Help Us Eliminate Learning Loss for Latino/a/x Students!
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4 year-old Eduardo does preschool at home with mom!
Our mission is to partner and advocate with Latino parents, schools and the community to ensure equitable education outcomes.
We made it! We are thankful! We are grateful! It’s been an exhausting, emotional nine months but together we overcame, forged ahead, accomplished several goals and saw some positive impact on Latino/a/x families, even during their worst of times.
We have had several emergencies and a few tragedies among the extended families of our staff and volunteers because so many are frontline workers. SKCE is blessed to be able to offer all of our staff the ability to work from home most of the time.
But another emergency is the learning loss that our students are suffering for every day they aren’t in the classroom!
We are very excited to have been able to move to a larger facility in the same building in the middle of the pandemic in August. This has meant that our offices, conference rooms, classrooms and community center spaces are huge, full of fresh air from an excellent HVAC system, with large HEPA air purifiers in every room and enough space for people to work at least 8-10 feet apart and no more than three people in any room.
AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, we can bring students and families into the building for in-person learning andWE NEED YOUR HELP.
We have lots of programs happening online and on the phone, including our Parent Leadership Group that has had a significant impact on our school district leadership and systems change. The parent leaders have consistently engaged with school board members on Zoom and advocated for systems change. They have a strong working relationship with the superintendent and department administrators, working with them to remove barriers for our Latino/a/x children and youth from Spanish speaking families who are struggling greatly with online education.
To highlight one more accomplishment, our Parent-Led Preschool is set up in the huge community space where each family will have their own table and chairs, art supplies, games, books and toys that they can keep separate from others and store in their cubbies or bring back to class each week. But parents are still afraid, so we are doing it on Zoom right now.
Can you imagine 20 parents on their phones or computers learning and discussing preschool at home?! They set the camera down where we can see them playing with the materials we delivered according to the instructions and understanding of child development. Then they come back together and share their experiences. Our facilitators—moms themselves—give individual attention to each mom, suggesting ways of talking and doing activities with their young children. The parents are keeping a log of their activities and awards are awaiting them at the end!
Lucia, one of our Early Learning staff—a trainer, mentor and coach—said it best: “What we do with one parent and child impacts the whole family and the next generation.”
And now for the ask!
You know the drill. We join hundreds of nonprofits doing good work for the community during this historical pandemic needing support.
But our pitch to you is this: Among the crises we are all facing, the threat of education learning loss and what will happen as a result to thousands upon thousands of Latino/a/x children in the Salem Keizer School District, is almost heart stopping for us. We are doubling down, building capacity, hiring more staff and are determined to reach every family possible in the effort of helping them get on track and stay on track with attendance, homework, reading and more. And we do this by teaching and mentoring each parent, and connecting them with the resources they need, including mental health counseling, and the right people in the district to help them.
Use your $300 DIRECT TAX DEDUCTION for charitable giving!
We are very excited to have been able to move to a larger facility in the same building in the middle of the pandemic in August. This has meant that our offices, conference rooms, classrooms and community center spaces are huge, full of fresh air from an excellent HVAC system, with large HEPA air purifiers in every room and enough space for people to work at least 8-10 feet apart and no more than three people in any room.
up that has had a significant impact on our school district leadership and systems change. The parent leaders have consistently engaged with school board members on Zoom and advocated for systems change. They have a strong working relationship with the superintendent and department administrators, working with them to remove barriers for our Latino/a/x children and youth from Spanish speaking families who are struggling greatly with online education.
