2002 Celebration
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2002 Celebration |
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Programs Cuban American National Council Educational Institutes Program Descriptions Cuban American National Council Educational Institutes Contact: The mission of the Cuban American National Council is to help individuals through education, child care, housing, employment and training, youth opportunity, and family and community development programs. Its Little Havana and Hialeah Educational Institutes and the Center for the Development of Infant and Adolescent Latinas provide family-centered learning environments that nurture the physical and emotional development of infants, preschool children, adolescents, and adolescent parents. The council’s alternative schools, the Little Havana and Hialeah Institutes, were started at the request of the Miami-Dade County Public School System, which sought help preventing at-risk Latino students from dropping out of school. The Center for the Development of Infants and Adolescent Latinas (DIAL) grew out of these institutes when was discovered there was a correlation between teen pregnancy and the dropout rate. The center, which was begun in 1998, is designed to meet the educational, social, and health needs of low-income, pre- and postpartum Latina teens so that they have the support and resources to complete high school. The three programs are wholly bilingual and serve over 400 Latino students in the public school system from the seventh through the twelfth grades. Students are referred to the Cuban American National Council by the school system when they become potential dropouts. Graduates receive a standard high school diploma, are transported in school system buses, and receive most course books from the school system. Unlike many of the system’s schools, however, the institutes are in the Little Havana and Hialeah neighborhoods where most of the students live and are a vital part of the fabric of the community. At DIAL, up to 44 infants and preschool children are served in an environment of family caring. Staff and parents foster creative expression through body expression, movement, and music, and the school strives to reinforce good habits and attitudes, as well as personal identity and self-worth. The comprehensive program also offers teen mothers a secondary education leading to a high school diploma, cares for their babies in the same building where the mothers attend school, provides mothers with counseling and parenting skills classes, and works with the extended family to foster intergenerational support systems for parents and their children. Fewer than 10 percent of the institutes’ students drop out of school—a rate that is significantly lower than that of similar populations in the school system. The number of graduates grows each year, staff turnover is low, and the schools regularly receive good evaluations from the school system. Rainbow Intergenerational Child Care Contact The Rainbow Intergenerational Child Care program’s mission is to offer a child development program for preschoolers. Because the program recognizes the need for fostering family unity and the value of grandparents in children’s lives, it also provides an opportunity for children and senior citizens to be part of a family environment. By design, the program’s senior activity centers are located with the child care centers. Staff at the senior centers were aware that many senior participants had skills and talents, and many had been teachers in their homeland; many seniors attended the centers with their grandchildren and neighbors’ children, and the grandchildren needed a place to go. As a result, an intergenerational child care program in which senior citizens are trained to obtain certification as child care workers, and in which children are cared for in a culturally appropriate center by a “family member,” opened. Children benefit from intergenerational exposure as they participate in shows or visit the Adult Day Care Center to play and carry out joint activities with Alzheimer’s patients. Seniors speak Spanish with the children, telling them stories and passing on the traditions of their families and culture. This provides low-income working parents with culturally appropriate, affordable, and reliable child care. The program operates from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., offering a planned child development program that prepares children physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally to enter kindergarten. Children graduate from the program ready to compete with children of better economic means. Redlands Christian Migrant Association Contact In 1965, in the Redlands of Dade County, Florida, farmworkers planted and harvested with their children beside them. With little to no regulation at the time, field accidents were common, and the victims were often innocent children. In response to these conditions, the Redlands Christian Migrant Association was created. RCMA creates and fosters opportunities for the children of migrant families and other low-income rural families to maximize the choices in their lives. RCMA is also concerned about the high dropout rate of Latino children and is operating Dropout Prevention programs in partnership with the public schools to provide children with tutoring and after-school recreation. The parents are included in the program through weekly home visits designed to strengthen their support of their children’s education. Parents are treated as equal partners in the education and care of their children, and their involvement is paramount to success. Child development programs for children ranging in age from six weeks to five years old are purposefully located in the heart of the communities RCMA serves. Children are actively involved in the learning process in a place where culture and language are respected. This is supported with photographs of children and their families, multicultural books, songs, foods, instruments, and even clothing and cooking utensils in the kitchen play area. Former farmworkers work side by side with degreed professionals; the former farmworker staff contribute knowledge of the hardships farmworkers face, a strong tie to the local community, and the message “If I can do it so can you and your children”; the degreed professionals bring a knowledge of child development, education, and the ability to train entry-level teaching staff to become early childhood professionals. VistaKids Computer Program Contact Since November 1992, VistaKids Computer Literacy Program, sponsored by VISTA Magazine, a Latino publication with headquarters in Coral Gables, Florida, has been operating at Shenandoah Elementary school in Dade County. The program’s mission is to help low-income Latino children pre-K through first grade get an early introduction to the world of computers; boost their reading, writing, and math skills; and improve their sense of competence and self-esteem through the use of computers and sophisticated software. The eight-week program works with 36 children at a time, and 240 children participate during the school year and summer school. Fred Estrada, chief executive officer of the magazine, began the program after he visited his daughter, who operated three Future-Kid franchises in Denver. Estrada was impressed with the Future-Kid concept and the learning curve of the middle-class Anglo children in the program. One of the most pressing issues for Latino youth is the combination of high dropout rates and school underachievement, combined with a lack of access to technology. Estrada and his wife, Tere, adopted the project and became the driving force behind it, organizing the program and monitoring its progress. The Shenandoah Elementary school is 98 percent Latino. Most of the students come from Latin American countries and have no English-language skills. Through the program, they receive encouragement to stay in school. Some enter the program with a very low level of understanding. After a few weeks they are able to understand enough to complete every level of the program. Children who cannot complete the course in the proposed time may continue with the program until they have finished all 10 lessons. |