Our Programs > Parent Involvement Worker
PVF funded new ESL centers in East Palo Alto that are located in low-income apartment complexes, and provide child care while the adults are in class. In a program expansion, PVF created the Parent Involvement Worker Program that places recent ESL graduates as bilingual workers in the classroom to ease the language barrier and improve communications between teachers and parents in East Palo Alto.
“Education truly is the only way out of poverty. When Nancy graduated from the ESL program at Rosalie Rendu I pushed her to become a Parent Involvement Worker in the local elementary school, where she could encourage Spanish-speaking parents to become engaged in their children’s education. She has grown in her position and now wants to be a teacher. She started at Cañada College in January. Without PVF’s help in getting her working in the schools, she would not have realized that she too could go to college and become a teacher.” - Sister Trinitas Hernandez, Rosalie Rendu Center, East Palo Alto, Calif.
ESL graduate Martha Perez, working as a Parent Involvement Worker Program, helps a seventh grader with an art project at
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"Parent Involvement Worker Martha Perez was my link, bridging not only a language barrier but a cultural gap as well. I am amazed by her creativity, initiative and never-failing positive attitude." - Amy Sumners, classroom teacher, Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto, CA.
Photo by Rick Rocamora