her aunt, keeping the English ones for herself.
Ms. Rodriguez commented on the importance of having materials in both languages and how the culturally relevant activities made it fun and easy for the families to change their lifestyles. She also shared photgrapsh of the program in action. Centro Mater served as one of the pilot sites for the program and has been funded by Kraft Foods from the beginning. It now receives funds from NLCI through one of the Aetna Foundation pass-through grants.
Vicky Santos, Director of Operations, of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation in Montebello, CA, described how they had implemented the Salsa, Sabor y Salud program and how the program had helped to create a healthier community. MAOF has been implementing the program for over six years now and has reached over 2,000 family members. Ms. Santos explained that the program went farther than the families that participated; in fact, neighbors and extended family received the information in conversations with the participants. Often, they would go to the center and request to be included in the next round. The Mexican American Opportunity Foundation has been funded by Kraft Foods since 2003 to implement the program.
Ms. Santos provided an overview of other programs housed at MAOF and other initiatives in which they have partnered with NLCI such as Corazón de mi vida. MAOF is a comprehensive center and works with Latinos pre-school to senior citizens offering a myriad of services. MAOF is a recipient of NLCI’s La Promesa de un Futuro Brillante award (2003).
Dr. Garth Graham, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health, Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on how participants could access the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and explained how it was determined that the money would be spent. He reiterated the importance of community-based organizations and the work that they did with the Latino community, and that he felt it was important to invest in organizations providing direct service to the families. He encouraged the participants to become familiar with the various funding streams that would soon be available through the ARRA, and to speak with the appropriate representatives at the state and local levels to access the funds.
Dr. Graham also spoke about the importance of partnerships to be able to send information quickly to networks in the community, such as the H1N1 pandemic. And that it was important to invest in organizations providing direct service to the families. (back to top)
Ms. Muñoz described some of the steps that were being taken to get the reinvestment funds out to the states. She also explained how important it was for each person to be a part of the process and not only request funding for programs, but understand and follow the dollars as they were disbursed in their cities and states. She explained that while there were guidelines, states would have quite a bit of freedom to decide to which agencies the monies would be disbursed.
Ms. Muñoz was extremely passionate about ensuring that everyone becomes a part of the process so that funding is made available in the states for programs that are in need. She explained that while the federal government could provide the funding, only the collective citizens in each state could ensure that the money went to where it was most needed, and disbursed in an equitable manner. She reminisced about her time at the National Council of La Raza, and how important it was to always be aware of the what was happening and our role in creating change. She acknowledged the important work of NLCI and the commitment of everyone who was there to make life better for young Latinos. (back to top)
Conclusion
While the statistics are alarming and the obstacles seem insurmountable, it is important to remember that there are organizations, corporations and individuals working tirelessly to change the conditions in which young Latinos live. But there is more to be done. It is important to ensure that Latinos and their families have the opportunities to excel and thrive, to learn and live a healthier life. This can only be done if everyone does their part.
Organizations can work in partnership with not only each other, but also with corporations, foundations and public entities. Most importantly, they also must work with the families and the young Latinos to ensure that the programs and policies support the complete and healthy development of the children. Families need to be supported to advocate for change in their schools, to acquire funding, materials, books, and computers so that children can learn in a safe environment. Teachers need to be supported and provided with the tools they need to teach bilingual children. Breakfast and lunches can be healthier, and a priority reestablished for physical education.
Cities and municipalities need to make healthier lifestyles a priority by cleaning up parks and ensuring safe passage to families who want to use them. They can create walking and bicycling paths, ensure healthier foods are available at city events and provide incentives for businesses to create healthier lifestyles. Grocery stores should be located in areas where Latinos live; and clinics expanded so that everyone can get the health care they need.
It’s important and it is timely. By 2050, if the conditions do not change, almost half of all young Latinos will be living in poverty—and that’s one third of the population. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2050 the over 65 population will also have tripled . This means that the next 10 years are crucial in changing the current status—not just for the sake of the Hispanic children, but for the economic well-being of the country. It is time to act. We call on all to join NLCI in creating a better future for young Latinos. (back to top)
U.S. Census Bureau.”An older and more diverse nation by mid-century.”August 14, 2008. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html (accessed October 28, 2009)
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