Community Building
Hacienda’s community building programs focus on providing educational and social support to children and parents. Our programs promote healthy and vibrant parent-child relationships, helping children reach their full potential and giving parents the tools to support their child's educational and emotional development. All Community Building programs are administered by Hacienda's bilingual and bicultural staff or other culturally-specific community partners. Community Building programs include:
Early Childhood Education: Portland Niños is the first step in Hacienda's continuum of educational support to families from birth through adulthood. The program provides early childhood education to parents and developmental activities for children from birth to age five, monitoring their progress and promoting kindergarten readiness.
Afterschool programs: Residents in grades first through eighth have the option to attend on-site afterschool programming everyday after school and five days a week during the critical summer months. Programming is designed to increase family participation, school attendance, reports of a positive experience in school, and high school graduation. In addition, the program focuses on reducing youth risk factors such as gang involvement, dropping out of school, and drug and alcohol abuse.
SSSES: Social & Support Services for Education Success (SSSES) is an academic support program for at-risk youth providing case managers for over 50 low-income Hispanic middle-schoolers and their families throughout North and Northeast Portland. This is one of Hacienda's few off-site programs and exists as a partnership between Multnomah County and local middle schools.
Other resident services:
Community Gardening: Residents at two housing sites in Portland and Molalla participate in community gardening at on-site garden plots. The community gardens exist for the physical and social benefit of the residents and are made possible through collaborative support from Growing Gardens (local gardening non-profit), seed and start donations from local farmers, and experienced community volunteers. Click here to read about the 2009 growing season at Los Jardines de La Paz community gardens.
For more information, contact Tanya Wolfersperger, Director of Community Building, tanya@haciendacdc.org
