| Home |
| Action Agendas |
| Accomplishments |
| Funding Partners |
| Event Calendar |
| Contact SOAR |
SOAR recently received a grant from the Martin Luther King County Children and Family Commission to facilitate a community-wide planning project for a Latino Healthy Families Program (LHFP) model. It is the intent of the Commission to use this model to guide future RFPs for Latino family services, to the extent that funding is available. As a community-wide collaboration and the planning entity for the project, SOAR’s sole interest lies in the development of a sound model that will work for young Latino parents. As such, SOAR will not be eligible for or interested in applying for funding to implement the LHFP model.
The purpose of the project is to develop a program model for serving young (under 22 years), expecting or first time Latino parents; both mothers and fathers. The commission is particularly interested in teen parents. The Commission expects the final product to be a home-visiting model with enhanced family support services that are proven to work with young Latino parents. The Commission also expects the project to be Latino-community driven with an emphasis on input from young, first-time Latino parents. Project planning is scheduled for completion by December 31, 2009.
The project will be led by Mercedes Cordova-Hakim, SOAR Early Childhood Program Manager, assisted by a group of community liaisons (Promotores) from the Latino community.
The project will consist of the following phases:
- Review of relevant evaluation/research on programs that have proven effective in serving young, first time Latino parents; both nationally and locally. (July-August)
- Interviews with local agencies providing services to young, first-time Latino families. Information gathered will include the type of service offered, outcomes of the service, and additional resources/services needed to effectively serve this population. One or more staff from programs will be interviewed by phone. Interviews will not exceed 90-minutes. (July – August)
- Focus groups with young, first time Latino parents and their extended families. SOAR will facilitate 11 focus groups with young, first time Latino Parents and 4 focus groups with extended family members. Focus groups will be held in all areas of Martin Luther King County. (September – October)
- Development of draft program model based upon input of focus groups, agency interviews and research. (October – November)
- Vetting of the draft model to the Latino community. The draft model will be presented to the Latino community for review and further input. Agencies will be asked to comment in writing. SOAR will convene 2-3 follow-up events with focus group participants for this purpose. (November – December)
- Final model submitted to Martin Luther King County Children and Family Commission (December 31)
If you are an agency providing services to young, expecting or first time Latino parents or know of such an agency, please contact one of us. We would like to interview agency staff and are interested in involving the parents you work with in a focus group. SOAR will work with you to set up the focus groups and will cover related expenses.
Contact:
Mercedes Cordova-Hakim, LHF Project Coordinator, mercedes@childrenandyouth.org, 206.336.6938
Harla Tumbleson, Director of SOAR, harla@childrenandyouth.org 206.336.6930