Early Childhood Program Prepares Children
for Better Future
In a recent newsletter, we introduced our Early Childhood Initiative and described PASOs' efforts to help shape the future leaders of South Carolina during their earliest years. The program involves connecting parents with vital resources, including those related to literacy. Here's an update from Ilva Vega, a Community Health Worker working in partnership with PASOs and Palmetto Health Children's Hospital Outpatient Clinic, funded by United Way of the Midlands.
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Q: So tell us about your work on behalf of PASOs and its partners. How do you engage the community?
A: In addition to promoting literacy and connecting families to resources that support their young children's health and optimal development, I also spend much of my time addressing the social determinants of health. My work supports families in promoting the well-being of their children. More specifically, I engage Latino families who come to Palmetto Health in discussions about their health, about the laws in this country, and about services that ease the transition to living here. I teach them how to access and use these resources so that families have the support they need to be successful.
Q: What is the Reach Out & Read program? Why is it important for Latino families in South Carolina?
A: Reach Out and Read is a national program, but PASOs has built a partnership with Palmetto Health and United Way of the Midlands to expand that program to include Latino families in our community. Our goal is to create a routine of reading together. Parents reading with their children helps to develop andprepare their child for a better future, so often what I do is provide the location of the nearest library, provide library cards while they are at the clinic, and guide families with other literacy resources, such as ESL classes.
Q: What is the greatest challenge you face in your work?
A: Many Latino immigrants do not know how to read in English, so it is difficult for them to read to their small children. We teach them techniques to engage in reading books, no matter what their reading abilities are, so that they can demonstrate the importance of literacy to their children. We also provide books printed in Spanish so that parents are able to read with their children in their native language.
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A report released by the Child Trends Hispanic Institute gives us new insight into nation's fastest growing population, Latino children. The data demonstrates great strides and potential in the community, but also reveals disparities in socioeconomic status and academic achievement.
Most Latino children in the US live with two parents. As a result, Latino children enter school with valuable social-emotional skills equal to or greater than their peers.
Nearly 70% of Hispanic children have at least one parent with full-time, steady employment.
Hispanic children are more likely than any other group to eat home-cooked meals with family (58.9%).
Latino children represent more than one-third of all children in the U.S.
As of 2012, 52% of Hispanic children attended an early childhood education program.
The high school dropout rate among Hispanic youth (ages 16 to 24) has decreased to 12.7% in 2012.
While Latino parents work on early learning activities (reading, singing songs, learning letters & numbers) at a high rate, less than one-third of Latino parents read to their children daily, as compared with two-thirds of parents with white children.
More than one-third of Hispanic children live in "concentrated poverty".
Support PASOs Beaufort at the Latin Music Festival
PASOs Beaufort is looking for 18 volunteers to assist with La Isla Magazine's Latin Music Festival celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month on October 19. Four young women will represent a local non-profit organization in order to raise awareness and funds on behalf of the Latino community. The young lady who raises the most donations will be crowned Miss La Isla Magazine 2015. Miss Silvana Natalia Ascención will be representing PASOs! For more information, contact Yajaira Benet-Smith at (843) 476-6189 and visit La Isla Magazine on Facebook to vote for Silvana!
PASOs is a community-based organization whose vision is a healthy South Carolina with a healthy Latino community. PASOs provides education, family support services, organizational capacity building and community leadership development in South Carolina.
PASOs es una organización comunitaria cuya visión es tener una Carolina del Sur saludable con una comunidad latina saludable. PASOs ofrece educación, servicios de apoyo a las familias, y apoya a las organizaciones a incrementar su capacidad de trabajo con la población latina, así como desarrollo de líderes comunitarios a lo largo de Carolina del Sur.
