HCF Funds Hispanic Outreach to Homeschooling Families

by | Nov 22, 2021 | Grants Given | 0 comments

In December of 2020, the Homeschool Community Foundation issued a grant to Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) to meet the growing needs of Virginia’s Hispanic community.

The project was multi-faceted, and included:

• A live Hispanic How to Begin webinar series.
• Teams formed to continue ongoing relational support for the Hispanic community.
• Teams formed to continue the ongoing provision of website resources and tools for the Hispanic community.
• Outreach to Hispanic pastors and churches through email and phone conversations.
• Ongoing Hispanic Radio WBTK 1380AM radio interviews to provide connection of homeschooling events and opportunities.
• An effective translator was added to the entire HEAV website.
• A permanent start-here page in Spanish was designed and created on the HEAV website. The page includes on-demand videos and resource links.

“There are two main outreach opportunities in the Hispanic community: 1) Bilingual parents who want their children to be bilingual and need resource support; 2) Spanish-speaking parents (ESL) who want their children to be proficient in English even though English is not their native language. These parents greatly appreciate Spanish-language support to completely understand the fine requirements of the law and how to homeschool their children and locate resources that are appropriate to help them reach their goals.”
Anne Miller

Executive Director, Home Educators Association of Virginia

HEAV produced a 3-part How to Begin webinar series for Spanish-speaking families who are currently homeschooling or are considering the options that homeschooling can offer.

Webinar topics included:

  • Why Homeschool? Understand Various Learning Styles and Teaching Methods
  • Homeschool Curriculum, Routine, and Community
  • Know the Homeschool Law

The webinars were recorded to provide ongoing encouragement and training.

HEAV also presented the Hispanic Outreach resource at their LeaderLife Conference in April of 2021 to share the Hispanic needs to homeschool leaders throughout Virginia. Additional time was spent time with leaders throughout the weekend answering questions and helping them  understand the needs and how homeschool leaders can help.

“This project brought to light how great the need is to speak into other cultural communities where they are,” said Anne Miller, Executive Director of HEAV. “We were able to communicate to Virginia’s homeschool leaders how language and culture can be an individual’s real barrier from understanding the important information needed to homeschool their own family effectively.

You can read more of HEAV’s ongoing outreach to the Hispanic community by going to heav.org/hispanic-homeschool.

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