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Para Los Niños 

Description

Para Los Niños is a small grassroots community organization committed to its mission of fostering academic success for every Latino student through parent and community involvement. Conceived by a group of Latino parents in 2003, Para Los Niños was organized as a response to the importance of education and the related economic, linguistic and cultural challenges that inhibit access to education for many Latino families.  Since 2003, Para Los Niños has successfully developed and executed a number of programs emphasizing early childhood development, education, family literacy, and cultural heritage that serve the Latino and immigrant population of South King County.  Para Los Niños and its programs represent the desire for community change that supports success for all immigrant families through education.

Mission Statement
"Fostering academic success for every Latino student through parent and community involvement."
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Para Los Niños
425 SW 144th St 
Burien 
WA
98166 
(206) 241-7900 

Lupita Ayon 
Executive Director 

Programs

Para Los Niños Programs

Aprendamos Juntos (Let’s Learn Together) is our family literacy program that provides children and their parents with English language and learning tools to engage and promote academic achievement and advancement.  Utilizing a collaborative approach through joint partnership with Highline Community College and the HSD, Aprendamos Juntos addresses educational success as a family venture in two parts:
  1. 1. Parents receive 4 levels of ESL instruction from licensed and certified teachers provided by Highline Community College.
  2. 2. Culturally competent and age-appropriate curricula for 43 children ages 0-14 focus on providing tools for early acquisition and ongoing improvement of literacy,  reading comprehension and mathematics. 

*Descubriendo Nuestra Cultura (Discovering our Culture) is a month long summer program for youth K-3. Participates engage in classroom work that emphasized their rich Latino culture and take a variety of field trips in the Puget Sound area.

Recent Successes and Current Challenges

Aprendamos Juntos (Let's Learn Together) has been the signature program at Para Los Niños since its inception in early 2005. A family based program incorporating parents and their children of all ages, we have been supporting and following many of our students and parents for multiple years.  All of our participants come from the Highline School District service area, where current literacy rates for Latino students (the majority student population) hover at around 50%. 
After six years of programming and testing for participants in the greater Burien area, we have begun to realize the impact of our programming on family literacy.  The results are dramatic: 100% of students participating in one full year or more of the Aprendamos Juntos program will read at grade-level or demonstrate the skills necessary to successfully enter the Kindergarten classroom.
Our current organizational need is the means to expand programming to meet demand in the local schools.  Our success is limited by the number of sites we can open and thus the number of students we can include in the programming.

Evaluation


Para Los Niños was started by a group of Latino parents in South King County who were concerned about their children’s education and future success. In addition to providing English classes for parents and culturally relevant tutoring for Latino students, the organization serves as a bridge between Latino families and the school system. Para Los Niños  serves children and families in the Highline School District, which includes Burien, White Center, SeaTac, Normandy Park and Des Moines, and where more than 30 percent of the students are currently Latino.

Accessibility and Cultural Relevancy
Para Los Niños provides culturally relevant tutoring for Latino students who are struggling in school, and also holds twice-a-week English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for parents while offering bi-lingual childcare and school-age programming for children at the same time. A benefit of this combined program is that the percentage of women attending the ESL classes is much higher than other ESL classes since they can bring their children.

Financial Health
Although Para Los Niños has been going through recent financial difficulties, the board has provided strong leadership in creating a realistic budget and creatively generating new funding sources for this important work.

Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

DateAmountPurpose
3/10/2013 $10,000.00support general operating expenses.
6/10/2012 $5,000.00support general operating expenses.
6/10/2011 $10,000.00to support Aprendamos Juntos (Let's Learn Together) family literacy program.
6/10/2011 $15,000.00support general operating expenses.
6/10/2010 $15,000.00support general operating expenses.
9/22/2005 $12,500.00support general operating expenses.

Financials

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