News

Parent-Child Home Program Responds to White House Call to Action With
Commitment to Expand Programming for Latino Families

PCHP Joins 150 Public and Private Sector Organizations Who Answered The White House’s Call to Action

 
WASHINGTON, DC October 15, 2015 – Today, in an announcement made by President Obama, The Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) was named 1 of 150 organizations participating in the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics’ 25^th anniversary call to action. PCHP answered the call with a Commitment to Expand Critical School Readiness Support in Hispanic Communities.  PCHP envisions a world where every child enters school ready to succeed because every parent has the knowledge, skills, and resources to build school readiness where it starts: the home.  Through this Commitment to Action, PCHP will provide underserved Latino families, with a particular focus on Mexican-Americans in New York City, Chicago, IL, and San Bernardino/Riverside Counties, CA, the necessary skills and tools to ensure their children achieve their greatest potential in school and in life.
“PCHP is thrilled to have answered the White House’s call to action on Educational Excellence for Hispanics,” said Sarah Walzer, Chief Executive Officer of The Parent-Child Home Program. “PCHP is honored to celebrate all the Latino families committed to preparing their children for school and life success. Currently PCHP is working with over 1,900 Latino families, to ensure that today’s two and three-year-olds become tomorrow’s leaders.”
On September 15th, The White House also recognized PCHP as a “Bright Spot” for advancing Hispanic Educational Excellence. PCHP will now be featured in a national online catalog that includes 230 programs that invest in key education priorities for Hispanics.
In October 2014, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics launched a Year of Action, and with it a national call for Commitments to Action in honor of its 25^th anniversary. In the spirit of what President Obama calls a “shared responsibility,” the Initiative challenged the public and private sectors to make meaningful and quantifiable contributions to expand and support the educational outcomes and opportunities for the Latino community. On October 15, 2015, on the culmination of the 2015 Hispanic Heritage Month, the President announced 150 Commitments to Action with a collective investment of nearly $340 million that will build on, and accelerate federal, state, and local investments in high-quality education, from cradle-to-career for the nation’s Latino community. The full list of Commitments to Action and online Commitment catalog will be featured at www.ed.gov/hispanicinitiative.
“It is an honor to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and the Initiative’s 25th anniversary with the release of nearly 150 commitments to action that will help strengthen the educational outcomes and opportunities for the Hispanic community from cradle-to-career,” said Alejanda Ceja, Executive Director of White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. “These commitments will bring critical resources to Latino students and families across this country, are examples of meaningful investments being made in support of the largest, youngest and arguably the fastest growing minority community in the country and will help fulfill America’s future.”
PCHP commits to providing more under-resourced Latino families the opportunity to participate in its proven Program.  This commitment will support outreach to families, staff training, curricular materials, 92 home visits to Program families, as well as connecting them to other needed social services.  This commitment to expand will build upon the strong partnerships that PCHP has developed with Masa Inc. and El Sol Neighborhood Education Center, respectively, and be strengthened by the partnerships it is establishing with El Valor and Juntos Podemos/Together We Can to develop new sites specifically focused on Mexican-American families, and with News Corp/HarperCollins Publishers, which has committed to donate 4,000 Spanish books for the expansion sites.
 
About Parent Child Home Program
The Parent-Child Home Program’s (PCHP) nationwide network of program sites provides under-resourced families with the necessary tools to ensure their children achieve their greatest potential in school and in life.  Since 1965, PCHP has been assisting underserved communities in replicating and expanding this proven school readiness program that builds early parent-child verbal interaction and learning at home.  Through twice-weekly visits by highly trained community-based Early Learning Specialists, PCHP provides families the skills, materials (books and educational toys), and support to help parents engage and teach their children.  Almost 50 years of research shows that the Program effectively increases school readiness, decreases the need for special education services before grade 3 by 50%, and increases participants’ high school graduation rates by over 30% to the same level as their middle income peers.  For more information please go to www.parent-child.org.
Media Contact:
Parent-Child Home Program
Courtney Inman Tel: 516.883.7481
 

###