By Chris Barge, Director, School Readiness Initiative
ELPASO – Engaged Latino Parents Advancing School Outcomes – is a program of The Community Foundation that seeks to close the achievement gap by building the Latino parent voice. Chely Meraz is one of 30 leaders trained by ELPASO this year. She told us it has transformed her, her children, and her community.
Before becoming an ELPASO parent leader, Chely spent her time at home focused on keeping the house clean. If her children asked her to play with them, she would tell them she was busy, hand them a tablet, and ask them to let her work.
“Now I realize how important it is to interact with them,” she told us recently. Today, this Latina parent is one of many leaders transforming lives.
Now that Chely is an ELPASO leader, she spends less time cleaning the house, and more time in her children’s classrooms. She reinforces the teacher’s lessons at home.
“I play with my 4-year-old, but in a way where I’m teaching him and he’s learning his shapes and colors, and we are reading together,” she said.
Her 6th-grader is benefiting as well. Before ELPASO, he was three grade levels behind. But now, Chely helps him with his homework. This Spring, his teacher told Chely her son was a different person. He was now completely interested in school. And he was caught up – on grade level.
“I realized the only difference was me. I’m involved. That’s the difference,” Chely said.
Now she knocks on her neighbors’ doors in Lafayette, and invites them to her home to learn what she’s learning. “I am no longer nervous or afraid to knock on doors,” she said. “If parents tell me they are not interested, I tell them I didn’t use to be either. But now I am, and my children are thriving because of it.”
ELPASO is also having an impact on Chely personally. She has decided to become a bilingual preschool teacher. “I already have my ELPASO diploma, so this is the next step,” she said.
We applaud Chely and the more than 50 Latino parent leaders who have helped us engage more than 1,600 Boulder County parents of young children during the first two years of ELPASO.
To learn more about the impact of ELPASO and our School Readiness Initiative, read “Building a Latino Parent Revolution” and view our video, “Veronica’s Story.” Click here if you’d like to make a donation.
For more information, contact Chris Barge at Chris@commfound.org, 303.442.0436, ext. 114. And be sure to tune in to KGNU, 88.5 FM on Monday, May 23, at 8:30 a.m. – Chris will host “A Public Affair.” We’ll be talking about ELPASO and the Latino parent revolution!
