Category: Info

Government agencies continue to seek eligible individuals to serve as grant reviewers to evaluate funding applications. Grant reviewers are selected for their expertise in a given area, and work with other members of a panel to produce thorough and comprehensive evaluations of grant proposals.

Not only does this service benefit government agencies, it allows panel members to gain an understanding of grant preparation and the award process.

Department of Education

DOE’s Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) is seeking individuals to serve as peer reviewers for the FY 2012 Investing in Innovation grant competition. The link below provides information on applying. All applications must be received by Wednesday, March 21, 2012 to be considered for the 2012 competition.
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/innovation/prw.do

Administration for Children & Families: Children’s Bureau

ACF’s Children’s Bureau is building a diverse, national pool of peer reviewers to participate in the title IV-E foster care eligibility reviews (on-site reviews of state child welfare agencies). Selected peer reviewers will serve as members of teams comprising federal and state agency staff.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/cwmonitoring/general_info/iv-e_con-recruit.htm

Administration for Children & Families: Head Start

ACF’s Office of Head Start continues to seek eligible candidates to serve on peer review panels. Although February 27 was the initial deadline for 2012 reviewer applications, officials there say they continue to assess applications for expertise applicable to various grant requests.
http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/hs/dr/grant_reviewers.html

Download National Alliance for Hispanic Families’ letter to Acting Assistant Secretary George Sheldon, Administration for Children and Families by clicking here.

by Lorena Gonzalez

The National Alliance for Hispanic Families congratulates Ceclia Muñoz on her new post as Director of President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council. Ms. Muñoz has served as the White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and has been at the forefront of the President’s effort to reform the nation’s immigration policies. President Obama applauds her for doing an “extraordinary job working on behalf of middle class families.”

While we know Ms. Muñoz will serve all Americans in her new position, we are thankful to know she understands the unique and acute struggles and challenges faced by our Latino community. Her job will not be easy, but we look forward to supporting her, and wish her every success.

Click here to read the news story from the White House’s website.

by Lorena Gonzalez

Our friend and colleague, Dr. Luis Zayas, joined The University of Texas at Austin last week as its new Dean of the School of Social Work. We wish him luck as he begins this new facet of his career. Dr. Zayas takes with him a fresh perspective on social work as well as a real understanding of the Latino community and its culture. He calls this new post the “highlight” of his career, and the University of Texas Provost, Steven Leslie, says his “appointment will bring great leadership and recognition to our School of Social Work and to the university.” The University of Texas at Austin is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System, and is ranked in the top 25 among American research universities.

Dr. Zayas will continue as the chairman of the NAHF research committee, where he has been able to confirm through his studies the importance of families within the Hispanic community. In recently published research on Latina suicide, for example, he offered a model for understanding and working with young Latinas and their families to reduce suicide attempts.

Dr. Zayas leaves the Washington University in St. Louis where he was the Shanti K. Khinduka Distinguished Professor of Social Work at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work and professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine, as well as the director of the Center for Latino Family Research.

Also, a note on funding opportunities from the Office of Head Start:

Upcoming Early Head Start and Head Start grant opportunities can now be found at by clicking here.

by Lorena Gonzalez

Yesterday our family gathered in San Antonio for our annual Tamalada. Three generations of women, and a few men, made dozens of tamales in what has become one of our oldest Christmas traditions.

But we weren’t just making tamales. We shared information, learned from each other, told stories, and created memories. To our family, the meaning of the Tamalada extends far beyond food. This tradition unites us as a family.

Our long-held Latino traditions can build stronger relationships within our families and communities. At this time of year, our wish at NAHF is that all of you are gathering to unite your families through traditions passed down from generation to generation. Merry Christmas!

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise Call For Ideas deadline of December 23 is fast approaching. The organization is searching for ideas that help “young men of color” succeed in life, school, and work, and may encompass juvenile justice re-entry, mentoring, mental health, social/ emotional learning, masculinity, and faith-based approaches to empowering these young men.

Your ideas could help the organization shape its future grantmaking strategy. Those who participate in the Call for Ideas will have an opportunity to connect with others involved in the same work through the Forward Promise Forum. In addition, all registered participants will be invited to respond to a Call for Proposals to be issued by Forward Promise in early 2012.

Visit www.RWJF.org to review the Forward Promise guidelines and submit your ideas.

Martin Bautista credits the family-focused structure of Soledad Enrichment Action (SEA) Charter School in Los Angeles with turning his life around and saving his family. Martin’s father was an alcoholic who rarely came home, and his mother struggled to put food on the table. As a teenager Martin got involved in gangs and drugs, was thrown out of two high schools and finally arrested. “I was considered to be a threat, and I wasn’t allowed to attend any school in the district.”

At the urging of his probation officer, Martin’s mother enrolled him at SEA Charter School which was created in 1972 by mothers from East Los Angeles whose sons had been killed by gang violence. The school provides a “last chance” opportunity for students who, because of behavioral or other issues, have exhausted all their public school options. While Martin reluctantly went to class, his mother also attended SEA’s 20-week parenting program and counselors and other support staff reached out to help his father overcome alcoholism. More than ten years later, Martin is still at the school, but now he is there as the school’s Director of Community Support Services.

The school’s success is built on the premise that to be successful in helping at-risk youth, the whole family must be involved. “It’s the whole structure around the child that is important, ” Martin explained. “We can work with a teenager all day at school to form new learning habits and attitudes, but if they go home to the same environment that is not improving alongside them, the odds of our students changing is minimal. But, if the whole family changes, our students stand a much greater chance of success.”

Currently there are 18 SEA education centers throughout Los Angeles County serving over 3000 youth and their families each year.

Click here to learn more about SEA Charter School.

NAHF Director Lorena Gonzalez was honored as one of four alumni inductees into the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s Hall of Fame Monday at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. She received the “Optimista” award for achieving success through persistence in the face of adversity.

“You can do it,” are the four words Dr. Gonzalez’ father has repeated to her throughout her life – as a disenchanted highschooler, after her first attempt at college, and as a young mother working to complete three degrees, a BA, MA, and PhD.

Dr. Gonzalez’ parents came to this country seeking opportunity. Her father worked in the spinach fields, on the railroad, and at domestic jobs to ensure he could afford a life in the United States. After experiencing a devastating earthquake that nearly demolished his home, he moved his family to Texas to start over.

At the awards event, Dr. Gonzalez thanked her parents, who then received a standing ovation from the audience. “I can do it,” Dr. Gonzalez said. “We can do it. We need to serve our children with our hearts, our experiences, and with wisdom. It is only by educating that we prosper. Think about what you can offer.”

The other three 2011 alumni Hall of Fame inductees are Gary Trujillo, chairman and founder of Be A Leader Foundation, Brigida Benetez, Chief of the Office of Institutional Integrity at the Inter-American Development Bank, and Vincent Cordero, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Fox Deportes. U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios also was inducted as an honorary member.

The Hispanic Scholarship Fund was founded in 1975, and is the nation’s leading organization working to address the barriers that keep many Latinos from earning a college degree. Its leaders have awarded over $360 million in scholarships to more than 52,000 students. The organization’s Alumni Hall of Fame is in its 10th year, and honors five Latinos annually whose stories, accomplishments, contributions, and lifetime challenges demonstrate the power of higher education.

To watch the HSF video of Lorena’s story, click here.

Pictured in Photo: Frank Alvarez (HSF President and CEO), Brigida Benitez, Vincent Cordero, Rosie Rios, Lorena Gonzalez, Gary Trujillo

Responding to the extremely high suicide rate among Latinas living in the Bronx, NYC, Dr. Rosa Gil, president and CEO of Comunilife, is leading a program called Life Is Precious to address the underlying issues that leave girls feeling hopeless and alone.

Currently 11 percent of Latinas in the country attempt suicide. In New York City, the overall rate is 15 percent. But in the Bronx and Brooklyn, Latina suicide attempts total a staggering 22 percent – double the national rate. Dr. Gil said many Latino families in these areas are in crisis, and face economic, housing and other stressors. In addition, there has been some anti-Hispanic sentiment in the Bronx and Brooklyn that seems to have added an element of fear for many families.

Importantly, Life is Precious is based on input from the community. “We first focused on qualitative research where we asked parents and regular citizens what they believed causes the problems among Latinas. We asked what they believed would be needed to solve the problem, and what steps should be taken” to reverse the trend, Dr. Gil told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, DC this month.

“What we found is that children acculturate much faster than their parents. We found that mothers rely on traditional cultural values and expectations, and that they often idealize how they grew up in their own countries,” Dr. Gil said. “These mothers don’t want their daughters to go out. They don’t want them to have boyfriends. They want them to grow up like they grew up.”

Dr. Gil said she also found that schools and mental health systems weren’t helpful to Latinas in crises. Many schools are not equipped with staff who speak Spanish, she said. When their children translate for them, parents are at a disadvantage. The hierarchy of respect and control shifts, and the parents become dependent on their children rather than the other way around. With many mental health systems, complicated procedures and expectations often dissuade Latino parents and children from seeking help. Further, while prescribed medications may be acceptable in the culture at large, they are often seen by Hispanics as a path to addiction and additional behavioral issues.

“The girls themselves came up with the name Life Is Precious,” Dr. Gil explained. They said they needed a safe place to talk about their problems. They recommended an Internet Cafe, tutors to guide them through their homework, and educational programs to help them succeed in school. The girls also said there was a need to help their mothers understand the challenges their daughters face.

To date, about 150 girls have participated in Life is Precious. Of those, all have improved academically, and where the norm is for one of every five girls to attempt suicide, only two of the Life is Precious participants have repeated a suicide attempt “We administer pre-tests and post-tests to all program participants, Dr. Gil said. “The facts show that this program is working. It’s rewarding to see these girls succeed.”

For more information about Life Is Precious, a community defined, evidence practice, visit www.communilife.org.

While Latino teens have the highest birth rates of any youth population in the United States, they are alarmingly underrepresented in the testing of programs touted by the federal government as the best interventions geared to reduce teen pregnancies, according to a new study released today by our organization.

Recently the Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health announced a funding opportunity for teen pregnancy prevention with the caveat that all funds be used to implement one of 28 specific programs. These programs, OAH noted, had undergone “rigorous evaluation” and were deemed the best of their kind in reducing teenage pregnancy and its behavioral risks.  But in an NAHF review of the empirical tests used to evaluate the programs, only 18 percent of all participants were Hispanic. Further, of the 29 studies on the programs, only 15 even included Hispanic youth.

“We’re asking how government officials know these are the best 28 teen pregnancy programs if only 18 percent of the kids who participated in the evaluation of these programs were Latino — the group with the highest teen pregnancy rate,” said Dr. Luis Zayas, the study’s lead researcher and director of the Center for Latino Research at Washington University in St. Louis.  “We’re not saying these programs don’t work. We’re just saying we’re not sure they’re the best and most effective for Latino youth.”

While NAHF applauds the overall initiative and the Administration’s efforts to ensure that funding generates the maximum results, the organization’s leaders are concerned that a disproportionately less number of Hispanic-serving organizations will be successful in their application for teen pregnancy prevention funds given the funding stream’s limitations. NAHF calls on the administration to correct oversights of the past and undertake more Hispanic-based research.

To conduct tests that narrow the teen pregnancy program selection to 28 without including a large swath of the population is like “mandating that everyone in the country undergo a particular medical treatment that hasn’t taken into account diet, body type, activity level, and other important factors,” Zayas said.  “We’re just saying these 28 youth programs may not be the best empirically tested interventions given that the studies in which they were developed and tested omitted a large portion of the population.”

Click here to see the full report (link).