OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
We have learned alongside our Community Partners as they have faced challenges, overcome barriers, and achieved extraordinary successes. Find out more about each project and the outcomes below.
YEAR
2012
GRANT CATEGORY
Education
GRANT AMOUNT
$103,600
Organization:
AVANCE-Austin
Project Title:
Parent Child Education in Del Valle
Project Description:
AVANCE serves low-income predominately Spanish-speaking families with enhancing parenting skills, promoting children’s long-term educational success, and breaking the family’s trans-generational cycle of poverty.
The nationally recognized intensive 9-month Parent-Child Education Program offers weekly 4-hour classes for Spanish speaking parents of children from birth to three years. Bi-lingual and culturally competent professionals provide information on topics such as parenting, children’s cognitive, social, physical, and emotional development, health and nutrition, accessing community resources, and age appropriate lessons for children. Their holistic approach includes food, transportation, and home visits to parents who are socially isolated. AVANCE has provided service to the community for 15 years to break the cycle of poverty and deliver children in poverty to school ready for success.
With Impact Austin’s grant, the program will expand to Del Valle and impact 50 individuals (20 parents and 30 children) in its pilot year.
Grant Status:
AVANCE specified four primary goals for the program:
raising the level of understanding of child development and parenting skills;
improving interactive reading;
encouraging parents to pursue their own education; and
making certain that participants are satisfied with the program.
Despite the unanticipated challenges arising from the decentralized structure of the Del Valle community, the organization exceeded the first three goals and only missed the fourth goal by 1%.
AVANCE successfully served 106 parents and children in the Del Valle community. Ninety-one percent of participants reported having increased knowledge of child development and parenting skills, surpassing the initial success rate of 80%; 91% were reading to their child at least three times per week by the end of the program, exceeding the goal of 75%; 100% of participants planned to pursue additional education, exceeding the initial goal of 80%; and 99% of participants reported feeling satisfied with the program with 61% of participants returning for more services, up from 53% in FY2011-2012, reinforcing the value and satisfaction with the program.
As a note, these results were based on pre- and post-testing carried out on all Parent-Child Education program graduates including those in Dove Springs, St. John’s and Manor in addition to Del Valle.