September 2024 Partner and Volunteer Highlight: Edu-Futuro

As Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) observes National Hispanic Heritage Month, we are shining a spotlight on Edu-Futuro. The local nonprofit supports family engagement in our schools by addressing the needs of under-resourced immigrant and Latino students. Founded in 1998 by a group of Bolivian parents, Edu-Futuro expanded its reach from helping under-resourced immigrant and Latino students graduate from high school and building a path to college by also introducing programs that help parents navigate the U.S. school system, improve communication with their children and increase household economic stability.

Today, Edu-Futuro’s Parent Empowerment Services and Workforce Development Services, along with its Emerging Leaders Program for youth, create a two-generation family dynamic in which parents are inspired by the academic advancement of their children and students are motivated by the economic progress of their parents.

Parent empowerment programming offered through Edu-Futuro include Tech for Parents, a computer/smartphone literacy course that teaches participants how to use email and access to ParentSquare and PowerSchool. As a result of these workshop sessions, parents who previously had little knowledge of the digital world are now able to communicate with teachers and monitor the academic progress of their children. Through the workshop series, PARTICIPA… en mi Educación (“Participate in my education”), immigrant parents and caregivers of elementary school students learn how to navigate the public school system. This includes learning how to interpret a report card, ask effective questions in parent/teacher conferences and distinguish differences between “standard” and “advanced” classes.

“Edu-Futuro’s partnership with ACPS provides what we believe is an essential complement to the outstanding educational opportunities offered by the school system to Latino and immigrant students,” Figueredo said. “We are deeply connected to the families we serve because, as immigrants ourselves, we can see the barriers and gaps in services that profoundly affect our community, while also recognizing the solutions that can improve the lives of our students and parents. We know how to work with immigrant families who require time, attention and patience, because we have lived their experience.”

Edu-Futuro’s Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) plays a critical role in putting vulnerable students on a path to becoming first-generation college students. Its interconnected series of ELP programs extend from the elementary school to college level.

ELP Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Robotics for elementary school children offers a series of fun activities and challenges that helps connect science to their daily lives. Edu-Futuro’s ELP-I program provides high school students with workshops focusing on topics such as resume preparation, job interviews, financial literacy, public speaking and the college-application process. The ELP-II program for high school seniors matches students with mentors who provide guidance for a full academic year, helping students decide on colleges and majors and offering support as participants prepare applications for scholarships and financial aid.

“We are extremely proud of the fact that, despite the massive impact of the pandemic in the immigrant and Latino communities, the 223 outstanding youth who graduated from ELP-II during the past four years were collectively offered $38,283,492 in scholarships and financial aid for their four years of college,” Edu-Futuro Executive Director Jorge E. Figueredo said.

Addressing attendance, Edu-Futuro’s Chronic Absenteeism Program (CAP) works to reach students who have missed so many classroom days that they are in danger of dropping out of high school. Referrals come from the school system to Edu-Futuro’s bilingual outreach team, which then contacts the students and their families to help address issues that may be contributing to the student being chronically absent. “Our staff has encountered many incredible stories of challenge and resilience that reveal the complex obstacles being faced by immigrant and Latino students today,” Figueredo noted.

This past school year, Edu-Futuro served approximately 200 Alexandria families, and the organization expects to surpass that number for the 2024-25 school year through its partnership with ACPS. Families can find out more about the services Edu-Futuro offers through its website, Edu-Futuro's Facebook page, calling its main telephone number at 703-228-2560 or by sending messages to its WhatsApp number at 571-309-5455.

With Edu-Futuro’s ultimate goal being to break the cycle of poverty for immigrant and Latino families through education, Figueredo shared he is proud to see over and over how the lives of entire families are forever changed when a student becomes a first-generation college graduate. “All of us at Edu-Futuro feel like we are fulfilling the vision of our founders when we see transformations that turn concerned but uninvolved immigrant parents into fully engaged advocates for the education of their children,” he said.