La Fuerza de Familias Latinas
Literacy Partners is proud to present La Fuerza de Familias Latinas, a new program of education for Spanish-speaking parents and caregivers that helps them boost their children’s early learning, social emotional growth, and school readiness.
The program is based on La Fuerza de Creer, a telenovela style miniseries that we created with Univision, Too Small to Fail, and Vroom (an initiative of the Bezos Family Foundation) to focus on early childhood development. The series has been seen by more than 1.4 million viewers on Univision.
This unique drama celebrates the many ways Latino families and caregivers take action to promote their children’s healthy development and social emotional growth. The Spanish-language mini-series tells the story of a fictional community center (el Centro Comunitario Los Lagos) and the families who rely on it for child care, for adult literacy classes, and for other essential services. Their true-to-life stories model ways in which viewers who face similar dynamics may further develop their own capacity as parents and caregivers.
We have created a series of digital resources and standards aligned online workshops based on the telenovela for Head Start programs, pre-K, libraries and other community based organizations to use with parents and caregivers. The power of storytelling and digital tools for remote learning help parents recognize their vital role as their child’s first teacher and inspire actions that can positively impact their child’s brain development. Our program reinforces the importance of bilingualism and other important themes about child development with specific calls to action: caregivers are encouraged to play, read, sing, and tell stories with their children. Our program uses a dual-generation intervention for literacy, by empowering caregivers to see themselves as experts on the needs of their children and capable of promoting their early learning and school readiness. Please email Michelle at michellel@literacypartners.org to learn more about the La Fuerza de Familias.
Read the program evaluation.
Learn more about La Fuerza de Familias.
We Speak NYC
In 2017, the NYC Mayor’s Office came to Literacy Partners to ask our help on an innovative solution: a television show to help new immigrants improve their English and learn more about life in NYC. Thus was born We Speak NYC, a seven-episode dramatic comedy produced by Literacy Partners. The series portrays immigrant New Yorkers in a positive and realistic way, while the characters model the kind of language viewers need to get things done in the city. In addition to a broadcast run on the City’s TV station, We Speak NYC is the basis of a highly successful English conversation practice group run by Literacy Partners and dozens of other non-profits. WSNYC won a 2019 Emmy Award for Best Instructional Program.
In two-hour classes, enthusiastic and compassionate facilitators use the Emmy award-winning educational video series We Speak NYC (formerly We Are New York) as a narrative springboard to discuss immigrant-centered scenarios and how to access NYC resources (e.g., paid sick leave, translators for parent-teacher conferences, free and confidential mental health services). Participants work together to practice English, solve problems, and advocate for themselves and their families in an English dominant world.
Learn More
-Volunteer as a facilitator
-Join a group as a student
-Visit nyc.gov/LearnEnglish for more information.
Please email Adriane at adrianel@literacypartners.org to learn more about our English conversation groups.