New facility will help Hidalgo County's impoverished families

SAN JUAN — The warehouse where her husband worked was sold in March, and with three children and no source of income, Martha Edith Cedillo worried about budgeting for school uniforms.

“It’s a tough time for my family,” the 32-year-old said in Spanish. “Luckily, this place is going to help us with the school shirts.”

Cedillo was referring to the new Avance Colonias Early Head Start Center in San Juan, which opened a month ago and had a ribbon-cutting celebration Wednesday.

Made possible through a partnership with the federally funded Early Head Start Program, the city of San Juan and Avance Inc., the center will provide free, home-based education for families with children ages 3 and younger and for pregnant women.

Avance, derived from the Spanish word meaning “to advance,” is a San Antonio-based nonprofit organization that has provided education and family support services to predominantly Hispanic families in low-income communities since 1973.

 Its niche, however, is not only to teach the child; it is to educate the entire family, and not just about school. Each participant will be assigned a home visitor who will assist the family.

Cedillo, for example, needed food, so the center provided her with information about Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, a resource with which she was unfamiliar. Cedillo said she received assistance from the food bank Tuesday.

“There are a lot of people out there who tell you different things, but with (the home visitors) you feel like you have someone who can help you and that you can trust in,” she said.

Richard J. Noriega, a former Texas state lawmaker and former candidate for the U.S. Senate, is now Avance’s CEO and president. He said the center’s location was no mistake.

“We targeted Hidalgo County in large part because we wanted to serve the most vulnerable families possible,” Noriega said.

The county is one of the poorest regions in the nation with an estimated 34 percent poverty rate. That rate is more than three times the national rate and twice the state’s rate. Even more alarming to Avance, 80 percent of the county’s children live in poverty.

Avance’s Parent-Child Education Program, however, lost $45,000 in funding after Gov. Rick Perry announced a spending freeze, Noriega said.

“It’s unfortunate because this is the one critical area that you don’t cut,” he said, adding that the program’s return on investment is $6-8 for every $1 the state puts forward for early childhood development. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

The facility reached its capacity of 70 participants in less than a month, and there is already a waiting list.

Overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Early Head Start is a community-based program for low-income families with infants and toddlers and pregnant women. Its mission is to promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women, enhance the development of very young children and promote healthy family functioning.

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Naxiely Lopez covers PSJA and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at 683-4434.

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MORE INFO

>> For more information on the Avance Colonias Early Head Start Center, call (956) 702-9334.