Helping vulnerable families give their children and even start toward school success: One rural community's efforts

Childhood Education, 2001 by Dimidjian, Victoria Jean

Say the word "Florida" and it almost always conjures up enticing images of sandy beaches, bright sunshine, swaying palm trees, and tanned bodies in poses of relaxation. Quite a different Florida exists, however; one that few tourists see or come to know. Inland Florida is a vast and productive agricultural empire, producing much of the citrus, farm goods, and meat products that Americans consume. In this "other Florida," some of the state's most vulnerable and isolated families struggle to survive, moving from one short-term housing and employment site to another, and often leaving the state when the hot summer months make their labor unnecessary.

Immokalee, an unincorporated town in southwest Florida, is typical of the communities serving migrant families and children. For the past three and a half years, the Collier County affiliate of the national Even Start Family Literacy Program has worked with families in Immokalee, helping parents gain language skills, find community connections and services, and learn parenting and job skills, while also providing what is, for many of the children, their first positive educational experiences.

Immokalee and Its Unique Even Start Program

The first school in Immokalee was set up by the Lee County Schools (which originally served communities from Ft. Myers to the Florida Keys) in 1891 to educate Indians in the area, according to historian Charlton Tebeau. The school "actually taught only Whites as no Indians came to it" (Tebeau, 1957, p. 197). In 1897, the first schoolhouse was built, and the school population grew slowly. In 1953, a separate facility was built for the education of "Negro children"; the Bethune School educated Immokalee's K-12 black children until 1967. Now called the Bethune Education Center, the building houses an Even Start Program, along with extensive adult education programs.

The town is isolated, only accessible by unlit, two-lane roads winding across the farms and swamplands of southwest Florida. Travel to Florida's east coast takes about one and a half hours through the Everglades, a vast unpopulated region. Its summer population of 17,000 more than doubles to over 35,000 residents during the winter months as migrants arrive to harvest the crops and "snowbirds" arrive from the northern states. Each winter a veritable horde of migrant workers descends upon the town, doubling its population and creating as yet unsolved problems of housing, sanitation, schools, morals and policing. These are but the growing pains of all such communities. Since 1949 there has been talk of incorporating the "town" and turning the task over to city fathers. But the idea is frequently voted down.... So the unincorporated community finds itself acting in respects like a city. Meanwhile Immokalee grows in every direction, and county, private and denominational agencies struggle with the new order and its potentialities and problems. (Tebeau, 1957, p. 206)

Tebeau's observations remain true today.

In the peak seasons,Immokalee's population is more than 80 percent migrant or recently immigrated families. Many migrants establish strong ties in the area, spending a significant part of each year here. Most of the families do not speak English fluently. Two-thirds report using a language other than English within the home-most often Spanish, followed by Haitian Creole, and then by Konjobal and Mum (both Guatemalan dialects). More than half the families in the area are headed by someone who speaks little or no English, and most have little formal education.

Nearly half of Immokalee's year-round population lives below the poverty level, a figure that reaches 60 to 65 percent during the harvest season. Over 90 percent of children in the town's public schools are eligible for free or reduced lunch programs. Those families that try to make the town their permanent residence express their concerns about finding affordable housing, stable employment, and child care (Economic Development Council of Collier County Web site).

The Collier County Public School's Even Start Program was initiated in November 1992, under the auspices of the Division of Adult Education, to serve migrant families and their children. The program received additional funding in 1997, enabling it to serve not only migrant parents and children, but also recently immigrated or permanently settled migrant families who stay in the area all year. During its first year of expanded operation, the program served 35 immigrant families; the number rose to 51 during its second year. More recently, the program has expanded to three children's classrooms, increased the network of community partnerships, and reached a more diverse population of families.

Part of the early growth and continuing success of the Even Start Program is due to the efforts of its founding director, Patti LaCrosse, and to its current head, Peggy Diaz. Both women have lived and worked in the community for years, and they each have bilingual skills and strong cross-cultural ties. The year-round Even Start Program emphasizes early acquisition of English language skills for all family members as the best means to enhance parent-child communication and empower parents as their child's first teacher. The number of staff is small, but they are energetic and ethnically diverse. All of the staff members are bi- or multilingual, most have worked themselves in Immokalee's fields as migrant workers, and all live in the community. They each voice a commitment to Even Start as a "family and community program." In addition, the staff tries to help the families obtain services beyond those provided within the program. In this respect, the Even Start Program is a linchpin of social stability in the ever-changing Immokalee community.