2005 Year in Review

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Extension creates new position for Rock Island and Whiteside


Robin Vargas is the Latino/Hispanic Youth and Family Educator for Rock Island and Whiteside Counties. Robin has four years with Extension and was formerly the Youth Development Educator for Whiteside County. Robin received her Bachelor of Arts in Business and her Master of Arts in Education, with an emphasis in English as a Second Language through Western Illinois University.

It is well documented that the Hispanic/Latino population is rapidly growing across the United States. Illinois ranks fifth overall in Latino/Hispanic population. Rock Island County is unique in the state of Illinois in respect to its large population of Hispanic/Latinos. With the exception of the seven counties surrounding Chicago, Rock Island County has more than twice the raw number of total population of Hispanic/Latinos than any other county in the state of Illinois. In Whiteside County, 8.8 percent of the total population is Hispanic/Latino, which makes Whiteside County sixth in the state for largest percent of Hispanic/Latinos (Cutz, 2003). This is why University of Illinois Extension has decided to pilot a new Educator position.

Robin will be working with youth and families in a variety of settings. After conducting a needs assessment, the following programs are an example of some of the programs the University of Illinois Extension can offer to the Latino-Hispanic residents of Rock Island and Whiteside Counties:

Looking Back Moving Forward
One program that is working for Extension in Chicago is called “Looking Back, Moving Forward”. This program gives youth a chance to close the gap in the digital divide among Latino/Hispanic youth and Anglo youth and also gives youth a skill for employment. With the help of a mentor, youth design a math or science computer program in this after school program.

Bilingual Mothers With Daughters
Whiteside County has been very successful with their “Mothers with Daughters Program”. This program is modeled from Oregon State University. The program builds on the relationship between mothers and daughters in the Latino/Hispanic community. The goals of this program are to increase self-esteem in women, and enlightening and encouraging higher education. This program meets monthly and is starting a bilingual 4-H club. This also received a small grant to travel to UIUC and visit the campus. This program is facilitated in Spanish and English.

Strengthening Families or 4-H Family Weekly
- The bilingual 4-H Family Weekly is a curriculum that teaches a variety of family activities.
- Iowa State University developed the bilingual Strengthening Families curriculum. Strengthening Families is designed to reduce substance abuse and other behavior programs among youth during teen years, teach specific parenting skills in setting limits and expressing love and build stronger family units.

New Bilingual Curricula
University of Illinois Extension is hard at work translating ten youth curricula from English to Spanish. There are also two new bilingual curricula, Math with Games and Latino Cultural Arts. Math with Games is a curriculum for families with children in grades third through fifth. The focus of Math with Games is using the family to help children learn and master fractions by using fun games. Latino Cultural Arts, Que’ Rico La Cultural, explores the Latin culture through art. This curriculum is written for grades K-8.

For more information about how to integrate Latino/Hispanic programs and activities into your organization’s plans, strategies and tactics, please contact Robin Vargas at University of Illinois Extension (309) 792-2500 or email robinrv@uiuc.edu.

by  Editor, theCity1.com
January 27, 2005

 

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