Glades Family Education

The Glades Family Education Program in Belle Glade has served hundreds of adults and their preschool children in Belle Glade, South Bay and Pahokee for 16 years. The majority of the adults, primarily Hispanic or Haitian, are learning English as a second language. The adults practice conversational English while striving to improve their reading, writing and literacy/life skills.

At the same time in an adjacent classroom, the Early Childhood Program teachers instruct preschool children of the adult students. The children learn colors, shapes, numbers and letters and all of the crucial readiness skills to prepare them for success in kindergarten. The primary focus of the Glades program is Family Education with an emphasis on changing lives by educating the whole family.


glades picture
Parents and children from the Glades Family Education Program enjoyed the Very Hungry Caterpillar celebration October 8, 2009, at the Mounts Botanical Garden.

2008-2009 Program Outcomes:

  • 122 adults and 18 preschool children were served.
  • 80% of the adult students pre- and post-tested demonstrated learning gains in reading and language skills
  • All of the children made age-appropriate gains in their school readiness.

PROGRAM IMPACT

Blanca was born in Mexico but did not receive much education there.  She came to the United States when her daughter was three months old and worked in California for seven years picking and packing grapes.  She moved to Florida to improve her life and that of her daughter.  Blanca’s goals were to become a citizen, to enable her daughter to go to college, to get the education she herself had been unable to get in Mexico and to get a better job.

Blanca enrolled in the Coalition’s Glades Family Education Program to increase her English speaking, reading and writing skills. Her progress in the program enabled her to pass her citizenship test this year.  In the past year, through their studies at the Glades Family Education Program, ten students have achieved United States citizenship.