Adelante Mujeres is an organization based in Forest Grove that provides education and empowerment opportunities to low-income Latina women and their families to ensure full participation and active leadership in the community.
An important part of this is getting young Latinas outside with community partners. That’s why the organization recently partnered with the Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District on a series of field trips and after-school programs that reached 76 young Latinas and their families in Beaverton. Through the Chicas Youth Development Program (Chicas), third- through eighth- graders at Five Oaks Middle School, Aloha-Huber Park K-8 and Vose Elementary School benefitted from three field trips and three after-school sessions designed to immerse the students in environmental education and career opportunities.
“Chicas is proven to help participants stay in school, reduce absenteeism, graduate from high school, and attend college,” says Andrea Chunga-Celis, Grants Manager for Adelante Mujeres. “For the past five years, we maintained a 100% graduation rate and college enrollment for 12th grade girls in our program.”
Several field trips led by Tualatin Parks took the students and family members to locations like Chehalem Ridge Park and Tualatin Hills Nature Center and Park. During one after school activity, students did a bug safari around their school and learned about insect life cycles and adaptations.
“The Chicas Program provides these key ingredients to address the need for environmental education, careers, and particularly, outdoor experiences for the Latino community,” Andrea says. “With the support from the Gray Family Foundation, students are building their environmental stewardship identity though a bicultural and bilingual lens.
