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Gift Certificates Now Available!
Buy your friends and loved ones the gift of language! Gift certificates for Spanish classes are now available in any increment at the Edúcate Ya office or can be ordered by phone. What better gift than the gift of education?
Mission Statement
The mission of Edúcate Ya, Inc. is to foster social change, cultural integration, professionalism, and wellness education in the Latino communities. Our objective is to educate and create awareness about cultural, social, economic, and health concerns in the different Latino communities, as well as the broader community.
Vision
Latinos Furthering Education Through Participation
About Us
Edúcate Ya, Inc. is a non-profit Latino community-based organization committed to empowering Latinos educationally, professionally, socially, culturally, and in wellness. In 2000, Rafael Arellano-Barrera founded the organization in response to a lack of Latinos in leadership and managerial roles. His vision was to create an organization that would educate Latinos on how to navigate the Western system in order to achieve better jobs and health care, and helping them to eventually become leaders in American society. Although educating the Latino community was a step in the right direction, Rafael realized that he would have to begin by trying to break down larger barriers of language, racism and prejudice in order for Latinos to succeed.
The organization did not start its community work until the year 2003 when, in collaboration with the Susana Maria Guruli (SMG) Foundation, it received a grant from SHAMSA to do some research study in the knowledge of the Latino communities regarding HIV/AIDS prevention and how they received information, referrals and services. Edúcate Ya organized a task force of Latino community members to help develop the tools and the evaluation process of the information gathered through focus groups and one-on-one interviews in the four counties of the Metropolitan Portland area.
The following year Edúcate Ya collaborated again with MHAAO (Multicultural HIV/AIDS Association of Oregon) and got a grant from the State Health Department to train 10 community health educators in order to provide community presentations in the Portland Metropolitan Area with regards to preventive medicine and HIV/AIDS prevention practices among Latinos. This grant helped Edúcate Ya to give ten health educators the opportunity to give ten community presentations and reach between 100- 150 Latinos, providing them with this vital and needed information.
In 2007, Edúcate Ya received a small grant from the Black United Fund (BUF) to provide Spanish classes to members of several African American non-profits. These classes were geared toward those members that were also offering services to Latinos in the North and North East areas of Portland. These classes were able to help staff members gain a better understanding of the Latino cultures and the difficulty of learning a second language.
In 2008, Edúcate Ya received a small grant to be able to start our leadership development program the Latino Young Adult Leadership Council (LYALC). This program helped us to train 20 Latino young adults to become more involved and be more active in their community, advocating and being a voice for the needs of Latino youth in the Portland metropolitan area. Thanks to this grant we are currently developing the new phase of the LYALC which in 2010 will become the Latino Young Adult Leadership Academy AVANZA. This venture will bring leaders and role models of the Latino communities together to help train a new group of Latino young adults during full-year trainings and a hands-on learning process.
There are several other programs Edúcate Ya offers to accomplish its mission and goals and to motivate and help Latinos find success in leadership. Edúcate Ya offers a free program called Personal Development which helps Latinos analyze their life goals and the direction of their lives. If they decide it's time to change careers, the project helps them build a resume or even guides them back to school. Edúcate Ya strives to create, motivate and educate leaders within all communities of color, not solely within the Latino communities. Edúcate Ya's Leadership Development program provides workshops and trainings that show how to be a leader and the options for potential leaders. The ESL and Spanish classes that we offer help to break down the language barrier inhibiting Latinos from receiving valuable services and gaining positions of leadership. Edúcate Ya also puts on cultural presentations to educate local organizations and businesses, as well as the general public, about the diversity within Latino communities and their different cultures.
Edúcate Ya also provides several services for the community at large: 1) Spanish classes for people working with Latinos who need to better their skills in order to provide a better service; 2) Spanish classes for people who love to travel abroad and need to be exposed to the language and culture before they arrive at their destination; 3) Spanish classes that are vocabulary specific and industry specific to help managers and employees communicate better in their place of work.
We are currently teaching several Spanish Classes on site and in our offices, tutoring many individuals with private one-on-one Spanish instruction. We have paired up a large number of volunteer tutors with Spanish-speaking students for an Intercambio (exchange), in which they meet once a week for two hours for one-on-one English instruction in exchange for Spanish conversation. There are some individuals currently participating in our Personal Development program and additionally we are working to develop the boards of other local Latino non-profits. Our goals are not completely met 100%, but we are moving forward and making little steps every year with the help of our volunteers, teachers and those who believe in Edúcate Ya's purpose and mission: our supporters, participants, students and donors.