Padres Unidos strives to foster a culture of self-sufficiency and community involvement. Our Community Engagement program empowers community members to become educated community workers and volunteers, giving back to the community and breaking free from such challenges as poverty, lack of trusted support systems, language barriers, and lack of familiarity with local systems. Padres Unidos began its volunteer training and supportive programming for parents in 1999. In the summer of 2011, Chapman University’s College of Educational Studies joined forces with Padres Unidos to take these parents to the next level by developing a community advocacy training program. The partnership began with shared goals and the desire of both organizations to become authentic partners with local communities, schools, teachers, students, and parents. It evolved into the development and execution of programs that support capacity building, effect real change, and make a positive difference.
Our Community Engagement Program
- Volunteers go through 1 year of training with Padres Unidos, working directly in the classroom with children and families. During this time volunteers are rotated through different areas and roles such as being a child educator, working with parents, or group facilitation.
- Through a unique partnership with Chapman University, our volunteers can undertake Chapman’s two-year Community Worker Award. This gives Padres Unidos volunteers an opportunity to be recognized as knowledgeable individuals with specialized skills.
- During the intensive first year, participants take courses in growth and awareness, leadership, ethics, group dynamics, domestic violence, child abuse, and crisis intervention. In the second year, students select a specialization such as child and teen development, case management, parent education, or small group facilitation.
- As a result of this training program, the participants foster self-sufficiency and mutual responsibility within the communities they serve and make a positive contribution to the lives of its residents. Many of these volunteers come back to facilitate sessions for our Parents as Teachers/School Readiness and Strong Families programs.
Outcomes
- Since our inception in 1999, over 550 parents and community members have volunteered with Padres Unidos.
- Since the start of the program in 2011, Padres Unidos 160 volunteers received a full scholarship for Padres Unidos & Chapman University’s Community Worker Award.
- In 2016, 38 participants received a Community Worker Award from Chapman University.
How You Can Help
Padres Unidos invests significant time and resources in helping our parents develop into community leaders. While Chapman generously donates tuition for their program, Padres Unidos provides the volunteer training, and the teaching and administrative staff to support our collaboration with Chapman University. To enable us to continue supporting our volunteers and parent-students, Padres Unidos is seeking:
- Individual Donations
- Business Sponsorships
- Private Foundation Grants
With your help, we can empower even more families to give back to their community and build a culture of volunteerism and mutual support.
- Gloria Padilla, Outreach Ambassador Padres Unidos
- P.O. Box 1258
Santa Ana, CA 92702 - gloria.padilla@ocpu.org
- (714) 719-3125