Literacy Partners and Univision launch workshops to provide free books and build a reading community for hispanic parents

Literacy Partners and Univision recently announced their alliance to launch a new virtual workshop series and virtual community: Leyendo en Casa, a monthly workshops series for parents-by-parents is a new initiative of the La Fuerza de Familias Latinas campaign which provides resources and programming to help parents engage children in early learning and literacy activities. that provides parents and caregivers with dynamic digital resources, reading strategies, read-alouds, and other tools—drawing from home culture and language—to both strengthen early learning and literacy and promote a love of reading. Workshop participants also have the opportunity to receive a free age and culturally-appropriate bilingual book to help build their library at home. This series also features educational media created by Literacy Partners and Univision including short video clips with Gaby Rivero, best remembered for portraying Maestra Jimena on the popular Univision telenovela Carrusel.

Leyendo en Casa virtual workshop series launches on the first week of Heritage Month for US Latinos, aiming to empower 5,000 caregivers by helping to bridge home and school learning. Workshops will broadcast live once a month at 5 PM in each US time zone and have the capacity to host up to 1,200 parents and caregivers per month virtually from across the country.

Two-thirds of Latino youngsters are reading below grade level, and that gap continues to increase post-COVID-19.

Immigrant parents face many obstacles to engaging in their child’s education well beyond language barriers: systemic challenges, social and personal issues leave them under-resourced and overly stressed, which impacts their confidence in their ability to get their children prepared for school. Spanish-speaking staff at care and education centers are understaffed and rely heavily on upon translated parent engagement resources with often unfamiliar Anglo culture-centered messaging; parents work multiple jobs which makes it difficult to attend workshops in person. These obstacles, made worse by the pandemic, leave parents emotionally depleted, socially isolated, and in need of a parent, and community to support and motivate the creation of reading moments with their families.

Research shows that a child’s academic success depends on whether their parents become engaged in their education. Literacy and reading habits are most powerful in a child’s early years when parents have the most influence on their development and love of learning.

La Fuerza de Familias Latinas initiative by Literacy Partners aims to boost self-efficacy in parents regarding their powerful influence over their child’s early learning and development. Workshop data revealed that when parents realize that they are already engaging in literacy-rich activities at home such as talking about pictures on their phone, exploring music patterns of their favorite salsa drummer, or telling stories in the kitchen, they realize that they have everything they need to support their reading skills. La Fuerza de Familias Latinas workshop data is tracking positive results:

• 94% of parents in the current La Fuerza’s family engagement workshop series implement what they learn in the workshops with their own families and;
• 72% are receiving the validating message that they are their child’s most important teacher.

Parents don’t have to identify as readers to promote reading habits at home. Latino culture offers rich histories and traditions from which parents draw to tell their children stories, sing together, and play in Spanish, requiring little English to influence the trajectory of their education. Surrounding children with books at home also helps children build vocabulary, increase literacy comprehension, and expand their imaginations. In Leyendo en Casa workshops, parents learn how to activate a book by making funny voices, asking questions to spark imagination, and explaining the pictures. These 60-minute virtual workshops are easy to connect to by Zoom and are low risk for busy Latino parents to plug into. When they join the workshop they feel empowered by facilitators who are 100% parents who have been through La Fuerza’s family engagement workshops, they feel encouraged by Univision- a trusted messenger, and they meet other Spanish-speaking parents like them, who want to learn how to support reading skills in their young children.

“A veces no nos damos cuenta de la importancia de los momentos cotidianos. Este es un momento donde solo creía que era pasar un rato juntos y ahora sé que es más que eso.”

"Sometimes we don’t realize how important daily moments are. This one is from a moment I thought it was only spending some time together but now I know it was more than that"

- a quote from a parent participant.

Parents who want to participate in the program should visit the program landing page to subscribe. Upon completing the workshop they receive a book to their home with additional tips to promote family literacy and an invitation to join more free workshops with reading incentives. The workshop is a doorway to a growing number of US Latino-centered parent education resources from the collaboration between Literacy Partners and Univision.

Additionally, in an effort to support Latino parents and mitigate the impact of pandemic-related early learning loss on their young children, the La Fuerza de Familias Latinas campaign provides resources and programming to help parents engage children in early learning and literacy activities. The campaign’s digital hub, which is fully available in both Spanish and English, includes:

• “Juntas En Casa” (“Together at Home”): A series of the 5-minute talk show “webisodes,” hosted by celebrated actress Gaby Rivero, in conversation with Spanish-speaking parents and caregivers. These webisodes feature short discussions, video clips, and tips on a range of early learning topics, like reading together, following your child’s lead, and building your child’s self-esteem.

• Momentos de Conexión (“Moments of Connection”): A series of 1-minute “quick hits” on early childhood development topics, featuring clips of parents and children engaging in early learning and literacy activities together. These are intended to model language-rich parent-child interactions and offer simple tips to parents looking for creative ways to support their child’s early development.

• Read-Alouds: A series of popular bilingual children’s books, read aloud on video, to help parents engage their young children in storytime.

• Virtual Parenting Workshops: A series of interactive workshops hosted by Literacy Partners staff and other experts to help parents learn more about ways to engage their families and communities in early language and literacy development.

These resources—short videos with adored telenovela actors, read-alouds, and community workshops that provide tips, tools, and training to support parents with young children—will be distributed through the Leyendo en Casa workshop series. La Fuerza de Familias Latinas, as well as the Leyendo en Casa workshops, builds on Univision’s long-standing work to support Hispanic parents and improve educational outcomes for their children. Univision has reached millions of parents with news and entertainment programming to help them prepare their young children for success in kindergarten and beyond.

The La Fuerza de Familias Latinas campaign is currently featured on Univision’s local networks, Univision Contigo, and is distributed to more than 36,000 families who subscribe to Univision’s Spanish-language text message program for parents. With Univision’s support, the Leyendo en Casa workshops will be able to reach more parents and get books into the hands of families.

“Being together with your family and raising your children can be one of the best experiences in life if you have the support you need,” said Gaby Rivero. “I’m happy to be part of this effort to help Spanish-speaking families. It was a real pleasure to interview parents [for the video] and learn from how they love their children and work so hard to help them learn and get ready for school.”

“Latina mothers and Latino fathers have the future of this country in their hands,” said Anthony Tassi, CEO of Literacy Partners. “We are honored to amplify their voices and share their success stories with the broader community through the La Fuerza de Familias Latinas initiative. Families together have proved their resilience and will move our communities forward as we see the powerful influence they have on their child’s early learning and literacy development.”

To register for the event click HERE.

Download the event flier HERE.

Parents, caregivers, and community organizations can access all the abovementioned free tools and resources at: https://www.lafuerzadefamilias.org