What is the Adelante* Education Coalition?
Adelante focuses on education issues affecting Latino and migrant students and their families in North Carolina. The coalition is a collaboration among nonprofit organizations that focus on advocacy and public policy, community organizing, and grassroots support. We are working to ensure that North Carolina has a high-quality K-12 and post-secondary public education system where students will succeed and excel without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, language, culture, socioeconomic or immigration status.
* "Adelante" is a Spanish word that has several meanings, including: onward, moving forward, welcome, and "go for it."
Download our Coalition brochure in English here.
Download our brochure in Spanish here.
What does the Coalition hope
to achieve?
1) We seek to create a consciousness
among North Carolinians that is
supportive and welcoming to Latino and
migrant families, thus enabling their
children to succeed through education.
2) We support Latino and migrant
students and their families to gain the
tools, information, support and
motivation they need for educational
success.
3) We work to ensure that North
Carolina state and local educational
systems are held accountable to
providing a quality and equitable
education to Latino and migrant
students that is characterized by
equality, dignity and respect.
In addition to these programmatic goals,
4) We continue to develop a highly
organized network of Latino and migrant
youth advocacy organizations – leading
to stronger communication between the
organizations, a decrease in the
duplication of services, and creation of a
unified voice in the public and policy
sector.
What is the history of the Adelante Coalition?
Over the last few years, several of the partners have worked together to address the lack of opportunities for Latino and migrant youth to attend college. In light of these partnerships, we identified the need for a collective plan for communication, advocacy, programming and outreach to the Latino and migrant student population. In the summer of 2004, several core organizations came together to formally create the Adelante Education Coalition.
Coalition members saw a pressing need for collective work in education particularly due to the dramatic increase in NC's Hispanic/Latino population in recent years. The total number of Hispanic students in our state increased from 77,923 in school year 2002-2003 to more than 116,976 in school year 2005-2006. This represents an increase of 50% in only 3 years.
The rapid increase in the Latino community has been accompanied by a rise in anti-immigrant action and rhetoric. Given this hostile environment, immigrant students and their allies face discrimination, as well as systemic and social barriers for attaining educational opportunities and access.
Who is involved?
Current Coalition members include:
– Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate Program
– Center for Participatory Change
– El Pueblo, Inc.
– NC Latino Coalition
– NC Justice Center
– NC Society of Hispanic Professionals (NCSHP)
– Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF)
These core members work in partnership with three advisory members:
– Communities In Schools of North Carolina
– College Foundation of North Carolina
– The Center for International Understanding
– NC Cooperative Extension
– NC Migrant Education Program
We also involve school administrators, education scholars, grassroots community groups like NC CARE, and other activists in our efforts towards social change.
This Coalition, supporting K-12 and higher education for Latino and migrant students, is unique in North Carolina.
Grant that funds the Coalition's work: Affirmative Action Advocacy