Latin American Immigrants: Our Future Volunteers

By José A. Velázquez
National Center for Family Literacy

Abstract:

As a volunteer or professional working with Latino immigrant populations, you can take a proactive step towards engaging your Latin American English Language Learner (ELL) adults in your community. Capitalize on their cultural and sociolinguistic strengths by nurturing their desire for acceptance in their new community through volunteerism. This resource will provide you with basic information on volunteerism for your Spanish speaking students. The handouts in Spanish are designed to stimulate interactive discussions among your students. As a Spanish speaker, you are the ideal candidate for facilitating these conversations. If Spanish is not your strength, you can still take a strong supportive role in this process by asking emerging leaders in your ESL classroom to co-facilitate this process or invite a Spanish speaking volunteer in your community to help you. Whatever the case may be, you may be the only role model of volunteerism they know and it is important for you to be available in this discussion. This resource will help you help them become meaningfully engaged in schools and community.

Note: This resource will present several conversations using streaming video. To view them, you should have the Windows Media Player installed on your computer (Each media clip may take several minutes to download, especially if you are using a slower connection to the Internet). This is a free download and should only take a few minutes. Make sure to read all of the installation instructions before beginning the download. You can verify that your computer is equipped with Windows Media Player, or download Windows Media Player using the link below.

Click the link below to download Windows Media Player. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b446ae53-3759-40cf-80d5-cde4bbe07999&displaylang=en

You will also have the opportunity to read text transcripts of any media files, in case you are not able to access them electronically.

Introduction:

Changing demographics demonstrate the rapidly growing number of immigrants from Latin American countries. While this poses a unique challenge to communities throughout the United States, it also presents an opportunity to nurture and develop cadres of Spanish speaking volunteers to serve as contributing resources to the communities impacted by this growth. History demonstrates that newcomers to this country are often invisible and lack a voice in their new surroundings. As a literacy volunteer, you can play an important role in identifying, recruiting, and training volunteers from this untapped resource. Doing so will help immigrant communities become active participants in their school, church, and community. They have the potential to become a visible, contributing voice.

The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) ELL Parent Mentor Initiative and the Toyota Family Literacy Program (TFLP) have provided family literacy services to a large number of Spanish speaking families across the nation. In these programs, Spanish speaking parents have embraced the opportunity to engage in comprehensive literacy activities that promote their involvement in the educational, social, and emotional development of their children.

Involved parents We have learned in these programs how parents develop skills for effective engagement through participation in these programs. Initially, most parents appear to go through a "silent phase" of listening and observation as they respectfully defer to educators as the "gatekeepers of knowledge". Typically, however, many of these parents are quietly internalizing a wealth of learning and making sense of how this new knowledge fits within their world and will serve as a resource for their family as well as their individual growth. Eventually, a number of parents within each literacy group find their voice and ultimately emerge as leaders to whom others look upon for guidance and support often before attaining full mastery of the English language. In many cases, these same emerging leaders have already taken steps to help others in their neighborhood and some are enthusiastically volunteering in the schools of their children.

Parent volunteers For many immigrants new to the United States, it can take many years to develop the feeling that they are part of a community. Many remain in the shadows and their voice is never heard; they are largely invisible to the rest of society. The majority of the Spanish speaking immigrant parents who participate in NCFL family literacy activities usually make themselves visible as they find their voice in the process of gaining literacy skills. Worthy of note, they do so without sacrificing the strong foundations of their culture. In addition to developing English literacy skills, parents also learn how to navigate the school system and access community resources so they can better support their child's education. The family literacy process helps parents increase their self-esteem and strengthens their confidence. Educators provide enriching experiences that ultimately help parents become engaged in advocacy for their children and other immigrant families in their community. All this can occur within a matter of months.

The following handouts and activities in Spanish can help you spread the word among Spanish speakers about the importance of volunteering. These handouts are designed to develop awareness, motivate potential volunteers, and provide helpful directions for those interested in volunteering.

Pulse aquí para la Primera Actividad: Dándose de voluntario en los EEUU.

Pulse aquí para la Segunda Actividad: ¿Por qué debe participar como voluntario?

Pulse aquí para la Tercera Actividad: La importancia de participación en su comunidad como voluntario.

Pulse aquí para la Cuarta Actividad: Maneras en la cuál usted puede contribuir a su comunidad estadounidense.

Video Clips

Below you will find links to video clips of educators and their response in Spanish to the question, "Is it important that the Latino community participate as volunteers in the schools and communities?" Click on the photo of each to view the short video clips.

Escuche los comentarios en español de las siguientes personas al responder a esta pregunta: ¿Es importante que el pueblo latinoamericano participe como voluntarios en las escuelas y/o comunidades? Oprima la foto de la persona que usted desea escuchar.

Melissa Colón Directora de iniciativa educacional para estudiantes latinos