GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT:
All
Aboard Family Literacy Program
www.all-aboard.org
Tucked on a side street in East Little Havana sits an unassuming
portable with an exceptional purpose.
Inside, the
All Aboard Even Start Family Literacy Program offers a
comprehensive family literacy curriculum to families with
children ages 0 – 7 residing in the Riverside Elementary School
boundaries. The program focuses on improving the children’s
school readiness and success, while simultaneously supporting
the language and literacy development of the parents. The
ultimate goal of the CPC/All-Aboard Even Start Family Literacy
Program is to provide parents with the academic foundation that
will lead to self-sufficiency and ensure that their young
children acquire the skills to achieve and maintain grade
levels.
Four
times a week during this past school year, seventeen women
dropped off their children at Riverside Elementary or the nearby
Catholic Charities’ Sagrada Familia Child Care Center and
continued over to the portable for English language proficiency
classes. The four-hour classes, which were led by an Adult Basic
Education instructor, not only helped the mothers improve their
literacy skills, but to also become familiar with accessing
medical services, the public library system, Florida history and
household budgeting.
The work
paid off. This May, six parents achieved
enough English language proficiency to be administered the GED
examination, two mothers attained the Child Development
Accreditation
(CDA) and are working as early child care employees at a local
center, and five mothers completed the forty (40) hour CDA
certificate course.
Not only do
reading levels and job skills increase, so do the mothers’
consciousness and confidence. This spring,
three mothers were elected PTA officers at Riverside Elementary
and will serve during the 2006-2007 school year. Just several
weeks ago, the mother’s elevated their leadership skills to a
new level when, upon learning that the program’s funding might
get cut, a group of 15 All Aboard mothers made a visit to
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro’s office and made
a presentation about the importance of the program. The lobby
visit and the families’ success stories convinced Barreiro to
make a visit to see the program first hand on June 28.
“The
program helps us get to know places, to live more,” explained
Aura Morales, one of the mothers in the All Aboard program. “Our
group has unity and we’re all more involved in our children’s
education.”
All Aboard
is just one of 37 dynamic Women’s Fund grantee partners whose
stories demonstrate the dynamic work taking place to improve the
lives of women and girls in Miami-Dade.
FACTS ABOUT
ALL ABOARD EVEN START FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM
-
All
Aboard is a part of the Children’s Psychiatric Center, Inc.,
a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to
providing a continuum of care to children.
-
According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 42% of
adults residing in Miami-Dade County are at the lowest
levels of literacy (well above state and national averages
of approximately 21-23).
-
Children
who read at home score 80% better on reading tests than
those who don’t, according to CPC/All-Aboard.
-
Participating families of the All Aboard program must have a
parent/guardian attend the free ESOL (English for Second
Language) classes, a monthly home visit, a weekly Parent
Education Class and a weekly PACT (parent and child time)
activity.
-
Riverside Elementary was built in 1914 and by 1927 it was
the largest elementary school in the State of Florida. 99%
of the student population qualifies for free or reduced
lunch, and live within the city of boundaries of Miami.
-
The
program uses all the services offered through the
CPC/All-Aboard Educational Mobile Unit, or “the classroom on
wheels” with four individualized computer workstations, four
one-on-one tutoring stations and group reading and
presentation area.
-
There
are currently thirty-two (32) families enrolled in the
program and a waiting list that is constantly growing.
