Our Actions Show Who We Are
HABLA is a broad-spectrum educational outreach program based in the School of Social Sciences at UCI and created by Dr. Virginia Mann in June 2000, with the support of the Orange County Children and Families Commission. Its goal is to provide parent coaching and home visits to increase the school readiness of disadvantaged Latino children aged two-to-four years. Its strategy is to unite faculty and students at UCI with members of the Latino community in Orange County, the Santa Ana Unified School System, Project Access, the Corbin Family Resource Center, AmeriCorps/VISTA and the Parent Child Home Program (PCHP). The salient features of HABLA are its:
1. Focus on very early, home-based intervention to promote school readiness for disadvantaged Spanish-speaking children.
2. Emphasis on Spanish skills in early childhood as a scaffold for the acquisition of English in school.
3. Development of a Spanish language curriculum adapted from the proven PCHP English language curriculum with emphasis on math and science fundamentals as well as on emergent literacy.
4. Employment of bilingual, culturally sensitive Latinos, college students and community members who are compensated in various ways (course credit, salary, AmeriCorps membership) as home visitors who intensively coach parents to facilitate school readiness by providing optimal language play, shared reading and developmentally appropriate activities.
5. In-service training for home visitors , to help them achieve educational and career progress, timely graduation, and to find public service career opportunities in their communities.
