January 28, 2000
Battle Creek, Mich. — Eighteen colleges and universities will continue their work to improve higher education opportunities for Hispanic youth through planning grants announced Tuesday, January 18, 2000, by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
The grants represent phase one of the Foundation's six-year, $28.6 million ENLACE (Engaging Latino Communities for Education) initiative.
"ENLACE will strengthen the educational pipeline, so that more Hispanic youth will enter and complete college," said Betty Overton-Adkins, the Kellogg Foundation's director of higher education programming. "And, it can improve the performance of students who are already attending Hispanic-serving institutions."
Through ENLACE, participating colleges and universities will form partnerships with communities, K-12 public and private school districts, and businesses. By working together, Overton-Adkins said, the partners will give Hispanic students the support they need to succeed from kindergarten through high school and beyond.
During phase two implementation of ENLACE, set to begin in 2001, the Foundation will support eight to 10 coalitions with grants of up to $2 million each.
The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), an independent non-profit organization based in San Antonio, is serving as the managing partner for the initiative. The National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP), based in Washington, D.C., is serving as the cluster evaluator for ENLACE.
ENLACE is derived from the Spanish work enlazar, which means to link or to weave together. The three key components of ENLACE are: a common vision of a brighter future for Latino youth; collaborative work in coalitions; and a focus on strengthening public school-university-community partnerships.
More information on ENLACE and contact information for grantees is available online at www.idra.org/enlace/index.htm.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 "to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community, and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions, and healthy communities.
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