A new preschool on the horizon

Adrian Vazquez (right) with staff members, Sofia Ovalle and Juliana Hafner, in the new preschool classroom at El Concilio.

In the fall of 2018, El Concilio (formerlythe Hispanic American Council) felta responsibility to address a needexpressed by parents withinthe community.

“Parents came to us saying we needchildcare and we wanted to help anddo more to make a positive impact onkids,” said Adrian Vazquez, executivedirector of El Concilio, a nonprofit,community-focused organization thatseeks to help Latino residents supporttheir families. “Not only did we wanta safe space where families can leavetheir children, but also where they canstart learning more at an early age.”

Through research and extensivediscussion among the board andcommunity leaders, Escuelita NuevoHorizonte (New Horizon Preschool) wasborn. The school, housed at El Concilio,will serve as the only fully bi-lingual, biculturalpreschool in theEdison Neighborhood.

Equity through education

Research shows that high-qualitypreschool experiences benefit allchildren, and children from traditionallyvulnerable populations benefit most.This two-year preschool model beginsto address some of the achievementgaps that exist along racial lines,thus addressing the root cause ofeducational disparities seen inlater grades.

High-quality pre-K works to increasethe number of children in theLatinx community who arrive readyfor kindergarten, thus increasingtheir chances of remaining ontrack throughout their educationalcareer and beyond. Not only arethe educational needs of childrenaddressed, but the model also meetsthe cultural and language needs ofparents who previously have not beenable to access quality preschool intheir neighborhood.

“We hear our kids say they don’t feelpart of the community or part of thiscountry because they are labeledLatino, Hispanic, or Brown, eventhough they were born here and speakthe language,” Vazquez explains. “Wewant this program to give them anopportunity to learn about their culture.We want them to be proud of who theyare, where they come from, and also beproud of their community.”

Once members of KalamazooCommunity Foundation’s (KZCF)Community Investment (CI) teambecame aware of El Concilio’s need foroperating funds to open the preschool,they connected with the KZCF DonorRelations team for assistance. TheCI team leverages a wide rangeof resources and works to share

opportunities with donors that alignwith what they care about most.

It takes a village

“We identified a donor who hassupported education for young childrenthroughout the community in a varietyof ways through their Donor AdvisedFund,” says Joanna Donnelly Dales, vicepresident of Donor Relations. “We feltthey would appreciate learning aboutEl Concilio’s request and it didn’t takelong for the donor to agree this was aperfect fit.” The fund was able to coverthe full amount of the request, whichwas slightly more than $21,000.

This success story is what sets KZCFDonor Advised Funds apart from those

offered by other financial institutions.It is one of the services made possiblethrough a team effort that makes animpact on donors as well asnonprofit partners.

La Escuelita Nuevo Horizonte ispreparing to welcome 10 to 15three-year-olds this fall with hopesof extending the program throughthe summer so the kids “never stoplearning,” Vazquez says.

For more information about El Concilio’s community impact visit elconciliokzoo.org