ENCORE Brings College Readiness Awareness to "Colonias"
McAllen, TX - Febriary 25, 2009

MCALLEN - One hundred Colonia leaders conglomerated at South Texas Community College in McAllen last week. This group gathered to learn more about the importance of higher education and college readiness as they prepared to disseminate this information into the local Colonias or neighborhoods in an effort to empower Latino parents and build advocacy in favor of college readiness.

A research study conducted by Texas Valley Communities Foundation on college readiness reported that 92 percent of parents in the Rio Grande Valley expected their children to attend college. However, even with more than 85 percent of them willing to commit several hours a week to make sure their children go to college, achieving this goal is complicated. Not knowing how to proceed during the process, especially parents in this economically underdeveloped region of the state, is a major disadvantage.

On the other hand, ENCORE continues its community outreach efforts to mobilize advocacy for education in South Texas. Coordinators and members have partnered up with the South Texas Promotora Association to conduct college readiness training sessions in order to help parents and students become aware of the many resources available for college.

The South Texas Promotora Association or STPA is comprised of Colonia leaders, primarily dedicated to bring health related information to thousands of families residing in different neighborhoods throughout South Texas.

Along with STPA, ENCORE is working to forge a continuous partnership with these Colonia leaders to promote the importance of higher education and disseminate college readiness information.

"STPA is dynamic organization and critical to the success of the ENCORE program as they support the effective dissemination of college readiness information in the community, especially to parents and students living in 'Colonias' throughout the Valley," said ENCORE Project Director Ernesto Villarreal."Our partnership with STPA will have a long lasting impact in the lives of many families by educating parents and students on the importance of higher education and college readiness."

During the meeting all participants were provided with college readiness tools and were given an opportunity to work in groups, analyze the text, discuss their ideas, and present out to the group as a whole.

"This training has helped us by providing us the tools to make a much bigger difference and awareness in our community," said Merida Escobar, president of STPA. "The community impact is one that gives parents and students hope for their future, especially those who didn't think they had the money or resources for college."

The ENCORE team has plans of conducting follow-up sessions with STPA, and has developed evaluation methods to measure the impact of this outreach effort.