Posted on December 8, 2008

Kresge Foundation Awards $2.6 Million to Texas-Based Parent-Child Program

The Kresge Foundation has awarded $2.6 million to AVANCE in San Antonio, Texas, to help expand the organization's bilingual parent-child education program.

AVANCE — Spanish for "advance" — serves Hispanic families in low-income at-risk communities by helping young parents get the information, skills, and support they need to prepare their children for school during the critical first three years of life. Currently serving 3,400 families at nearly a hundred program sites in Texas, the organization will work to establish chapters in California and New Mexico, and strengthen its national office and ten Texas chapters.

"AVANCE is critical to the communities it serves," said Hector Ledesma, Jr., who sits on the board of directors of the San Antonio chapter and is himself a product of the program, "because it exposes parents to the possibility of a better life for themselves and their children."