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This document is a compendium of descriptions of programs throughout the United States dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives and educational development of Latino youth and children. In reviewing these programs, some common threads were found that define successful programs for Latino children and youth. The successful programs have adequate funding and incorporate Latino culture into services and programs consciously and explicitly. They provide services in Spanish through dedicated staff with a significant Latino presence. Successful programs include youth in the planning and implementation process and involve parents and families in the development and implementation of programs. They are likely to offer comprehensive services and case management. Their programs are based on research, rely on capable leadership, and use program evaluation as an essential step in the program process. The 73 programs described are grouped in categories related to the main groups served: (1) early childhood; (2) elementary; (3) middle and high school; (4) college; (5) youth; (6) families; (7) disabilities; and (8) community. (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality.
Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy.

FOREWORD
On August 2, 1999, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted a White House Convening on Hispanic Children and Youth. The Convening examined the many opportunities and challenges facing Latino young people particularly in their early childhood development and educational attainment, and highlighted promising efforts across the country to increase the opportunities and address the challenges. rr his publication is a brief compendium of programs throughout the nation dedicated to I making a positive difference in the lives and educational development of Latino children and youth. Focusing on Latino youth is important because the Latino population is large, growing, and relatively young, but has lower educational achievement than other groups in the nation. rr he White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, I working with colleagues in Latino community-based organizations, educators and youth advisors throughout the nation, began an ongoing process of identifying and cataloging programs that "work" for Latino youth. Some of the programs, recommended by our colleagues, were created specifically to serve young Hispanics, while other programs serving broader populations or focusing on raising student achievement in general have shown strong benefits for Latino young people. We include evidence of effectiveness for each program but did not create a rigorous methodology for evaluation, because we know many of the programs making a difference in our community concentrate their limited funds on direct service provision rather than evaluation or marketing.
While the programs listed here only scratch the surface of the many activities taking place, it is our hope that highlighting "what works" for Latino youth across the country can facilitate and foster new support for innovative community-based programs that attempt to improve educational attainment for our community. n reviewing the programs for this publication, we found some "common threads" Icharacteristicsthat define successful programs for Latino children and youth. Programs that "work" for Latino youth Have adequate funding for programs and activitiesHaving sufficient organizational and program resources is essential to effective service provision to Latino youth. Incorporate Latino culture into services and programs consciously and explicitlyIntegrating Latino culture and cultural awareness into services and programs helps Latino youth navigate differences between the culture of the home, the community, and the school. This helps Latino youth deal with the challenges posed by peer pressure and the experience of racism, while imparting a positive view of their own culture, a healthy respect for others, and a positive educational experience.
Incorporate and provide services in SpanishThe bicultural and bilingual component in most of the programs helps adults and children communicate better and become familiar with their language, culture, and heritage. Providing services in the native language fosters an appreciation for other cultures, builds self-esteem, and includes parents in the service delivery and youth development process.
Have dedicated and professional staff with a significant Latino presenceA professional Latino staff is central to designing programs that recognize and address the particular needs of Latino youth. Latino staff are often better equipped to understand the dynamics of the home, school, and community environment for Latino youth, and the processes and pressures that they are going through, and can help mentor youth to develop appropriate behaviors and responses with regard to the situations that they face.
Include youth in the processMany programs provide youth with opportunities to make a contribution and participate in the design of civic and community activities. Youth perform best when there are clear rules and expectations, when they feel central to the program, when they have a stake in the design, development, and implementation of the rules, and when they receive acknowledgment for their contributions and clear rewards.
Provide client-centered programs that involve parents and are sensitive to family circumstancesMany program personnel make an effort to understand family circumstances and establish communication with parents. Parental education and involvement are important because they give the parents an understanding of the cumulative nature of the child development process, and information about program design, management, and goals. A sense of inclusion and ownership of the programs also empowers parents and gives them some of the tools they need to become better care givers and assist their children.
Focus explicitly on providing tools and opportunities for child and youth developmentMany programs have discovered that opportunities for small group work and self-directed learning are essential to the development of youth and they try to ensure that peer group activities and leadership opportunities are available.
Offer comprehensive services and case managementEffective programs try to offer a package of services to children, youth, and their families in order to help them overcome their obstacles and needs in a comprehensive way. While an individual may enter a program for a particular need, programs often find youth have multiple related needs and confront many challenges. Description: Reach Out and Read is a nationally recognized literacy program designed by the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical. The program incorporates literacy into the well-child visits of children ages six months to twelve years in an effort to cut through the barriers to literacy and help create a population of children who reach school age healthy, safe and ready to learn.
Services: At each visit with the pediatrician, the child is given a new age-appropriate book in English or Spanish to take home. This visit also involves discussion with parents and guardians about the importance of reading to children of all ages and about multicultural and health-related themes. During the developmental assessment portion of the well-child visit, the book is used to demonstrate gross and fine motor skills, attention, and recognition of objects and expressive and receptive language skills. A Story Corner also exists in the Fair Haven Community Health Center (FHCHC) waiting area. Community volunteers read stories to children and coach parents in reading aloud to their own children. Children of all ages are encouraged to take home any book, which they find appealing. Parents are assisted in making contact with literacy or English as second language programs if necessary. The program also serves children ages six to twelve who come in for routine physical exams and for maintenance of chronic illnesses such as asthma and diabetes. Complementing this project, the FHCHC also has Project Shine, a program designed to enhance healthy child development and support working families by improving their access to quality health care. Comprehensive services now include home visits, a child care resource room at FHCHC to serve as a lending library, and a phone advice line for child care providers to ask about health, safety, and child development.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In a random survey of 62 families with young children who receive their health care at FHCHC, the center found that 33 percent of families did not own any books. FHCHC is the source of health care in the neighborhood of New Haven, where over 10,000 patients make over 50,000 visits per year. Currently, 1,500 children five years and younger are served by Expanda Su Mente y Lea. Results of a follow-up survey of the families interviewed before the initiation of the program indicate that 95 percent of them now have children's books in their homes. Initially, only 56 percent of these families read aloud, and now 72 percent read aloud. The results of a recent survey of one-and two-year-olds reveal that 85 percent of families read to their 1 children. Almost all of these families report that the program has had a significant impact on their reading habits. HEAD  Mission: Region 19 Education Service Center (ESC) Head Start strives to empower children, families and staff through lifelong learning and thus make a positive impact on these people and the people around them.
Description: The program believes in adhering to high principles, and in cultivating the social, emotional, linguistic, educational, physical and mental development of those served. The organization values creativity and participatory decision-making. It is a dynamic, evolving high-quality system, which fosters leadership and positive interdependence between the staff and collaborating partners.
Services: The program uses a state-adopted core curriculum and assessments such as the Denver II, Davis Observation Checklist of Texas, and Preschool Behavior checklist. In addition, the program provides classroom volunteer training; a family development center that provides General Education Diploma courses, as well as English as a Second Language and parenting classes; a Male Involvement Program that is designed to increase the number of male participants in the Head Start Program; and a career development component that trains parents for employment in the child development field as administrative assistants and certified drivers.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In a customer survey conducted in March 1999, about 86 percent stated that they strongly agreed and about 12 percent said they agree to recommend the Head Start program to others. Kindergarten readiness is assessed through several means. Children are expected to achieve 80 percent mastery of the Education Expected Competencies in all areas of development. Pre-and post-testing is conducted on a yearly basis utilizing the Denver II Survey Instrument to assess progress and developmental level in the areas of personal/social development, language development, and fine and gross motor development. At the beginning of the school year, assessments are conducted in the areas of speech and language utilizing the Davis Observation Checklist of Texas, and Mental Health utilizing the Preschool Behavior Checklist. The result of this battery of early assessments assists teaching staff in the initiation of services for children with special needs. Mission: The purpose of the La Clase Magica is to provide children with rich intellectual and social experience that will promote their all-around development, academic skills, and ability to work and play effectively with other people. La Clase Magica accomplishes this by matching tools to its goals. For example, computers are used to carry out most of the participating children's activities.
Description: La Clase Magica is a collaboration between residents of the Eden Gardens community and a research group in partnership with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The program provides the opportunity for university students to work with the children of Eden Gardens in a collaborative fashion as "amigos" while receiving college credits. La Clase Magica is a bilingual/bicultural manifestation of the "Fifth Dimension Program," the core activity of an eight-team research consortium organized by the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (LCHC) at UCSD.
Services: La Clase Magica makes educational activity relevant to the ethnic composition of the learning setting by incorporating the varied linguistic and cultural resources available to Latino children in this program. The program is a mechanism to study and promote bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism in an educational setting outside the school. La Clase Magica provides a virtual culture of collaborative learning based in community institutions such as the city library, youth clubs, and day care centers. Conceptually, La Clase Magica is a make-believe world where children embark on an adventure loosely based on the game Dungeons and Dragons. Children voluntarily participate in this rule-governed activity after school hours. The motivational features of play, fantasy, and peer interaction are used to promote collaborative learning, so that they are actively involved in their own. Adults guide and facilitate the children's development. The individual games provide structure for the children to follow. The basic voice of authority in the system is that of the wizard--this equalizes the role of the adults and children at the same time that it encourages children to reflect on their learning when they write letters to him/her describing their progress through the maze.
Evidence of Effectiveness: La Clase Magica, begun in 1989, was instrumental in the creation of UC Links, a new consortium of university-community partnerships designed to bring about change in the educational experiences of minority students. Additional data on program effectiveness was unavailable at press time.
integrity via the program's bilingual/bicultural emphasis. ESL appraisal was used to assess parents on their ESL skills, which indicated, in a pretest, that proficiency in English was quite low for most of the parents. When parents were asked what they were learning in Even Start, they indicated that they were learning skills consistent with LIU MES program goals, such as how to be a better parent or learning English. MES children evidenced significant improvements in their school readiness skills. Specifically, significant gains were evident in English, auditory vocabulary skills and cognitive school readiness skills. In addition, significant progress was made during the program year in the areas of home visit structure, availability of adult educational assessment data, and parents' participation in adult education programs. PARENT  Mission: Parent and Child Together (PACT) fosters second language enrichment, community awareness, and pride in heritage. Literacy and empowerment to participate in the community of those whose primary language is other than English are paramount in the program. The special targeted interest are preschoolers and children currently enrolled in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program.
Description: Established because ESL students lacked the rich background in English to be successful in academics, even though they could test out of the formal ESL program, PACT uses a thematic, interdisciplinary approach to educate and improve awareness for the Spanish-speaking population.
Services: A multi-generation, hands-on method allows parents and children to learn from each other and opens communication within the family. By using various modalities to shelter the English lessons, even those with limited vocabulary can participate and gain knowledge in the program. Field trips and special service providers make services more accessible and clients more comfortable with using the services of the school and community.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Students who have been pre-and post-tested show a great retention of content the following year. Parents report increased use of English in the home and a greater comfort level dealing with community and school interactions. There also has been a great increase in parental participation in school. Mission: SER's mission is to provide bilingual, literacy-focused child development programs that guide and prepare children toward success in primary and secondary education.
Description: SER is a pre-school program that provides developmental, affordable, and nurturing childcare in a child-centered, bilingual and multicultural learning environment for children ages 6 weeks to 5 1/2 years from low-income families.
Services: This center provides certified teachers and on-site in-depth training, parentteacher conferences, screening for developmental delays, an immunization clinic, field trips, a United States Department of Agriculture nutrition program, vision and hearing screening, and senior volunteers.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In the past two fiscal years, the center has served approximately 250 children each year. SER sponsored four at-risk youth to participate in an international competition centered on invention, problem solving, and debate in the fields of robotics, mathematics, astronomy, physics, and technology. In 1997, the BEAM (Biology, Electronics, and Mechanics) Team won second place in the competition in India and returned in 1998 to win the first-place award competing against 42 countries, including Russia, Canada, India, Italy, England, Pakistan, and Indonesia. In 1998-99, 81.9 percent of participating at-risk youth passed their GED tests, and 77.6 percent of those passed on their first attempt. To date, the SER Academy has enrolled 52 foster youth. Of these, 86 percent are presently employed in permanent full-time jobs at an average hourly wage of $9.50. These graduates also enjoy the benefits of full-time employment. At the Rocky Mountain SER Best Career Centers 90 percent of the out-ofschool youths taking their GED test pass on their first attempt. Description: Academia del Pueblo and Project Success are community-based afterschool and summer enrichment programs offered by the University of St. Thomas Hispanic Pre-College Project. They are designed to help students in grades one through eight get a positive start in school and build an academic and personal foundation for success. Youths, parents, families, and the community also are partners in this process, which provides educational services to youths and parents, outreach and support to families, collaboration with schools and other community agencies, advocacy, and policy development.
Services: Academia del Pueblo aims to reduce early academic failure and increase retention among Hispanic students in the first through fifth grades by using appropriate teaching methods such as a language experience approach, workstations, and small group and hands-on activities. Project Success is designed to provide students in the sixth through eighth grades with career and cultural awareness, academic enrichment activities, homework assistance, personal development, motivation, and skills to succeed in school. Another program of the Hispanic Pre-College Project is Parents as Partners, which is the parent component of Academia del Pueblo and Project Success. This educational program recognizes that parents are their children's first teachers and is designed to provide training assistance and support to Latino parents. Through bilingual monthly workshops, the program concentrates on teaching effective parenting skills and reinforcement techniques that will help parents strengthen their role as active partners in their children's education by creating a home environment that supports learning. Childcare and transportation are available during workshops.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The Project serves 85 Latino students per year. Both Academia del Pueblo and Project Success focus on "hands-on" and "minds-on" activities in math and science. These programs have been shown to improve reading, writing, and problem-solving skills, build self-esteem and self-confidence, and develop skills and habits that promote success in school and cooperative learning. Instruction is provided in both English and Spanish. Evaluations conducted between 1997 and 1999 indicate that the program has been successful in meeting its multiple goals. Services: The Alliance Schools create after-school enrichment programs and summer programs. The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) addresses disparities in educational achievement and includes components of parental involvement to serve low-achieving schools. The key is for the programs to be flexible enough to accommodate the different schedule of students' parents, teachers, and school staff. While each school's program is different, most programs offer some combination of the following: Tutoring and computer classes; recreational games and organized sports; arts, crafts, music, and dance; and academic enrichment and alternative learning activities. Schools working with IAF organizations have implemented academic enrichment programs that challenge students to learn in different ways and connect what students learn in class to hands-on activities and projects after school.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Evaluation of the program in Austin showed that 96 percent of the parents and teachers involved would "strongly recommend" the program. Over 90 percent of the past participants would like to sign up again for the following year. Zavala Elementary is now a Texas Education Agency (TEA) Recognized school as well as a National Blue Ribbon School. Parents liked the onsite coordination of the program as opposed to having it at a local recreation center. They also felt that the program taught skills and behavior that carried over to both the home and the classroom. The program was free, yet it provided a safe environment for children after school, and children could interact closely with the instructors and with each other. IAF organizers and leaders have found the program offers an avenue for parents to become more involved in the school and in the organizations. Through their participation, parents as well as teachers, learn how to become part of a broad-based constituency dedicated to improving opportunities for youth in their communities. Additional data on program effectiveness was unavailable at press time 8 Mission: The intent of this early intervention program is to enable bilingual students to develop reading and writing strategies. The effective and efficient use of these strategies makes it possible for them to work within average group settings in bilingual classrooms.
Description: Descubriendo La Lectura (DLL) is based on the Reading Recovery program for Spanish speaking children. First-grade students who are receiving their initial literacy instruction in Spanish and who have demonstrated they are at risk of not learning how to read and write in their native language are eligible for the program. Reading Recovery in Spanish (Descubriendo La Lectura) is an early intervention program designed to assist the lowest achieving children in first grade who are having difficulty learning to read and write. As with its English counterpart, its aim is to enable students who may be experiencing difficulties in first-grade classrooms to read and write within the average band of their peers. DLL was developed to provide strong support for early Spanish literacy by using the same proven enrichment strategy with Spanish speakers that was being used with English speakers.
Services: Children are selected for the Reading Recovery program based on teacher judgment and measures of assessment form Clay's Observation Survey of Early Literacy achievement. The student's regular classroom instruction is supplemented with daily one-to-one 30-minute lessons for 12-20 weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher. Reading Recovery students participate in programs characterized by individual instruction and accelerated learning. Daily instruction continues until the student can read within or above the class average and has demonstrated the use of independent reading and writing strategies. The student's program is then "discontinued" providing the opportunity for another child to enter the Reading Recovery program. After 12-20 weeks, most attain an average or better reading level and continue to make progress with regular classroom instruction. In the Program for Educators, Reading Recovery educators participate in a full year of university-based training followed by extensive, continuing professional development at the local, regional, and national levels.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In order to establish the effectiveness of the program, many individual districts followed their students beyond first grade. In the spring of 1997, and again in 1998, a study was conducted of former DLL students now in second or third grade. Results indicate that two percent of these students met or exceeded the average band on Spanish Text Reading and 75 percent met or exceeded the average band on the Spanish Assessment of Basic Education/2 (SABE/2) test. For third-graders, 93 percent met or exceeded the average band on the Spanish Text reading and 79 percent met or exceeded the average band on the SABE-3 test. These results provide evidence that the DLL program is having a positive impact on Spanish speaking students. Studies conducted demonstrate that at the end of the first grade, DLL children had not only caught up to the comparison group on the Spanish Observation Survey, but surpassed them. Differences were statistically significant on all tasks except text reading. DLL students also significantly outperformed the control group on all measures. Mission: HOSTS' mission is to create tutoring programs for at risk students using a mentoring approach.
Description: HOSTS (Help One Student to Succeed) Corporation is the nation's largest and oldest academic structured mentoring program. It targets low-achieving students K-12, who need assistance in language arts, math, Spanish, language arts, or school readiness. HOSTS matches students with trained business and community volunteer mentors as well as cross-age mentors. It helps create tutoring programs for at-risk students using a mentoring approach. The program consists of several components: Developmental, diagnostic, prescriptive, individualized, and structured mentoring.
Services: Students are allowed toprogress at their own accelerated pace under the guidance of the mentor and supervision of the teacher. HOSTS provides an in-depth diagnostic survey that identifies the student's learning gaps. HOSTS programs create personalized lesson plans that align with school districts' standards, resources, and philosophies. These plans identify benchmarks, establish objectives, accentuate strengths, target weaknesses, provide continuous feedback, and prescribe lesson plans, which enable the mentor to assist the student in achieving his or her goals. HOSTS 10 2i programs provide tools and strategies to individualize instruction for students. Many students fall behind because they lack potential or even because they lack a desire to learn. HOSTS programs become the role models at a crucial phase in a student's development. These programs provide schools with a structure and accountability for greater community involvement. Mentors follow a lesson plan prepared by the teacher, generated from the HOSTS database that acts as a road map for motivating students through a series of activities and learning assignments.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Students in HOSTS-structured mentoring programs have consistently demonstrated academic gains of two grade levels for every nine months in the program. During its eight-year history, HOSTS has served over 500,000 students and is used in over 1,000 HOSTS sites in 41 states, the District of Columbia and El Salvador. Mission: Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) is committed to upgrading the quality of education for all students through the empowerment of students, their families, and their communities.
Description: IDRA is a vanguard training, research and development organization that works with communities to make schools work for all children. IDRA has been a child advocacy organization for more than 25 years that exists to create schools that work for all children, particularly children who are poor, minority or limited-English-proficient. It is a recognized leader and innovator in educational equity as evidenced by two decades of operating a desegregation assistance center and various other research and technical assistance centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education. IDRA conducts research and development activities; creates, implements and administers innovative education programs; and provides teacher, administrator, and parent training and technical assistance.
Services: Several areas of focus include: Appropriate language instruction, dropout prevention, family involvement, early childhood education, migrant education, effectivepractices, teacher preparation, and equity in education for all students. IDRA facilitates the development of new linkages within school districts between families, community organizations, institutions of higher education and the business sector. In creating new ways of collaborating, communities and educators are able to refashion their schools to work for all children, families, and communities.

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Evidence of effectiveness: IDRA has changed the face of education at the local, state, regional, and national levels. IDRA propelled the reform of state funding systems, designed and implemented school-based programs that cut dropout rates by 90 percent, developed programs that work for young learners, fostered student and teacher leadership development, and conducted research that informs policy reform in such critical areas as school finance equalization, bilingual education, dropout prevention, adult literacy, and migrant education. Each year, IDRA provides training to more than 30,000 teachers, administrators, parents, and students and provides technical assistance to more than 1,500 schools, districts and other groups. In 15 years, IDRA's Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program has made a difference for more than 74,500 children, families and educators. MIGRANT  Services: Parental involvement in workshops, parent-teacher conferences, and other school/community activities are crucial elements of the program. Children are provided food services, health screening and extended day-care. Migrant Achievement Resource provides individually designed tutoring, homework assistance, and recreational and cultural activities for migrant students at local elementary schools. In addition, Migrant Advocacy and Peer Counseling programs provide migrant students with individualized supplemental services for academic success, guidance, attendance, and extracurricular activities. Migrant Academic Planning and Awareness meets the needs of migrant students in grades 6-12 through customized services. They include personalized educational blueprints, limited pull-out tutorials, extended-day tutorials, peer counseling, and seminars and workshops designed to teach students how to resolve conflict without violence and how to foster and maintain a positive attitude toward education and lifelong learning. The Migrant Education Consortium for Higher Achievement Program is a collaborative effort between the Miami-Dade Migrant Education Program, Barry University, and school districts in five states. The program promotes greater continuity of curriculum for migrant students across school districts and assists migrant students in achieving high academic standards through innovative uses of technology.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The latest program evaluation from the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Office of Educational Accountability reveals that student achievement, attendance and promotion rates increased as well as accrual of additional high school credits necessary for graduation and/or promotion. In addition, program outreach to parents increased their level of involvement in their children's education. An evaluation conducted demonstrated that: 54 percent of the students maintained or improved their attendance rate; 65 percent of students in grades 10 through 12 improved their overall grade-point average; 93 percent of the students in the evaluation group in grades K-12 were promoted to the next grade level; 89 percent of the students in the evaluation group in grades 9-12 remained in school; 67 percent of the migrant student population that dropped out of school in grades 9-12 re-enrolled in alternative programs.

PROJECT GRAD (TX)
National MisSion: The goal of the program is to find and implement the most cost-effective research-based prescription for addressing the educational needs of the inner-city school system. Project GRAD's long-term goal is to reform Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade schools so that every kindergarten student is insulated form academic failure, eventually graduates from high school, and pursues higher education.
Description: Initiated in the Houston Independent School District in 1993-94, Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) is a school-community collaborative to improve the instructional quality and culture of at-risk feeder systems of schools. Project GRAD is a not-for-profit organization currently partnered with 24 schools impacting over 17,000 Hispanic and African American children. Project GRAD seeks to prove that the problems facing inner-city school systems can be overcome with the right resources, strategies, and school-community collaboration. The philosophy guiding the program is that all Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade students can be effective learners, regardless of demographic background, if appropriate and timely programmatic interventions are infused into the primary grades.
Services: Project GRAD offers both readiness and learning support services through several programs. Communities In Schools is a non-profit, dropout prevention program and social service agency that provides guidance, counseling, community outreach, and family case-management services to at-risk children. Success For All is a schoolwide reading and writing program for students that emphasizes early intervention to ensure that every student succeeds in reading. The program provides cooperative learning techniques, tutors, eight-week assessments, pre-school and kindergarten instruction, family support teams, staff support teams and professional development for teachers. Consistency Management Program is a comprehensive instructional program tailored to respond to individual campus needs and builds on shared responsibility for learning and classroom organization between teachers and students. University of Chicago School Math Project works to improve school mathematics by providing students with the following courses during a six-year period: Transition mathematics; algebra; geometry; functions; statistics and trigonometry; and pre-calculus and discrete mathematics. Mission: Project SEED strives to increase students' academic self-confidence, develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and raise their mathematics achievement levels. Creating a cadre of students with sound mathematical backgrounds, superb critical thinking skills and the confidence to achieve academic success is the mission of Project SEED.
Description: Project SEED is a non-profit national mathematics program that uses a unique Socratic group-discovery teaching methodology to show elementary school students the joy and fascination of learning advanced conceptual mathematics. Project SEED serves many minority and underrepresented students, including Latinos, and provides components of staff development, direct instruction, family involvement, and parental involvement. Project SEED programs reach out to local school districts and communities where many children drop out of school or where students may easily end up without the academic skills that will carry them successfully into careers in the sciences, computers, and technology of the 21st century.
Services: Project SEED provides training to teachers from elementary through secondary school and university levels in its instructional pedagogy and in advanced mathematics curricula. These highly trained mathematics specialists provide direct instruction in full-size classes of elementary or middle school students as a supplement to the students' regular curriculum. The instructional methodology is a non-lecture, Socratic group-discovery format designed to guide children to discover mathematical concepts by answering a carefully planned sequence of questions. Beyond this instruction, Project SEED activities include recognition and awards programs, workshops for parents on mathematics, problem-solving and strategies to help students succeed, and participation in school-sponsored parent and community workshops. Project SEED develops its own curriculum for all direct instruction, teacher training, staff development, corporate training and family-community workshops.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Repeated and consistent evaluation results show that Project SEED instruction has a powerful and positive effect on students at all levels and particularly in upper elementary grades four, five, and six. Research showed that 14 students receiving a semester or more of Project SEED instruction scored significantly higher on standardized tests than did matched comparison students who did not receive SEED instruction. The effect of Project SEED instruction was persistent, as seen in SEED students scoring higher than comparison students on standardized tests for up to five years after the last exposure to Project SEED instruction. Project SEED students scored higher than comparison students on standardized tests after one semester of instruction. The effect after multiple semesters of Project SEED instruction was cumulative, increasing the growth of SEED students over comparison students. Students who had participated in the program also took more upper division mathematics courses in high school than did comparable students. The program has also received validation through the Department of Education's National Diffusion Network's Program Effectiveness Panel. STATEWIDE  Services: The PR-SSI follows a two-prong approach to transform K-12 science and mathematics education at the school level: Whole-School Based (WSBS) and Non-School Based (NSB) Strategies. These pedagogical strategies are based on the latest trends on education research and are used to address the standards-based science and mathematics content included in this reform in all participating students. The initiative is currently being implemented in 25 percent of the public schools of Puerto Rico.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Working with the school as a unit of change, the PR-SSI has demonstrated significant gains in student achievement through an adaptation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress administered in 1994 as well as through other indicators. The analysis of the College Entrance Examination Board's scores showed that students who had participated in these initiatives for six years outperformed their public and private counterparts in mathematics and verbal sections of the test. Mission: AVID is a nationally recognized program designed to give students who ordinarily would not be in rigorous, academic, college-preparatory classes the opportunity to take such classes and the support to succeed in them.
Descriptions: This program began with one group of students in 1980. It is currently being implemented in all 57 public high schools in San Diego County, along with 65 middle schools and some elementary schools. AVID students are recruited for the program at the middle and high school levels.

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16 Services: Students are enrolled in a college preparatory sequence and in an elective section of AVID, through which students are given the academic and motivational support to succeed. Students are coached by college tutors and work in collaborative groups to learn through a curriculum that focuses on writing and inquiry. Non-tutorial days are devoted to an across-the-curriculum writing sequence and grade-level study skills in preparation for college entrance and placement exams.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The state of California has over 400 AVID programs, and over 700 schools across 13 states, as well as in Europe and Asia, are adopting the AVID program. Currently, 87 percent of AVID graduates from San Diego County enrolling at San Diego State University pass the writing portion of the college placement exam. (The overall passing rate in the college placement exam is only about 50 percent.) CHICANO  Description: The program fulfills this mission by strengthening the students' knowledge of state government and politics, emphasizing the importance of cultural and family values, and inspiring students to realize their educational and professional potential through individual and group interactions with the business sector. The program encourages students to pursue postsecondary educational opportunities by providing them information on public and private institutions of higher education.
Services: This project offers a weeklong leadership-training program at California State University, Sacramento, during the summer. Each year 120 students are selected to participate by the project organizing committee. Program highlights include Legislative Day, which teaches students about the legislative process through active participation in mock hearings and interaction with legislators at the Sate Capitol; The Campaign Development workshop, which teaches skills and techniques to organize political campaigns, and provides students the opportunity to use the skills in the CLYLP officer elections; Career Day includes presentations from various college representatives, admissions staff, and financial aid experts, and a College Fair where students meet with Community College, CSU, UC, and Ivy League recruiters. The training program staff and organizers exemplify and present the importance of volunteering and the greater importance of giving back to youth and communities.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Since its inception in 1982, the CLYLP has successfully offered a weeklong intensive leadership-training program in Sacramento to 2,000 students. Eighty percent of the participants have gone on to higher education. Services: Since the program's inception in San Antonio in 1984, this cross-age tutoring program has kept more than 5,500 students in school who were previously at risk of dropping out. According to the Valued Youth creed, all students are valuable and none are expendable. This philosophy gives strength to the program's instructional strategies that provide classes for student tutors; tutoring sessions; field trips; and role modeling and student recognition, and to its support strategies through curriculum; coordination; staff enrichment; parent involvement; and program evaluation. The key to the program's success is in valuing students who are considered at risk of dropping out of school and sustaining their efforts with effective, coordinated strategies. For more than 15 years, IDRA and The Coca-Cola Foundation have worked together in a unique partnership that is making a visible difference in the lives of more than 74,500 children, families and educators.
Evidence of effectiveness: The evaluation design for the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program is one of the most rigorous and comprehensive in the country. The Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program has maintained less than a two percent dropout rate for its student tutors since 1986. The program was approved by the U.S. Department of Education's Program Effectiveness Panel for inclusion in the National Diffusion Network. Services: This program provides enrichment activities, tutoring, counseling, guidance, and Saturday classes. Workshops are provided for the PSAT, ACT, and SAT tests. CIS-San Antonio provides health and human service referrals, promotes parent and family involvement in the educational process, career awareness, and pre-employment services. These program activities address character education, poor attendance, academic deficiencies, inappropriate behavior, crisis situations, delinquency, deprivation, gang involvement, mental and physical health issues, and teen pregnancy. CIS-SA programs also help create an educated workforce, enhancing the potential for economic development in the community.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Statistics show that the program has an average annual high school graduation rate of 98 percent. Of those graduating, over 90 percent attend college and many receive scholarships and financial aid. In the 1998-99 school year 4,622 registered CIS students received comprehensive services, and 7,000 additional students and families were assisted by CIS. The information suggests that 98 percent of CIS students stayed in school, 91 percent of CIS seniors graduated and 87 percent of CIS students improved in academics and classroom behavior. Of the CIS/Upward Bound students, 99 percent of the students graduated, 77 percent of CIS/Upward Bound students attended college and $682,749.00 in academic scholarships were awarded to CIS/Upward Bound students. CIS is currently serving 5,000 students and their families in 35 schools, in eight school districts, (14 elementary schools, eight middle schools, and four high schools). It also runs pre-college programs in six high schools and three middle schools, serving low-income, first-generation college candidates; and has two alternative non-traditional high school academies, serving students who might otherwise drop out of school. Mission: The institution's mission is to develop the next generation of Latino leaders who are educated, civically active in the Latino community, and participate in local, state, and federal policy decision-making. In the spirit of building coalitions, CHCI seeks to establish partnerships with other Latino and non-Latino organizations.
Description: The CHCI was organized in 1976 by five Hispanic Congressmen to monitor legislative and other government activity that affects Hispanics. It was their intention to develop education programs and other activities that would increase the opportunities for Hispanics to participate in and contribute to the American political system. Services: CHCI offers Hispanic high school and college students a variety of educational and leadership development programs and services to help increase college readiness and retention rates among Hispanic youth. CHCI's Summer Internship and Fellowship programs are among the most innovative and progressive in the nation. Other services include the CHCI Scholarship Connection and Issues Conference. Programs are designed to increase the participation of young Hispanics in both public and private sectors and to foster a network of young Hispanic leaders in governmentrelated areas through the CHCI Alumni Association.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Many CHCI interns and fellows go on to pursue careers in government and public service both in Washington, D.C. and in their hometowns. The programs foster critical professional development and personal growth in the participants and promote active, visible leadership in the community. Mission: EAOP prepares young Californians from diverse backgroundssome as young as fourth gradefor success in college. The passage of Proposition 209 and SP-1 eliminated the consideration of race, ethnicity, and gender in admissions decisions and focused new attention on outreach programs such as EAOP as a means of increasing diversity at the University of California (UC) campuses. EAOP seeks to double the number of UC-eligible students from partner high schools and student-centered programs; increase the number of California Community College transfers to UC; and double the number of undergraduates in summer programs as well as the numbers of students participating during the academic year.
Services: EAOP provides information on UC admission requirements, financial aid, housing, filing deadlines and other college-related concerns such as choosing a challenging course schedule that will help students be able to attend the UC institution of their choice. EAOP also offers standardized test preparation and Saturday and Summer Academieswhich include Saturday morning algebra classes. Family involvement and a parent education component are needed to provide practical information and education. PSAT testing allows students to gain practice in test-taking and to find out their strengths and weaknesses. Results are used to develop individual academic plans and to assist schools in improving their college-preparatory programs. The Reservation for College Program offers fourth-graders a special after-school program to learn why education is important for success in life while staff members prepare an individualized academic plan to carry each child through high school.
Evidence of Effectiveness: About 70 percent of EAOP students enroll in four-year colleges, and 50 percent are eligible for admission to UC. In academic year 1998-99, EAOP served an additional 13,039 students at more than 500 middle schools and high schools throughout California. This constitutes a nearly 11 percent increase in the number of schools served, and a more than 12 percent increase in the number of EAOP students. Description: Staff and volunteers provide a range of educational services, such as oneon-one tutoring, youth development and family support. In efforts to extend its reach, EHTP offers technical assistance to other youth serving institutions.
Services: This program has several components, each offering a different service. Oneon-one tutoring utilizes a child-centered approach to education. Volunteer tutors are trained to integrate the arts with academic subjects. Tutoring sessions are conducted in the afternoons, evenings, and Saturdays. A professional staff of educators supervises the volunteer tutors. Arts workshops involve active participation of the children and youths in the expressive arts. The Tutorial Internship Program is a youth development leadership program that provides its participants with crucial life skills, educational mentoring, and vocational/employment opportunities. The Sanford C. Bernstein Mentoring Project, an investment research and management firm, provides one-on-one tutoring, as well as personal and career mentoring. Pathways is designed as an incentive for students to remain in and succeed in school. The East Harlem Tutorial College Scholarship Program is open to high school seniors enrolled in the program. The Young Adolescent Program integrates a highly structured curriculum with strategies aimed at promoting academic success, personal and social development, communication skill-building, computer literacy, cultural enrichment, artistic expression, and discussion on issues of adolescence and sexual development. Summer Day Camp is an intensive six-week session consisting of fun learning activities, field trips and visual and performing arts projects. The Summer Media Project trains participants in interviewing skills and introduces them to role models.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Each child in the program had an interview, and an individual student plan (ISP) was developed with measurable goals and objectives. The research showed that 82 percent of all ISP goals assigned were achieved, or significant progress toward them was made. The program was selected by the Developmental Studies Center as one of two New York City initial field-testing sites for its After School Literature Project, a three-year program that includes books, study guides and comprehensive staff training and support. After successful field-testing, the program is currently one of 12 sites where the project is being implemented. The goals are to increase the children's excitement about books and reading, boost comprehension skills, and get them thinking about how to apply ideas and values in books to their own lives. GONZALO  Mission: Garza is designed to be an alternative to the traditional high school for students who may not have had successful educational experiences in the past. The school's first priority is to create and maintain a caring, safe environment.
Description: It is a school of choice to which Austin-area students apply and are admitted based on their desire to succeed. It is a small school of 300 students that offers them a rigorous yet flexible and individualized program to meet their needs. Indeed, it is a student-centered school where decisions are driven by student needs.

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Services: Garza individualizes and personalizes instruction in an atmosphere of trust and respect. Students benefit from an innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum that integrates academic content with career development and project-based learning, allowing students to develop high-level skills in a real-world context. The comprehensive technology program benefits all students, allowing them access to computers, software, the Internet, and research capabilities on a daily basis. Further, students learn the value of community and civic responsibility by completing service projects in which they give at least 20 hours of service to their communities.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In its first 23 weeks of operation, 49 students met graduation requirements. Standards and expectations are high for all students as they master the curriculum and meet all local and state graduation requirements. Indeed, many students graduate with honors in an advanced curriculum while others are currently simultaneously enrolled in college courses at Austin Community College. The missions of MESA are to: develop a pool of underrepresented minority high school students who achieve academic excellence and enroll in the ASU CEAS; enhance performance levels of underrepresented minority engineering students, by providing academic and professional development support services; create opportunities for financial resources by developing relationships with K-12 schools, community colleges, the ASU community, engineering societies, and corporate representatives; and increase the number of underrepresented minority students in the CEAS at ASU.
Description: The Mathematics-Engineering-Science-Achievement (MESA) Program, the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) and Arizona State University (ASU) College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) implement an effective matriculation plan, ensuring the academic and professional development of their students.
Services: This program offers Engineering Day at ASU, MESA Day, MESA liaisons for middle and high school teachers, the Engineering Summer Institute, the Federal Highway Administration Summer Transportation Institute, and the MEP Summer Bridge Program. Throughout the academic year, the ASU MESA Center coordinates campus visits to allow MESA students to participate in engineering presentations, workshops and classes such as ECE 100: Introduction to Engineering Design. In addition the students visit the Foundation Coalition Classroom and the Center for Solid State Science, and participate in time management or career planning workshops. Students tour and complete activities in various engineering and science labs and participate in panel discussions with ASU students, staff, and faculty. The Saturday Science Academy was an enrichment program for MESA students in grades six through twelve.

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23 Evidence of Effectiveness: The 1997 MEP Summer Bridge Program provided 39 students with room and board, classroom materials, and academic scholarships. Thirtyeight of the thirty-nine participants are currently enrolled in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS). The first-year retention rate of the original 43 students from summer 1996 is 88.4 within the university and 76.7 within CEAS. The retention rate for all students in the college is 77.3 and 66.2 for CEAS. A MESA student leaving the sixth grade will have achieved and experienced goals such as the following: exposure to and excitement about careers in high technology, enjoyment and achievement in mathematics and science at or above the norm. PASSPORT  Mission: The goal of Passport to College is to affect an attitudinal change in the community with respect to the importance of college and to increase attendance at college, thereby securing the economic future of the region.
Description: Passport to College is an innovative business-education-community-family collaboration initiated by Riverside Community College in the fall of 1996 to increase the region's low college-going rate. As partners, Riverside Community College, the Riverside County Office of Education and six local unified school districts joined with a host of businesses and individuals throughout the region, to implement a comprehensive long-term strategy that targets the more than 11,500 students enrolled in the fifth grade.
Research indicated that this was the critical juncture, when children and families began to think about college and the student's future. The program's three-pronged approach involves teachers, students and parents, each of who play an integral role in the education system.
Services: This program provides campus tours; classroom presentations; teacher training workshops; parent meetings; financial aid workshops; and mentors to help prepare students academically to insure their graduation from high school and to encourage college attendance. College admission is guaranteed to 11,500 participants who graduate from high school, and two years of tuition and fee assistance to those who successfully complete the program and enroll at Riverside Community College. Instilling the importance of education to the future of the community, the program allows educators and business people to work together to provide career and job opportunities to graduates.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In 1998, only two years after the program was initiated, President Bill Clinton recognized Passport to College as one of 10 successful early outreach initiatives making a difference in students' college-going rates. More than 6,600 of the 11,500 participants have signed a contract indicating that they plan to attend college and are actively participating in the program's continuum of activities as they journey to twelfth grade. Mission: Puente increases the number of educationally underserved students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn degrees, and return to the community as leaders and mentors to future generations.
Description: The Puente Project was founded in 1981 at Chabot College in Hayward, California to address the problem of the low rate of Latino students moving from a twoyear to a four-year college or university. Puente means, "bridge" in Spanish; the Puente Project was conceived of as a bridge from one segment of education to another. The focus on Latino students came about because of the crushing statistics showing Latino underachievement in California.
Services: Puente provides students with accelerated writing instruction, sustained academic counseling and mentoring by professionals from the community. In high school Puente, parents are actively integrated into the program. Puente recruits mentors from the community, matches them with students, and provides ongoing training and support to help ensure the success of the student-mentor relationship.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Puente programs have been replicated in 38 community colleges and 32 high schools. Puente serves over 63,000 students on these campuses. Some 48 percent of community college students who complete Puente transfer to fouryear colleges and universities within three years (compared to less than 7 percent of non-Puente students). To date, over 4,000 professionals have been recruited and trained by Puente and they contribute approximately 20,000 hours annually to mentoring Puente students; also over 300 businesses and community-based organizations have donated resources to Puente. A survey of Puente students found that 95 percent of them would recommend Puente to their friends or relatives. Puente Latino students took the SAT at higher rates than non-Puente Latino students did. They took the SAT II at double the rate of non-Puente Latinos students. Puente won 1998 Innovations in American Government award. Description: The program combats the high dropout rates among high risk Hispanic students by identifying these youngsters as early as the tenth grade. The program then prescribes an academic program incorporating academic rigor and motivational components such as a mentor experience and financial incentives. The program offers support through a comprehensive network of student-oriented services and activities. This empowers students, building self-esteem and self-determination.
Services: The program works with three high schools and provides 100 at-risk students with two-year tuition to attend Miami-Dade Community College (M-DCC). Students are selected for the scholarship in their sophomore year of high school as an incentive to remain in school and go to M-DCC for two years. They are required to maintain good attendance and conduct, as well as a 2.9 cumulative grade point average in the last two years of high school and at M-DCC. Mission: The mission of the STEM Institute is to provide gifted Hispanic and other underrepresented minority pre-college students with a rigorous and nurturing academic environment at a university setting to study science, math and engineering, free of cost to the student.
Description: The STEM Institute identifies and contributes to the development of this untapped pool of talented Hispanic and other underrepresented youth, and develops in them a commitment to impeccable personal and civic integrity through mentorship and role models, particularly by young college educators. The institute seeks to ensure that talented Latino science and engineering students achieve academic excellence and professional success through its pipeline of rigorous academic programs, leadership training, networking and other support activities during the students' pre-college, undergraduate and graduate years. STEM Institute is for eighth-through eleventhgraders. The SAT/SOAR Program is for tenth-and eleventh-graders, and maintains continuity with workshops and seminars for high school participants of the STEM Institute.
Services: Talented young educators from universities nationwide raise the level of commitment of these pre-college students to one of academic excellence. They do this by imparting their love of science, mathematics, and engineering to their students through advanced classes in a unique program. The STEM Institute offers college-level courses in college algebra, physics for engineers and scientists, vector-based analytic geometry, vector mechanics, C Programming, mathematical topology, calculus, probability and statistics, modern physics, and chemistry for scientists and engineers. 26 Evidence of Effectiveness: Program data indicates that students who participated in the SAT/SOAR Program scored at or above the national average for high school seniors on the SAT test. Of the college-level courses offered to the same students, the average performance was 82 percent. This would constitute a B at a college or university, and therefore is a very high performance given that the participants range from eighththrough eleventh-graders. This year's SAT/SOAR program produced a 20 point average increase per student on diagnostic exams compared to the previous year. In addition, the mathematics section scores went up by an average of 37 points per student, and one-fourth of the class experienced an increase of more than 100 points on the exam. Mission: The center's mission is to work with extremely challenging youths and to provide a program that will work with the whole child and his or her family.
Description: This center serves as an alternative education center for elementary, middle school, and high school students who have been removed from their home campuses for disciplinary reasons.
Services: Services are provided to almost 1,000 students per year and 90 percent of the students are Hispanic. Academics are stressed as well as the behavioral and emotional needs of the students.
Evidence of Effectiveness: To date, 95 percent of the students completing the 1998-99 program have been successful at their home schools. Over 92 percent of the Hispanic students completing the program have also been successful. A four-year longitudinal evaluation of this program shows a marked decrease of students being referred to the Student Learning Guidance Center, especially at the middle school level. In addition, there has been an 11 percent increase in students remaining at their home school after successfully completing their SLGC assignment. Services: The San Antonio Pre-freshman Engineering Program is an academically intense, mathematics-based, summer project conducted at most college and university campuses throughout the city of San Antonio. It identifies students with the interest in and potential for careers in engineering, science, technology, and other mathematicsrelated areas and reinforces them in the pursuit of these fields. Enrollment particularly targets students who are female and members of minority groups that traditionally have been underrepresented in these professions. In addition to a strong academic curriculum, PREP provides career-oriented guest speakers, field trips, and mentoring by college instructors, high school teachers, military officers, and undergraduates majoring in engineering, mathematics or science. The program is presented over the course of three summers, each session lasting approximately eight weeks.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In 1998, 4,067 former participants were of college age. Of these, 2,324 responded to a 1998 annual survey (a 57 percent response rate). Based on this survey, the high school graduation rate was 99 percent. Of these, 92 percent were college students (1,271) or college graduates (861). The college graduation rate of college attendees was 90 percent. Seventy-six percent of the college graduates were minority. Fifty-two percent of the college graduates were science, mathematics or engineering majors, 69 percent of the science, mathematics and engineering graduates were minority, 87 percent of the college students (1,174) and graduates (680)  Mission: The program objectives are to develop culturally significant strategies that promote educational persistence and success and postsecondary placement; to increase high school completion and eventual college and university participation and dropout prevention via early intervention initiatives; and to increase self-esteem of Hispanic and disadvantaged youth.
Description: LULAC is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to advancing the education of Hispanic and disadvantaged youth in southern Arizona. LULAC's Youth Leadership Program fosters the development of the Hispanic community through the provision of counseling services, scholarships, and educational programs to disadvantaged students.
Services: LULAC works well with both businesses and government to initiate educational programs in Arizona. LULAC's Annual Youth Leadership Conference is designed to motivate sixth-through twelfth-graders to stay in school and develop their skills by providing them with the opportunity to observe, analyze, and become directly involved with social, economic and political issues, and the leaders that deal with these issues. The conference brings together the community to work on major issues of importance, such as targeted school dropouts and high school graduation rates. The conference also helps students realize that the key to success is education and that, therefore, they need to stay in school. The conference mission is to encourage and 4 0 29 motivate students to stay in school, to set students' goals to attend a higher education institution, and to interact with leaders and participate in hands-on leadership activities as opposed to engaging in the passive instruction of traditional classrooms.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The program increases the self-confidence and selfesteem of its participants, helps to elevate students' goals, motivates them to stay in school and bolster their perception of their abilities. Attending a college or university becomes a viable option for the participantsthey come to consider themselves college material and acquire knowledge about financial resources. Over the past 10 years over 34,000 sixth-through twelfth- Mission: The goal of NACME is to effectively expand access to engineering as a career and to ensure the successful preparation of students for the engineering profession.
Description: A not-for-profit corporation with a commitment to excellence in education, NACME's mission embraces the fact that technical work force strength will determine world leadership. That the nation's economic productivity rests on the quality of the scientists and engineers the nation produces, and that the nation's success depends on its ability to utilize human resources from all segments of the population. NACME conducts research and public policy analysis, develops and operates pre-college and university programs and disseminates information nationally through broadcasts, conferences, publications, and the World Wide Web.
Services: Scholarship programs provide comprehensive student support, including intense academic preparation, financial aid, mentoring, professional development and internships. Using a non-traditional assessment process, the Engineering Vanguard Program identifies seniors who are likely to be overlooked by student recruitment practices at engineering schools. A cadre of university faculty members carefully chooses these students who possess the skills, motivation and interest to be successful in a top-tier engineering education environment.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The NACME Research Letters on critical issues of mentoring, university diversity performance, and the impact of affirmative action on engineering education were cited for exemplary work by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Texaco, Inc selected the program for the purpose of managing and enhancing existing scholarship programs through the Scholarship Management Service. NASA expanded the Engineering Vanguard Program, reaching 20 highs schools in New Jersey, New York and Texas and building new partnerships with Clarkson University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Texas A&M University. The retention rate of the program is 98 percent, with many students achieving a grade-point average of 3.0 or better. Mission: The program's primary purpose is to generate the necessary skills and motivation to help prospective and current ethnic minority students gain access to institutions of higher education. The ultimate goal is to increase the access to, and success in, higher education for ethnic minority students, with a special focus on Hispanic students enrolled at Western Illinois University and the districts of the cooperating institutions.
Description: Learning to Lead is a comprehensive summer institute designed to develop and nurture the leadership skills of students and prepare them for the leadership roles they will be expected to fill. The program promotes and fosters the development of a new generation of leaders within the rapidly changing social and economic environment of the United States.
Services: The following services and programs are offered: admissions assistance, individual financial aid counseling, academic assessment and planning, peer tutoring, classes on English as a Second Language (ESL), community outreach programming, leadership development training, peer and professional mentoring, internship opportunities, parent/family activities, prescriptive academic advising, child care services, early warning academic tracking, career planning, personal counseling, workshops and presentations, program development, student attendance at major conferences, and creation of professional partnerships.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Total Hispanic student enrollment at Western Illinois University (WIU) has increased dramatically since the Hispanic Program was implemented in fall 1989. College persistence figures for the spring of 1999 show an improvement over the second highest level seen in 1998. The number of Hispanic students graduating from WIU since 1989 has increased by 190 percent. Hispanic enrollment in Black Hawk College Adult Education, General Education Diploma, and English as a Second Language programs increased by 62 percent from 1990-1991 to 1998-1999. 32 Youth A PLACE CALLED HOME (CA) Deborah Constance, Director 2830 S. Central Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90011 (323) 232-7653 (323) 232-0139 fax Mission: The goal of A Place Called Home (APCH) is to create a homelike environment. APCH offers a family environment that features one-on-one mentoring, compassion, and other supports to enable inner-city youth to become self-reliant and fulfill their dreams.
Description: A Place Called Home has been serving youth in South Central Los Angeles since 1993. Deborah Constance founded APCH in response to the lack of resources and increasing violence in the inner city. APCH opened in October of 1993 in the basement of a church with a handful of kids, and was merely a place to grab a snack, watch a little TV, and do homework. However, the focus remains the same"one person helping another to make a positive change." Services: APCH provides mentoring by staff, volunteers and collaborating agencies. Some of the services are gang prevention, intervention and counseling; drug prevention and recovery from drug addiction; health, wellness, and recreation; art, dance, music, and theater; job readiness, placement, and apprenticeship; and community outreach and cultural awareness. APCH runs an alternative high school for dropouts and those needing a few credits to graduate. This alternative high school provides assistance with college preparation, scholarships, computer classes, tutoring, computer training, GED prep programs, and educational enrichment trips. APCH's Community Unite Program coordinates cultural celebrations, community and garden clean ups, holiday events, neighborhood watch, teen pregnancy prevention, and mothers against violence support. The Jobs and Training Programs provide job leads, on-site jobs and training, job preparation, resume classes, computers skills, and employment seminars. Services: ASPIRA of Florida is currently in its 15th year of providing community-based guidance, counseling, and leadership development opportunities to educationally at-risk youth. Services are conducted through the ASPIRA Club System and facilitated by an ASPIRA counselor. Utilizing a school and community-based approach, club meetings are held on a weekly basis. Curriculum instruction includes an educational and skills development component as well as individual academic and personal advisement. Students are identified and recruited directly from school computer profiles of potential dropouts, as well as from school counselors, teachers, parents, juvenile courts, and fellow peers. ASPIRA has also developed program initiatives in the areas of youth gang avoidance, drug prevention, alternative middle school education, community service, and mentoring opportunities.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In 1994-1995, ASPIRA recruited 1,261 educationally at-risk students from 27 school and community-based outreach clubs. More than 98 percent were encouraged to stay in school and did not drop out, 64 of the 69-graduating seniors were enrolled in postsecondary institutions, while 30 of 40 out-of-school graduates were enrolled in postsecondary institutions. For program year 1996-97, 1,599 educationally at-risk students were recruited from 34 schools and communities. Of these students, 94 percent were encouraged to stay in school and not drop out. Mission: The gang intervention program works with the community to prevent youths from joining gangs and intervenes to educate families on danger signs of gang involvement.
Description: Community Service Programs (CSP) is a non-profit human services organization in Orange County working in conjunction with the police, schools, probation officers, and courts. Each program provides diversion alternatives or ongoing service to the victims and witnesses of crime. CSP was established in 1972 as a field study project for students at the University of California at Irvine, providing diversion counseling for delinquent youth and their families at the Costa Mesa Police Department.
Services: Among the services provided is gang intervention, which uses gang counselors to provide counseling, prevention/intervention services, a 24-hour assistance/community referral service, and after-school activities for at-risk youth, wannabes and gang members. The Youth Shelter provides a safe caring refuge for teens who are running from serious family conflict, domestic violence and abuse, and counseling to both troubled youths and their families with the goal of family preservation. 34 The Families First Program is an innovative adolescent day treatment program that offers an alternative to group home facilities for youth presenting high-risk behaviors. While clients remain in their home environment, therapy and academics are provided. Parents and foster parents receive counseling and training to help them deal with difficult young people. The Victim Assistance Program offers crime victims and their families physical, emotional, financial, and legal assistance through crisis intervention and continuing support.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The Gang Intervention Program is active in six Orange County cities and has provided services to 1,666 at-risk youth, wannabe and full-fledged gang members and their families. In juvenile detention, over 670 youths and parents have received counseling and 35 youth have been assisted to obtain tattoo removal. Close to 25 youth have performed 980 hours of community service work. Description: HERMANITAS, which means "little sisters," is a national initiative designed to encourage Latina girls to excel in school, plan for advanced education, strengthen the family unit, and participate as leaders in their communities by creating opportunities for service.

HERMANITAS PROJECT (DC) Alma Morales Riojas
Services: HERMANITASChapter-based initiatives focus on developing the talents and skills of young Latinas in middle and high school. A major HERMANITAS initiative is the annual National HERMANITAS Summer Institute (NHS!), a multi-dimensional development approach to empower young Latinas. The program responds to specific needs of Latina girls. This is accomplished through interactive workshops, networking, reflections, and inspirational journal writing, participation of distinguished Latina speakers of distinction in our communities; and cultural and social activities. Mission: The mission is to help at-risk youths by providing support services. Just Us recognizes that young people are the community's most vital resource and they are committed to helping them realize the best future possible.
Description: For more than 20 years, Just Us has provided supportive services to youth who have been identified as being "at risk" due to educational under-achievement, the lack of employment opportunities or difficulty in adapting to their social environment. Just Us reaches out primarily to youth in East Harlem.
Services: Just Us, Inc. runs three projects: The ACHIEVE Project is designed to guide out-of-school youth in defining goals and in developing career-planning, decision-making and job-seeking skills. This program provides its participants with three vital services: intensive preparation for the General Equivalency Diploma (GED) exam, development of a goal-oriented educational and career plan and direct placement in full-and part-time employment positions. The Community Achievement Program (CAP) provides individual and group counseling and extensive parental involvement, which consists of home visits, mailings, phone calls and group parent conferences. The Community Youth Program has two components: after-school tutoring three days each week during the school year in which certified teachers provide intensive tutoring for youngsters who are underachieving in reading and math; and the Hospitals Career Program, which provides the opportunity for part-time employment at Mount Sinai and Metropolitan Hospitals.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In1997-98, the program attained exemplary standards in each of the six evaluation criteria established by the New York State Department of Labor. There were gains in reading proficiency, math proficiency, the number of participants who obtained a GED diploma or returned to school, the number of participants who exhibited work maturity skills, the number of participants who entered vocational training, and the number of participants who obtained employment. Of the 213 students enrolled in the program's after-school literacy education classes, 66 percent improved their reading proficiency by 10 or more percentile points. Mission: The purpose is to provide the U.S. Latino community with a setting and structure through which it may participate in the development of its future leaders. The program is based on the belief that the stronger the talent, skill, and expertise, the more impact and influence the community will have on the future direction of American society.
Description: Established in July 1979, the National Hispanic Institute (NHI) today works with over 4,000 high-performing Latino students a year. Through programs like the Young Leaders Conference, the Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session, the Collegiate World Series, the John F. Lopez Fellowships, the Mexico Language Program, and the Collegiate Leadership, the brightest and best young men and women are introduced to the world of leadership in the Latino community.
Services: The Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session is an eight-day leadership experience that uses a mock youth government to introduce participants to the intellectual, psychological, emotional, and organizational requirements of leadership. Participants work together in planning the future of the Latino community by using a youth legislature and "Supreme Court" as forums to debate ideas and propose solutions. It allows students to take advantage of the benefits of membership in an organization like NHI, which is able to marshal our nation's top colleges and universities to spend personal time discussing and planning students educational options for the future. Students are able to participate in different social settings during the week where they meet students from a variety of cities and towns through activities that include informal discussions, recreation, an awards ceremony, and the Youth Ball .
Evidence of Effectiveness: To date, over 30,000 students have participated. Since the first group of students in 1983, nearly 99 percent continue to enroll in college after high school and over 90 percent earn their undergraduate degrees in a four-to five-year period. More important, these young people successfully enroll in top institutions that range from Harvard in the Northeast to Stanford in the West, Rice University in the Southwest, and the University of Chicago in the Midwest. UPWARD  Mission: Upward Bound's mission is to identify qualified youths who are low-income and potential first-generation college students.
Description: This program seeks to generate the skills and motivation necessary for success in completing high school and enrolling in postsecondary education, and to encourage youth in the program to remain in and complete secondary education.
Services: This program serves low-income and potential first-generation college students. Services include weekly academic, personal and college prep advising; afterschool study sessions; college visitation; home visits; a leadership conference; a sixweek academic program; and a variety of cultural experiences. Mission: The development of the URBAN SmARTS program addresses City Council priorities that targeted youth at risk and juvenile crime prevention. This gang prevention after-school program was designed to divert minor offenders and at-risk youth away from gangs, drugs, and contact with the juvenile justice system.
Description: In 1993, Della Rodriguez was "one exasperated assistant principal" looking for ways to keep 30 middle school students from joining gangs. At the same time, the San Antonio Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs was seeking partnerships with educational institutions. "The rest is history," says Rodriguez, now principal. "They came to my rescue with an arts-based curriculum and three of the best performing and visual artists in the city." URBAN SmARTS is an intervention program that combines arts activities with conflict resolution training and other prevention services to divert 38 middle school students in urban risk areas from gangs, drugs and contact with the juvenile justice system.
Services: As part of its diversion goals, the program seeks to improve student academic achievement, attendance, and behavioral problems. The intervention program combines arts activities with conflict resolution training and other prevention services to build students' resiliency and help prevent them from entering the criminal justice system. At each of the school sites, three artists and three caseworkers join one teacher and one university student intern to work with a maximum of 60 students three days a week from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. for 18 weeks during the year-round school schedule. The children take classes in visual arts, dance, theater, literature, music, photography, and videography. The program incorporates field trips, nutrition, transportation, and social work components. The field trips are coordinated with the arts curriculum and expose children to communities outside their own. Transportation is provided, since walking home presents security problems in these high-crime communities. In addition, ongoing case management, family counseling and resource referrals make this arts program a gateway to critical family and child support services.
Evidence Mission: Family Service's mission is to protect, maintain, enhance and strengthen the social and psychological well-being of children, adolescents, adults and families through a flexible, vibrant continuum of behavioral health care and social services.
Description: Family Service was founded over a century ago to help families in crisis due to poverty and other issues. In addition to this work, the agency raised funds for tuberculosis sanitariums for adults and children; and advocated for legislation against improper working conditions in factories, substandard housing and impure milk. As the 20th century progressed, Family Service added mental health and substance abuse treatment to its services.
Services: Proyecto Familia and its spin-offs in other schools have at their heart the concept of "one worker to one family" also known as "wraparound" services. The idea is to avoid and overcome the "fragmentation of services" to families due to different funding streams. In other words, perhaps a family has a child with a behavior problem, another child with a substance abuse problem, a father who needs retraining, and a mother who needs help learning English. Obtaining such services would be exhausting for any family who may already be facing language and cultural barriers. Proyecto Familia is dedicated to helping families through this maze. A bilingual/bicultural case manager visits an identified family in their home and develops a plan to meet the family's needs.

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The worker then works with the family to meet those needs, often providing transportation, translation services and general information. In addition, if the family needs mental health care, a therapist is available through Family Service to provide treatment within the family home. Other services such as juvenile mentoring and teen pregnancy prevention education are also available.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Current middle school principal, Jorge Alvarez, in a recent focus group about Proyecto Familia, stated "they have a very special way of talking to kids". In the fall of 1998, Family Service's Continuous Quality Improvement Office conducted a study of 23 Proyecto Familia client records. Several areas were explored: Client "investment" in services, client's satisfaction with services, types of goals, and goal achievement. The Proyecto Familia study found that families stayed in the program an average of 5.6 months, with 96 percent of clients keeping 75 percent of the appointments. With 80 percent of clients identifying more than three goals and all identifying at least two goals; 75 percent of the goals were achieved and 18 percent were partially achieved. Services: Mary's Center serves many Latinas with programs offering pregnancy prevention, testing and counseling for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV testing, job development, teen parenting classes, father mentors, and case management services.
Project WISHWomen into Staying Healthyis a breast and cervical cancer screening program for women in the District of Columbia. In addition to providing clinical breast exams, pap tests and pelvic exams to these women, the center also conducts community outreach to women on the importance of breast self-examination. The EducaciOn 2000 program at Mary's Center has been working hard to integrate education as an important component of the center's pregnancy prevention and intervention services. The program is being applied to all in District of Columbia school Teen Program patients, although a greater emphasis is placed on sexually active female adolescents who are at a higher risk of dropping out of school. The education/intervention program at Mary's Center consists of after-school motivation, selfesteem and college preparation sessions; Saturday parent and student workshops; and intensive academic follow up as needed. Mary's Center has partnered with three local D.C. Public Schools where the Educacion 2000 program is also being implemented, to allow its patients to take advantage of the Saturday parent and student workshops. 42 Evidence of Effectiveness: The Women's Health Program provided services for 332 prenatal patients in 1998, with only one infant mortality and five low birth-weight babies. In 1998, 100 percent of sexually active patients were screened for sexually transmitted diseases and 95 percent of teens receiving family planning services succeeded in preventing unplanned pregnancies. Out of 1,325 pediatric cases, 97 percent of twoyear-olds are fully immunized. Over 795 families have been enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIPS Mission: The mission of Mi Casa is to provide quality employment and education programs that promote self-sufficiency for primarily low-income Latina women and youth.
Description: Mi Casa's goal is to transform dreams of self-sufficiency into reality through hard work, individual effort, and the availability of comprehensive educational and employment programs. Mi Casa continues to grow and expand its services to meet the changing needs of the community and to provide services for youth development.
Services: Services include Mi Carrera, a four-year dropout prevention program for lowincome girls that focuses on reducing the dropout rate and increasing the number of Latinas who go on to college. Sessions are held weekly after school, and young women participate in leadership development, career awareness/job readiness, and computer classes. Mi Camino is a program designed to help young single mothers complete their GED and pursue postsecondary education or vocation opportunities. Participants are exposed to educational, traditional and non-traditional career opportunities available to them as GED graduates. FENIX, an HIV/STD/teen pregnancy prevention program, increases responsible decision-making skills by providing information to youth through presentations and street outreach. The core of the FENIX strategy is the use of peer educators. The goal of FENIX is to reach teenagers through prevention messages developed, delivered, and modeled by their peers. Other services include after-school, weekend and summer programs for middle school youth, business development training promoting small business ownership, micro-lending projects, and career development.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In 1993 and 1994, 100 percent of Mi Carrera participants graduated from high school and 85 percent enrolled in college. In 1997, 11 young women graduated from high school and 9 enrolled in college. The Mi Camino program enrolled 44 participants in 1997, with 35 individuals completing the program -23 received their General Education Diploma and one re-enrolled in high school. Over 12,000 youths were reached in 1997 through all the youth development programs. Description: The program focuses on the, strengths of families and empowering every parent to believe that he/she has the capacity to become a teacher and role model, not only for their own children, but also for all children.
Services: The program provides weekly parent empowerment workshops that are completely parent driven. Training is ongoing throughout the year and parents are expected to become involved in at least one area of the school. Their involvement includes helping in the classroom, providing case management to other families, working in the computer lab, organizing school events, and more. Intensive services are available to parents, including support with basic needs, family counseling, medical services, and legal services.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Parents who are effectively involved in the school feel better about themselves. Their children are experiencing greater school success and are more apt to be involved in after-school cultural enrichment programs. Parent volunteerism and leadership have increased tremendously. Parents have become responsible for overseeing after-school art programs and organizing the majority of school events. The program has received national recognition by the National Family Coalition Journal, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Show and Good Morning America. Mission: The committee's mission is to improve the quality of life for Latino children and families through community education, human services training, and public advocacy at the city, state, and national levels. Underlying this mission is the belief that Latino children and families are best served and protected by building upon their existing strengths and fostering self-sufficiency.
Description: The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families (CHCF) was founded in 1982 by a group of Latino health and human services professionals in response to the lack of culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate services in the foster care and adoption system. Subsequently, CHCF has developed and implemented programs that meet the needs of low-income families and children in such areas as family violence, foster care, youth development, teen pregnancy prevention, HIV/AIDS prevention, and child care.

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Services: The Community Achievement Projects in the Schools (CAPS) program offers dropout prevention services in elementary, intermediate, and high school. Students with high absenteeism and academic problems receive services tailored to meet their needs, such as individual and group counseling, house visits, tutoring, educational workshops; and cultural and recreational enrichment experiences. Parents are also counseled and informed about the involvement in their child's education. The After-School Program provides a safe, developmentally appropriate and educational after-school care program that not only complements but also enhances the school curriculum. Cuidando Nuestros Nitios (Caring for Our Children) is a bilingual information and referral program that assists parents in locating childcare near their home, school, or work. The Domestic Violence Education Project is providing culturally sensitive training for police at two precincts that will help them provide assistance that is more adequate to victims of domestic violence. The Relationship Abuse and Violence Prevention Training Project conducts training with regards to date rape and relationship abuse among teenagers and young adults. Proyecto Goal is an HIV/AIDS peer education and prevention program aimed at reaching Latino men. The project was later expanded to women. This includes the distribution of informational literature, condom use demonstration, and skits that convey and reinforce information. The Latino Awareness Training Program, educates human service providers to increase their cultural competency so they can better serve Latino children and families.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The CAPS program served over 750 students who were at risk of not completing high school. Despite distractions of gang violence and the constant presence of poverty and drugs, almost half the students maintained an 85 percent attendance rate or better. Approximately 300 parents attended workshops on subjects such as housing rights, immigration law, graduation requirements, domestic violence, and securing health for their children. The After-School Program provided care for over 200 children of working parents. Last year there were 1,813 children and over 1,000 parents helped through the Cuidado Nuestros Ninos program. Mission: LAYC's mission is to support youth and families in their determination to live, work and study with dignity, hope, and joy.
Description: LAYC is a community-based, non-profit multicultural agency founded in the late 1960s, which promotes the individual and the socioeconomic development of Latinos and other minority groups. LAYC's educational initiative programs enhance school-based learning for in-school youth and support learning for out-of-school youth.
Services: Tutoring, computer literacy, Saturday academies, and activities for collegebound students and promoting the educational -goals of students. The AmeriCorps members are based at local elementary and middle schools with a focus on school success and teen pregnancy prevention. Gang intervention program services include Street Reach, New Image, Las Hermanitas, and a Restorative Justice Program. The family wellness programs include the Male Involvement Program, Gardner Family Health Network, Alum Rock Counseling Center, and A Tu Salud. The programs train teen heath promoters and assist these young people in pursuing careers in the allied health field. The Teen Parent Support Program offers comprehensive social services and case management support to teen parent clients. Many of the Center's teen parents attend The Next Step Charter School, founded by the LAYC in 1996.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In 1998, 100 youths received assistance in job placement and job retention. One hundred and fifty youths received college search, application, and preparation assistance. Two hundred youths participated in daily after-school and weekend recreational and tutoring activities, and in fun educational off-site field trips. Thirty young adults and youths received computer instruction, ESL, GED and job placement services. Fifty youth received computer and Internet training. Mission: National Center for Latinos with Disabilities (NCLD) in Illinois is the only notfor-profit statewide organization focusing exclusively on the empowerment of Latinos with disabilities and their families. NCLD works toward the equal participation of the disabled population in all aspects of society in an independent, productive and meaningful manner. The center pursues these goals through unique linguistically and culturally appropriate advocacy, training, information, and referral programs.
Description: NCLD was founded originally as Illinois Fiesta Educativa in 1984 by a group of concerned parents of children with disabilities and professionals who worked with them. By 1996, NCLD had expanded its unique range of services to include advocacy and training. NCLD serves three constituencies: individuals with disabilities, their families, and professionals who work with these individuals and families. NCLD also seeks to educate local businesses and institutions in both the English-and Spanishspeaking communities.
Services: The center has a training academy that provides workshops, American Sign Language classes, and presentations for parents and students with disabilities, school personnel, universities and social service agencies throughout Illinois. The program provides information on the Americans with Disabilities Act and special education rights contained in the act. The program focuses on self-esteem, peer advocacy, prevention of abuse and neglect, disability awareness and cultural sensitivity. NCLD also has a free leadership training program for persons with disabilities and parents of individuals with disabilities. Other services include bilingual advocacy, parent support groups, an early intervention support group, an information and referral toll-free line, a lending library, services and advocacy for the deaf, and teletypewriter (TTY) distribution.
Evidence of Effectiveness: In order to help NCLD make well-founded decisions about improving its services, the board and staff of NCLD, in cooperation with the University of Illinois at Chicago, conducted a survey of clients whose cases had been closed in the Advocacy Services Department in the prior 12 months or who had used training services in the prior two years. A sample of 46 clients was interviewed. The responses from clients were rated on a five-point scale (1 = poor, 5 = excellent). The survey revealed an average overall rating of 4.3 for the advocacy services and of 3.86 for overall NCLD services. Mission: The mission of Alisal Community Healthy Start is for community members, parents, children, public and non-profit agencies, and businesses to empower each other to ensure that families are healthy and self-sufficient, and that children have strong affiliations with their school and achieve school success.
Description: Alisal Community Healthy Start is a large multi-agency community-driven collaborative that works with families in a comprehensive manner by providing access to a myriad of resources. All staff is bilingual and bicultural. Some of the staff are residents and former consumers of Healthy Start services. The center is owned and administered by the Alisal Union School District, but the community members, agency partners, and other collaborative members share in the governance of the program.
Services: The program provides services through the Alisal Family Resource Center.
The center provides case management, information and referral, community development, and support groups in such areas as violence (Women's Crisis), teen mothers (Planned Parenthood), case management (Healthy Start), serious illness (American Cancer Society), parent education (Salinas Adult School), and selfimprovement for parents. The center also offers classes in English as a Second Language (ESL), citizenship, adult literacy and nutrition and the program Preventing Alcohol Related Trauma in Salinas (PARTS). These services are combined with other services such as youth after-school programs (YMCA), weekend recreational activities through the Police Athletic League (PAL), and other local organizations. The afterschool program is in five different sites where youth are exposed to positive community role models from their neighborhood, local colleges, and universities. Health services such as medical exams, health fairs, services for special needs (for example, bone marrow and blood drives), educational/ informational meetings for youth and parents, Health Department speakers, and completion of healthy families medical program are provided by the Center for Health and Disease Prevention.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The child, family, and community members identify the areas of focus rather than having others identify needs and "problems" for them. Youth participating in the case management component consistently show improvement in the areas of school attendance and grades. Youth and parents participate actively in PARTS and have successfully lobbied local officials for more than five years to deny all new requests to sell alcohol in a community that is already saturated with alcohol vendors. The teen mothers involved in the support groups at the Center make a commitment to maintain their current family size and to continue with their education. To date all but one of these young mothers have successfully participated in this program and reached their goals. One of the information and referral components includes assistance in completing applications for programs and services. One of the outcomes of 60 49 this initiative is that approximately 15 to 25 uninsured children and youth are assisted each month and are successfully enrolled in a health insurance program. ALIVIO  Services: Alivio provides primary health care services and health education with a clinical staff that is 100 percent bilingual. Alivio recognizes that the children and youth living in its service area face serious health risks and stresses. Therefore, the medical center provides a comprehensive approach to child and youth health services by offering both health promotion activities and education programs. Alivio's Maternal/Child Health Services provides education in the areas of childbirth preparation, breastfeeding, nutrition, and parenting skills. The bilingual staff includes nurse midwives and health educators who offer classes providing a range of prenatal and postpartum education. Patients may receive education either in their home or at the Alivio center. The center's health education programs include a Community Leadership Program that trains high school students to become peer health educators, along with an Ounce of Prevention/Teen Home-visiting Program, which targets high-risk pregnant and parenting teens. A Child-to-Child (Nino -a-Nifio) program where children learn to promote health and safety to other children, their families, and the community is also offered. Mission: AVANCE's mission is to build self-esteem, confidence, and competence in both parents and children within a family and community context. Description: The organization was one of the first family support and education programs in the United States and perhaps the first comprehensive, community-based, family support program to target at-risk and Hispanic populations. AVANCE Family Support and Education, created in 1973, is a private, non-profit organization whose main purpose is to strengthen and support families. AVANCE works in both urban and rural communities predominantly composed of low-income Mexican American families and targets families with children under age four in its core program. AVANCE serves a population characterized by several generations of living in poverty, an 80 percent high school dropout rate among parents, a high degree of stress and isolation, a lack of knowledge of child growth and development, and a lack of saleable job skills. Located in San Antonio, Texas, the national office conducts research and evaluation, public policy activities, dissemination of program information, training and technical assistance, curriculum and program development, program replication and expansion.
Services: Direct services have formed the core of the AVANCE Intervention Model for hard-to-reach families. Among its core services is a center-based nine-month intensive parent education program serving low-income families with children under two and a half years of age. Parents attend weekly parenting classes, focusing on toy making, parenting skills, and awareness of community services. Other services include nutrition classes and monthly home visits to observe parent-child interactions. These services promote effective parenting leading to healthy child development, optimal socioemotional and educational progress in young children, enhancement of family support systems, and increased parental self-esteem. The AVANCE model begins with parents and their infants and young children. It reaches out to create strong families by offering parent education, social support, opportunities for adult basic and higher education, early childhood education, youth programs, personal development, and community empowerment. The AVANCE model is integrated into all aspects of home, school, and community life. In 1995-96, over 7,000 adults and children received AVANCE services.
Evidence of Effectiveness: After completing the program, AVANCE participants were compared to control groups, which did not receive any services. It was demonstrated that the program had a strong positive impact on parental knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Compared with a control group, mothers in AVANCE's program provided a more organized, stimulating and responsive home environment; provided more developmentally appropriate toys; and interacted more positively with their child. They also initiated more social interactions with their child; used more contingent praise; spent more time teaching their child; spoke more with their child; used more developmentally appropriate speech with their child; and were more encouraging of their child's verbalizations. AVANCE's general program evaluation strategy is based on the premise that once the effectiveness of a program model has been demonstrated through a 62 51 scientific evaluation, ongoing evaluation efforts should focus on both maintaining the quality of the model's implementation and continuing to assess the program's impact by using the collection of data that complement the results of the scientific evaluation. Evidence of Effectiveness: Today, the program provides over 10,000 hours of tutoring per year, organizes four field trips, and a summer meals program that served 2,400 youth last summer. Delhi Center has begun a pilot program to expand childcare options in the neighborhood and has trained a group of Spanish-speaking childcare providers. Delhi Center provided the first childcare training program in Spanish for those women interested in jobs in childcare centers or in establishing their own family-based care. Description: El Valor's core beliefs are respect, inclusion, leadership, advocacy, partnership, and innovation. Programs exist to enrich and empower people with disabilities, the poor and underserved.
Services: El Valor provides services to adults with disabilities and their families. Tocar El Futuro helps create partnerships between Latino parents, community organizations, and the business sector to promote the healthy development and well-being of families participating in efforts to enrich the lives of children in their earliest years. It also strengthens families by providing stimulating learning experiences and personal and educational enrichment opportunities. It is implemented through the Guadalupe Reyes Children and Family Center and its services are free of charge. The early intervention 64 53 component of Tocar el Futuro works to strengthen families with children birth to three years of age who have developmental disabilities. The program provides infant education, stimulation, and physical therapy as well as parental education, counseling, and support. The prevention component provides early education, stimulation, and therapy to children birth to three years of age while helping parents become involved as their child's primary teacher. El Valor is demonstrating that inner-city children and families can achieve excellence and that children with disabilities can be included in education programs to the benefit of all. Head Start helps children to develop critical skills needed for a lifetime of learning. Other services include parenting classes and an Early Intervention Support Group which help parents learn and develop better parenting skills and cope with the demands of their children. Cradle to Classroom is a citywide program developed by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) that targets pregnant teens and teen mothers as well as families with at-risk infants and toddlers. El Valor is working in partnership with CPS and is conducting outreach in all area schools. The program will provide support and educational services to 32 families.
Evidence Mission: Family Star strives to achieve transformation through educationeducation that empowers by developing the potential of people of all ages and cultures to think for themselves, to do for themselves, and to create better lives.
Description: Family Star, a non-profit, grassroots organization was created in 1988. A small but passionate group of inner-city Denver parents and educators was determined to stop the spiraling decline of their community and provide their young children with a healthy future. They worked together to successfully close down a crack house located across the street from the local elementary school. They reclaimed and renovated the vacated building, transforming it into a Montessori early childhood education center. This is a one-of-a-kind public/private collaboration, which offers continuous Montessori education from birth through the end of middle school years. Now, eleven years later, Family Star has not only continued its legacy of providing the highest quality early childhood education to inner-city children, but has become a community focal point for intensive support services in local elementary and junior high schools, boosting school attendance and improving student academic performance. The Dropout Prevention in High Schools provides counseling, tutoring and support services. The Lower East Side Action Plan (LEAP) is another dropout prevention and after-school academic enrichment and summer employment initiative which serves 70 youths year-round. The Teen Mothers Project provides a program for pregnant and parenting students. Grand Street Settlement also has adolescent educational and social development programs, such as the Girls and Young Women's Initiative (GYWI). This program provides more than 100 girls and young women with services and projects to help cultivate their strengths, talents, and career goals. The Progressive Adolescent Vocational Exploration Program, helps 35 youths broaden their knowledge of career opportunities. The Latchkey After-School Program provides homework help and recreation to 6-12 year-olds weekday afternoons. The Summer Day Camp provides a full day of recreation and education during the summer months. Grand Street Settlement also provides the Lower East Side community with early childhood programs, such as The Early Head Start program that cares for infants and toddlers and educates pregnant women, as well as the Head Start program. The Family Support center provides support for families with young children by providing parenting workshops and career counseling. The family support programs provide families with individual appointments, home visits, and social and educational events. The High Road Beacon Center provides a safe haven in a drug-free zone and a comprehensive array of community-based, family-focused services that empower youth and adults to develop their strengths and skills and to become economically and socially self-sufficient. Here, different activities are offered such as Careers in Training; Pregnancy Prevention Services Initiative; Programs for Parents; Parents and Child Therapy; and Leadership Development clubs. Employment Services include The Jobs Cooperative, a program that offers job preparation, placement, and retention assistance for community residents. The Housing Youth Training Program provides tenants with clerical skills training and job preparation, placement, and retention assistance. Paths to Independence provides comprehensive employment services to residents, primarily for early childhood parents.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The Attendance Improvement/Dropout Prevention program services 300 participants each year. The Dropout Prevention in High Schools serves about 450 individuals. The High Road Beacon Center serves 2,000 youths and adults each year. Additional data on program effectiveness was unavailable at press time. LATINO  Description: Established in 1991, this multi-service agency is located in an integrated neighborhood of predominantly low-income families. Communities that were previously unable to access services due to fear and cultural, linguistic, and transportation barriers are now being reached by a variety of services offered in one convenient site. 56 innovation in education, child advocacy, parent involvement and neighborhood development. The majority of staff in the centers are neighborhood residents.
Services: Family Star provides a model Montessori Child-Parent Education Center that serves a mix of families. Two-thirds of the families served are low income. This yearround, full-day, full-week Montessori Center provides a program for children ages 8 weeks through 6 years, a parent education program that gives classes on child development, early literacy, and techniques for reading with children, and a family support program. It has a unique collaboration whereby certain "graduating " Family Star children are able to automatically enter the Denison Montessori School, a Denver Public School magnet program. A middle school component has recently been added. Family Support recognizes that children's learning can be interrupted or made more difficult by the challenges facing their families. To help, they offer an on-site family services coordinator, a pediatric nurse, and a mental health coordinator who provide needed individual support and referrals for families.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Most of the five-year-olds are already reading and parents report that their children are further along developmentally than other children the same age. The Montessori approach has proven particularly successful in boosting academic performance for Latino children. Recently released test scores show that 75 percent of Latino sixth-grade-students at Denison Montessori had a composite score of at or above grade level on the spring 1999 Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Throughout the rest of the district, the average Latino sixth-grader scored approximately two years below grade level. The 25 percent of Denisons Latino students who were not yet at grade level still scored significantly higher than the district average and these students have shown significant academic improvement each year. It is expected that the Latino Family Star children who enter Denison will have even greater academic success, as they will have received continuous Montessori education from eight weeks of age through the end of middle school. The Robert Woodsman National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise named Family Star as one of 23 models of "self-help initiatives that have raised the quality of life in low income communities." GRAND  Mission: The agency provides a comprehensive array of services for some 5,000 area residents annuallyfrom toddlers in Early Head Start and day care to older adults.
Description: Founded in 1916, the Grand Street Settlement is dedicated to providing effective and culturally sensitive services to the residents in the Lower East Side of New York City. Grand Street Settlement provides quality youth development and prevention programs that help at-risk students avoid high-risk behavior, remain and do well in school, and engage in safe, constructive, and enriching activities that will help them prepare for successful futures.
Services: Grand Street's services for young people include Project Team, an attendance improvement and dropout prevention program. This project provides 55 Services: LCDA has several family education and support programs. Nuestras Familias, a family resource program for Hispanic families, provides home-based visitation, centerbased nurturing, parenting classes, and community-based awareness-raising efforts. Fortaleciendo a las Familias, a violence prevention and intervention program for families of school-age children, provides home-based visitations and school-based family/parenting education classes. Youth Prevention and Growth programs include Latino Leadership Clubs that are facilitated at 17 Oklahoma City Public Schools. Through club activities, students learn about the dangers of risky behaviors, develop relationships with role models in the community, practice leadership and responsibility for organizing and implementing community services and fellowship activities, and are exposed to professional and higher education opportunities to encourage high aspirations. Oklahoma Youth Empowerment System coordinates gang prevention and intervention, diversionary activities and individual case management. Learn and Serve is a community service program coordinating local youths into a variety of projects that serve the community while teaching the youths skills and providing an outlet for drugfree activity and involvement. Other services include an HIV/AIDS/STD prevention program; a teen pregnancy prevention program; cultural and arts awareness programs; immunization; child abuse prevention; domestic violence and family preservation program; job referral; and the Tony Reyes Bilingual Child Development Center. Description: In 1964, MACSA's founding coalition observed many problems and injustices in the Mexican-American community. Therefore, they set out to build an institution that would develop local leadership, unify the efforts of existing groups, and address the critical problems the community faced.
Mission: The mission of MACSA is to identify the social, economic, health and education needs of the Latino community of Santa Clara County, and provide services that address those needs.
Services: The Computer Literacy Program provides youth with basic computer skills instruction, library skills, academic enrichment, transcultural appreciation, and social development. The Arts and Crafts Program is designed to develop the artistic and creative skills of youth through art projects, exhibits, career counseling, and educational presentations and workshops. Latchkey Day Care is a state-licensed program serving children from low-income, working-parent families. Children receive quality care, 57 6 tutoring, homework assistance, self-esteem enhancement, life skills training, and recreational and educational workshops. Zero Drop Out Youth Academy provides youth with activities that foster academic success and personal development through basic skills training and gang and drug prevention education. The Homeless Youth Connection provides homeless youth with housing, vocational skills training, employment placement, and support services. Academia Calmecac, which was named after the University of the Aztecs, is an alternative high school that offers youth an opportunity to complete their education and fulfill their long-term goals. New Image is a 14-week intervention program that prepares youth to leave their gangs and change their lifestyle. Las Hermanitas (Little Sisters) assists junior high school girls in resisting peer pressure by developing their skills in the areas of academic enrichment, goal setting, communication, and conflict resolution. Project Crossroads provides teen parents with assistance in school enrollment and with obtaining their GED/high school diploma, support services, parenting workshops, guidance counseling, vocational training referral, and employment placement.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Founded in 1964 as a non-profit organization, MACSA has historically been one of the leading providers of services to Latino youth, families and seniors in Santa Clara County. Additional data on program effectiveness was unavailable at press time. Description: The Office is guided by three basic principles: a) Every child has value, is worthy of unconditional love, and has the right to a quality education; b) Every child can succeed in learning environments where culture, language, diversity, and individual differences are respected and valued; and c) Parents, family, community members, and educators are responsible for enhancing learning opportunities for migrant students in and out of school. The program has expanded and is now operating at 16 sites through California.
Services: The Migrant Education Even Start (MEES) Program helps children and their parents make a successful transition from home to school. The Upward Bound Program serves low-income, potentially first-generation college students. By assisting migrant parents in increasing their literacy and parenting skills, the program can help them prepare their children to become successful learners. Health Services provides dental prevention education, dental screenings, and follow-up dental emergency care to migrant families regionwide. Reading Is Fundamental distributes books to children and youth during the summer. Museum on Wheels provides 5,800 students with hands-on opportunities to interact with primary source art and artifacts that enhance their learning and awareness. Teacher and Staff Development provided teacher and staff 58 development at the Pre-Summer Staff Development Workshop during the summer of 1998. Topics included cultural diversity, study skills, test-taking strategies, and effective first steps in literacy, among others. The Portable Assisted Study Sequence (MEES) program helps to prevent migrant students from dropping out of high school by assisting them with alternative methods for gaining high school credits.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The MEES program operates in 14 school districts, and served over 650 students and about 730 parents in 1998. The various summer residential programs serve over 150 students. The staff serves a very difficult population of youths who generally do not understand the educational system or have felt they no longer wished to participate in it. For many of these youths, the personal interest showed by the staff and the perception that the counselors cared about them appeared to be a key feature in the success of the program. In the same survey, 75 percent of participants responded that the program had helped them make changes in their lives. Description: The evolution of Proyecto Educar (Project Educate) can be traced to the 1980s when LARASA brought together community people involved in or interested in Latino education issues. The group decided to tackle the issue of high dropout rates among Latinos through increased parental participation, and with LARASA's support, created the program Amigos de la Comunidad. In 1996, LARASA's efforts expanded tremendously to include educational forums, an educational newsletter, and cultural competency training for educators.
Services: Community Walk: At the beginning of each school year, members of the community, faculty and school staff, and community leaders deliver complementary school supplies house-to-house to all the families of the school. Breakfast/Forums with the Principal: There are five breakfasts held each school year in which parents are provided the opportunity to meet with the principal and discuss issues. Family Nights: Three events are intended to promote the involvement of families in the schools and are planned during each school year. Parent Leadership Training: Parents are encouraged to attend the Strengthening Families programa series of evening meetings/classes, which focus on parenting skills and leadership training. Amigos has become a "feeder", for participants in the Strengthening Families Program. Ancianos: Activities are planned to enhance the involvement of older Latinos in the education of their children and grandchildren. Proyecto Educar offers a comprehensive curriculum on delivering culturally competent teaching methods to Latino students through its Cultural Competency Training Institute for Educators. Amigos de la Comunidad is designed to be 70 59 a replicable neighborhood support and parent leadership development project for the Latino community.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The Community Walk reaches the most people, and has been referred to as the most important component of the program. The events are well attended by approximately 30-40 parents each session, and they are generally regarded by school staff as being an important part of their efforts to reach out to parents. The Family Nights are also well attended by approximately 120-150 including parents and children. These are intended to be primarily social occasions and an opportunity for families to attend cultural events that they otherwise would not attend. It is an opportunity for the school to build relationships with families, and for the families to have time to "do something fun together." Approximately 1,700 individuals were involved'with the Amigos programs in 1998. PUENTE  Mission: PUENTE's overriding goal is to empower students through skills, confidence and educational resources to make a positive and lasting impact both on their lives and in the community.
Description: PUENTE (People United to Enrich the Neighborhood Through Education) Learning Center is a non-sectarian, non-profit education organization that offers individuals of every age and background learning experiences and empowers them with lifelong productivity. PUENTE, which blends traditional classroom instruction and computer technology, provides tuition-free educational opportunities for people limited by low literacy, poverty, and inadequate English language skills.
Services: PUENTE offers services and programs, including English as a Second Language, individualized instruction, reading improvement, Spanish literacy classes, power of speech classes, and computer applications. It also has youth programs, including pre-school readiness, after-school enrichment, high school tutorials, and effective parenting classes. In addition, PUENTE offers job training services, such as business English, Math, and computer applications as well as job referral services which lead many children to accelerated performance in grade school. After-School Enrichment provides children ages 6 to 12 with homework assistance. Students are offered a supportive learning environment that helps build self-confidence while enabling them to improve their academic performance. High School Tutorial offers academic support to students ages 12 to 18 in the areas of language arts, computer skills, SAT preparation, and special workshops. Adult volunteers provide homework assistance and mentoring. Effective Parenting enables adults to develop an understanding of the important role they play in nurturing the educational, social and emotional development of their children. English as a Second Language helps adults gain English proficiency and fluency. 60 Evidence of Effectiveness: In Pre-school Readiness 100 percent of the 98 children participating in the program learned basic computer skills. Ninety-seven percent of program participants can successfully write their names. Eighty-three students exited the program to enter the mainstream education system. In After-School Enrichment and English Immersion 185 elementary school children enrolled in enrichment programs at PUENTE during the 1998 academic year. The children mastered keyboarding and spelling, completed computer-aided lessons and received homework assistance. English Immersion students improved their English ability by an average of 91 percent in the program's first year. Fifty-five percent of the children more than doubled their assessment test scores, while 32 percent of the students completed an entire two-year English as a Second Language curriculum in just 10 months. In 1998, 97 percent of students reached an advanced level of fluency in English. Studies of graduates revealed that 94 percent of students were attending college and 84 percent were attending fouryear institutions. Mission: The Seneca Center's mission is to address the widespread problem of poverty and provide a forum and facilities to promote self-empowerment.
Description: Founded in 1968, Seneca Center's main goal is to empower the Hunts Point community to help themselves and to allow residents to have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
Services: The Family Counseling Program's primary focus is the prevention of drug abuse, but many other personal problems are dealt with on a daily basis. The GED Preparation Program is designed to prepare students to master necessary literary skills in order to pass the GED Exam. Seneca's Job Training and Placement Services looks to help young adults gain meaningful employment within the business community at large. The Home Finders Program recruits and screens people interested in becoming foster parents. Community Program for the Achievement of Student Success (C.O.M.P.A.S.S.) is an educational support program designed to assist economically and educationally disadvantaged youth with obtaining entry into institutions of higher education, vocational training or employment. The Tutorial Assistance Program is an after-school program that provides homework help, tutoring, and counseling. The Local Employment Action Program (LEAP) is a job readiness and educational enhancement program funded by the New York City Department of Employment and designed to help students complete high school and gain valuable work experience after school.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Seneca is now at the forefront of the new community revitalization efforts going on in Hunts Point. It was instrumental in saving important housing stock and is currently serving as a community resource on housing issues. The program has served the community for 28 years. Mission: To promote children's learning and development by strengthening the capacity of children, families, and communities. This philosophy encompasses the creation of a learning environmentearly childhood through fifth gradewhich produces literate, competent, young people who will become successful, productive citizens.
Description: The program was created to fill a void that existed in many povertystricken communities to provide resources to families to alleviate barriers and to promote student achievement and parental involvement.
Services: Smedley provides extensive before-and after-school programming for student and summer academic and recreation programs. In addition, wide ranges of adult education courses are available. These include English as a Second Language, GED classes, and computer classes. Additional activities focus on education and organizing parents to help their children succeed in school via Strengthening Families and Los Padres initiatives. The school program hosts a variety of family nights focusing on math, reading or family fun. Emergency assistance to families, including food, clothing, school supplies and help in many other areas, is available as well.
Evidence of Effectiveness: The success of the Smedley Family Resource School has been reflected in the increase of student achievement, increased participation in extracurricular student activities by parents, increased student attendance rates, and the consistent decrease of mobility. Mission: The Signature Learning Project (SLP) is a public, private and nonprofit partnership created to develop a comprehensive technology learning environment for low-income students, their families and teachers in hard-to-serve areas.
Description: SLP is an innovative, replicable model that can be used in any community to enhance the educational outcomes of minority students. SLP utilizes telecommunications technology to link schools, students, families, and their communities by using computers and the Internet to create a total learning environment. This project also uses technology in an effort to reduce technological and educational disparities, increase student motivation, make the families participatory in their children's education, and empower a multi-ethnic low-income community to support the children, the school 62 and the project. In addition, the children and adult learners will have an opportunity to compete advantageously in a global marketplace.
Services: The Signature Learning Project trains faculty and staff in the development and use of technology. The project includes teachers, students, families, and the community, which support its children, its schools, and the project. The program introduces a parental involvement and education curriculum that trains parents in the use of technology to assist their children's learning. It involves the local community-based organizations and the business community in an effort to improve communication between the family and the school. Other SLP services are the institution of community learning centers, which increase community investment and involvement in the schools. The Project Advisory Board comprises of representatives from the school, parents, businesses and others who will partner with the project and help build capacity in the collaborative to continuing fundraising and provide leadership. SLP has created a comprehensive training packet that is sensitive to language, cultural and literacy barriers. Families have access to employment counseling, continue education, literacy classes, English as a Second Language classes, citizenship classes and emergency services.
Evidence of Effectiveness: SLP has provided refurbished computers and training to almost 200 parents. Now entering its third year, the pilot SLP has an equipped computer lab in a low-income elementary school with teachers and 30 brand new stateof-the-art computers with Internet access, and printers. The Project is being replicated in Watsonville, California, with funding from Wells Fargo Bank. A formal evaluation is currently being conducted and the dissemination of project results is being planned. Mission: The mission is to enhance the quality of life of children, youth, adults, families, and the developmentally disabled. LFS will provide these services in a culturally competent manner.
Description: Latino Family Services, Inc. (LFS) is a community agency that provides and coordinates comprehensive human services to the residents of Wayne County, Michigan, with a particular emphasis on its Latino residents. The organization welcomes all that need help and the organization is attuned to the unique needs of the region's Latinos. To that end, the organization collaborates with various groups, organizations, and institutions to provide bilingual, culturally sensitive programs. These programs provide support and guidance.
Services: The program provides substance abuse and gang prevention counseling, academic tutoring, computer training, recreation and more in efforts to build confidence and give recreational outlets. Services include the After-School Prevention Program, Survival School, Summer Program, and Summer Youth Employment. All services are 14 63 bilingual. The Clinical Services Department boasts highly successful Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Program, which is staffed by bilingual and bicultural staff. The Family and Parenting Department offer Infant Mortality and Parenting Education Program. Its priority is to identify, form relationships with, and counsel families who are at risk for child abuse. The Senior Services Department offers communal meals, activities, counseling, and field trips to Latino/Latina seniors. The organization has a Telecare Program that checks in daily with homebound seniors by phone, as well as a transportation program. The HIV/AIDS Department offers a wide range of free services from confidential testing to support groups. The program Creating Consciousness Program works to prevent HIV from intravenous drug use by offering a licensed "harm reduction and syringe exchange." Evidence of Effectiveness: While the organization currently does not have evidence of effectiveness, the Center collaborates with the University of Michigan and area businesses. It is also an affiliate of the National Council of La Raza. 64 "Bv the Authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to advance the development of human potential, to strengthen the Nation's capacity to provide high-quality education, and to increase the opportunities for Hispanic Americans to participate in and benefit from Federal education programs, it is hereby ordered..." Executive Order 12900 President Clinton, February 22, 1994 Recognizing the importance of increasing the level of educational attainment for Hispanic Americans, President Clinton established the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans through Executive Order 12900 in September 1994. Guiding the White House Initiative is the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, whose responsibility is to advise the president, the secretary of education and the nation on the most pressing educational needs of Hispanic Americans. The White House Initiative also provides the connection between the Commission, the White House, the federal government and the Latino community throughout the nation.
Current White House Initiative activities include initiating policy seminars, developing issue briefs, factsheets and information kits on the condition of Latinos in education, facilitating community outreach, increasing understanding and awareness of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and coordinating high-level efforts across the national government to improve education for Hispanics. These activities are driven by the president's request to assess: Hispanic educational attainment from pre-K through graduate and professional school; State, private sector, and community involvement in education; The extent to which federal activities in education complement existing efforts to increase education opportunities; and Hispanic federal employment and federal recruitment strategies.