Engaged Latino Parents Advancing School Outcomes (ELPASO) is a new grassroots imitative funded by the Community Foundation of Boulder County as part of its School Readiness Initiative. The program aims to empower the Latino community to drive school readiness outcomes for children throughout the county.
ELPASO uses an innovative model in which school readiness coordinators, trained by the program, reach out to Latino households throughout the community. Parent leaders who engage with the program hold cafecitos in their homes in order to educate other parents about the importance of school readiness and strategies to take advantage of resources available within the community.
Andrew Brodsky led a formative evaluation of the first year of the program in order to identify areas of success and challenges in implementing the program model, and to inform program growth moving forward. The evaluation incorporated interviews with program staff, coordinators, and other stakeholders, as well as reviews of documents and interview data collected by the program. The evaluation will be used to help guide the program as it becomes established in the community.
