Trauma-Informed Early Childhood Education for Low-Income Latino Children https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2018/trauma-informed-early-childhood-education-for-low-income-latino-children-1 https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Trauma-Informed Early Childhood Education for Low-Income Latino Children

Additional Information
Used for	Support from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation would help us support and expand our culturally-appropriate, trauma-informed care in Adelante Mujeres’ Early Childhood Education (ECE) Program throughout Washington County, Oregon. With the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation’s partnership, we will accomplish the following: 1. Expand our ECE Program to include 150 children, an increase from 104. 2. Continue to provide culturally-responsive, bilingual ECE programming to ensure children are ready for kindergarten. 3. Increase the number of Latino parents who are practicing evidence-based parenting skills and behaviors as they become their child’s primary teacher.
Benefits	Latino families in Washington County are disproportionately affected by chronic, stressful circumstances that can increase the potential for familial trauma. Research suggests that infants born to women who experienced four or more childhood adversities were two to five times more likely to have poor physical and emotional health outcomes by 18 months of age. Our ECE services are responsive and appropriate to each child and family’s ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage and experiences. We are cultivating resilience among the children we serve by strengthening relationships with trusted and caring adults, enhancing their social-emotional competence, increasing parents’ skills for communication and supportive learning, and teaching children and parents to learn and grow together.
Proposal Description	Adelante Mujeres (Women Rise Up) has a rich history of successfully engaging the low-income Latino and immigrant community by providing educational resources and acting as a forum for community advocacy. We focus on the Latino population who embody a multicultural community from Latin America. Adelante Mujeres’ mission is to provide holistic education and empowerment opportunities to low-income Latina women and their families to ensure full participation and active leadership in the community. We served over 8,000 individuals in 2017 with comprehensive, life-changing services. We believe that all people have the innate capacity for growth and transformation. We serve families through Education and Microenterprise programs. Approximately 98% of participants are low or extremely low income, the majority are female, and an estimated 90% are first-generation immigrants. As a culturally-specific organization, our program staff (86% are Latino) reflects the community we serve and shares in their passion for eradicating social and economic inequities. Adelante Mujeres’ Early Childhood Education (ECE) Program is a bilingual program that teaches early literacy skills and builds kindergarten readiness among Latino immigrant pre-school aged children in Washington County. This program is rooted in holistic instruction and focuses on the whole health of the child and family. We know that children suffer behavioral, cognitive, and social-emotional consequences when they experience Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and that Latinos are experiencing ACEs at a disproportionate rate. A research brief by Child Trends reports that “a positive, supportive relationship with one or more adults is of primary importance” in increasing resilience to situations that may cause trauma. Our ECE teachers have received trauma-informed training in partnership with Washington County’s Department of Human Services. As well, in response to the specific barriers in our community which are creating trauma (high levels of poverty, an average parental education of the 6th grade, domestic violence, and the current hostile political climate), we developed the ECE Program to focus on the whole health of the child while providing support to parents with the intention to reduce trauma as a barrier to children’s learning. One-hundred percent of our education staff are Latino, providing a culturally-competent approach that is often missing in other preschool programs, creating greater barriers for Latino families. We have designed a set of criteria for working with Latino children in order to best respond to the educational and trauma crisis within our community: • Exploration: Children learn best through exploration of their surroundings including the natural world.  • Focus: Children from socially-disadvantaged communities require focused learning environments.   • Language: An affirmation of one’s native language and culture is necessary for positive self-identity and efficacy.  • Cultural Adaptation: The capacity to adapt to multiple cultures, including new language acquisition, facilitates community cohesion and problem-solving.  • Role Modeling: Children learn through social observation; all people serve as role models.  • Parenting Support: Parents are their children’s first teachers; however, parents need support to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources to confidently perform this role.  The goal of ECE is to remove barriers to learning in order to prepare children for educational success. With the support of the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation, ECE will deliver the following components to low-income Latino children and their families: • Classroom: The Scholastic Early Childhood curriculum supports group activities for literacy and dual language-building instruction. Instruction is also based on the child-directed Creative Curriculum approach of social competence through active learning. Our teachers read books in both English and Spanish while volunteers support English language development by leading other activities and encouraging the children's use of English while eating, washing up and during free play. Dual-language education teaches children the importance of ethnic pride. Research shows that learning ethnic pride provides protection against trauma. Working individually with the teachers and volunteers also helps children build positive relationships with adults who care about them, cultivating trusting relationships and increasing their sense of safety. • Parenting Together Time (PT): Mothers and children participate in interactive literacy activities including music, nutrition and exploring nature. Families participate in a Book Bag program providing four bilingual stories with accompanying activities each week to read and do at home. Parents keep journals on observations of their children, noting children's interests, responses, and skill development. Children and parents are also introduced to topics on nutrition through classroom activities, cooking projects and trips to the community garden, grocery stores, and the Forest Grove Farmers Market. PT teaches important communication and parenting skills so parents can be fully supportive of their child’s education. • Family Engagement: Home visits support parents in a number of key ways: help resolve discipline problems; troubleshoot ways to create time for nightly reading with their children; assess how "literacy-friendly" a household is in terms of access to literacy materials and a dedicated place for literacy activities. Strong family cohesion is an important factor in increasing resilience among children. Many of our parents also experience trauma and teaching positive parent-child interaction within the home helps to reduce both parental and childhood trauma. We would like to request $10,000 to support and expand culturally-appropriate, trauma-informed care in Adelante Mujeres’ Early Childhood Education Program. We are currently in the process of building three new ECE classrooms at our office in Forest Grove and plan to begin enrolling children during fall 2019. This expansion will provide access to bilingual, culturally-appropriate learning for low-income Latino infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in Forest Grove. This expansion will include two Adult Education classrooms and an outdoor playground in order to foster positive and supportive parent involvement in their child’s learning. In 2018, Adelante Mujeres’ ECE Program received the Lynne Angland Award recognizing the organizations who improve safety, quality, affordable and access to child services in Oregon. The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation will specifically support the programmatic services implemented by the Early Childhood Education Teachers and Manager, and the materials needed for the seven ECE classrooms in 2019.