POVEDA EDUCATION PROJECT

Poveda Educational Project (PEP) is a Non-Profit Corporation, created to provide educational assistance to immigrants mostly from the Hispanic Community, a third of almost 3 million in the city. Hispanics is the term created by US census for Latinos and other Latin American descendants. Contrary to popular beliefs, the growth among Hispanics is not caused by immigration but by birth. Mexicans ad Hispanics in the 2017 census constituted the largest minority group in Chicago and yet lag behind all ethnic groups in access to education, jobs, annual income, and affordable health care.
The essence of PEP is the integration of vulnerable groups through education as part of the solution bridging the gap caused by language, lack of proper educational support and integration into society enlarging their capacity of participation to get a job, have their documents, be able to vote and fully participate socially, economically and politically as active citizens. There are four main lines of work and a Poveda Education Project -Net extended in different parts of the country.
1. Literacy program – a very flexible program. Those who can get some time off from jobs or from house work avail of the services. This program mostly caters to people who came to the U.S without having learned how to read and write and who need to communicate in English in their respective jobs.
2. Assistance in preparing for the GED (Graduate Equivalency Diploma) particularly for youth drop outs. A more structured program, taught by volunteers accredited in their respective fields. GED gives a person a high school diploma There is an 80% rate of success. and some of the graduates have come back as volunteers.
3. Family assistance program run by volunteer couples trained in family counselling and social services offers support to families on parenting and family issues. They also assist in filling out forms for social or immigration assistance.
4. Networking of second-generation immigrant youth, US citizens whose interest is inclusion of diverse groups into a multicultural society with full access as citizens to rights and responsibilities therein.
At the broader level, PEP has evolved into the Poveda Education Project Net- a network active in different parts of the country specifically at the service of vulnerable groups. In Washington, New York and Florida the emphasis is in advocacy for local participation of marginalised groups, particularly in relation to the rights of migrants and women, raising participation to the level of UN.
The contribution of Poveda Education Project will centre around four points:
1. They will contribute with a very intense experience and knowledge about very broad context in the integration of migrants, specially of Spanish descent in the context of USA and with the roads to participation which are been followed in particular in relation to three roads: education and training, language learning and advocacy and policies for social and political integration.
2. They will be in charge of the last meeting (Activity 36) taking place in USA through the New York cluster cooperating with the coordinator in the logistics and knowledge of contexts as well as in the preparation of the side event in UN.
3. They will contribute with a group of young people who will be represented at the Seminars of Madrid, Lima and New York, sharing their perspective on the themes and giving feed-back through the presentations of the work done as the other groups of young people.
4. Participate in project activities by youth group.