(en Español)

Family Literacy in the Hispanic Community
Family life plays an important role in all cultures. The Hispanic family is central to the social, emotional and educational development of each child. Parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts all share the responsibility of guiding the youth to success at school and in the community. The Hispanic Family Learning Institute (HFLI) recognizes and values the importance of family in Hispanic culture and celebrates family participation in children’s education.

Family literacy offers Hispanic families access to education and a learning environment that maintains strong cultural and language bonds between parents and their children. These families can gain core skill sets of language acquisition, increase basic skills acquisition, build strong connections with the community and develop productive connections to educational institutions.

HFLI Mission
To expand and enhance family literacy and other services for the educational, social and economic advancement of Hispanic families in need.
 
This mission will be accomplished through groundbreaking work in the following areas:

• Program Development—adapting and aligning literacy services to specifically address the needs and build upon the unique assets of Hispanic families.
• Program Support—supporting literacy programs through training and dissemination as they strive to serve the growing Hispanic community.
• Research—developing a clear understanding of the needs specific to Hispanic families, researching the effectiveness of family literacy programs for Hispanic families, and identifying existing research to support and direct the mission listed above. 
• Policy Development and Advocacy—advising literacy practitioners and advocating for families, based on information from the above activities, to provide widespread access to quality services specific to the needs of Hispanic families.

Goals

• Design and implement family literacy programs to meet the specific needs of Hispanic populations with emphasis on families at the bottom end of the education and economic continuum. These models will also ensure that Hispanic parents of preschool and elementary school aged children can connect in supportive ways to their children’s schools and to their own education.
• Collaborate with Hispanic advocates and ESL researchers to expand high-quality literacy services for this population.
• Support literacy programs through training and dissemination as they strive to best serve the growing community of Hispanic immigrants.

Some of HFLI’s current projects and initiatives are listed below. Explore the rest of the site to discover other resources HFLI provides for Hispanic families and ESL professionals.

Click here to learn about current HFLI projects.