Elia Fabiola Montero Macías left her position as a pharmacobiology chemist seven years ago to venture to work in the United States and establish a new life with her husband. She couldn’t speak English until she discovered the South Omaha Community Learning Center program.
She likes to be called by her nickname, Fabi. And she says that “la escuelita”, as everyone calls it, completely changed her life in a positive way.
In Mexico she was a pharmacobiology chemist at the Mexican Institute of Social Security. A position that gave her many opportunities, but left her stagnant, she says. She saved for her trip. With her Mexico passport and her husband’s American passport, they decided to arrive in Omaha to give new life a chance.
Both did not speak English. Her husband grew up in Mexico.
During the period of adaptation of finding jobs, the couple had two daughters.
Montero’s desire to learn English was greater, but if he studied at an institution he would have to leave his daughters in the care of someone else, which he could not afford, it also affected his time to work. It was complicated.
Thanks to a friend, she entered the parent education program at the Learning Community Center in South Omaha. There she could take English classes, while taking care of her girls and, in addition, she learned how to be a better mother together with her husband.
“This place changed my life. Since I arrived, I have felt like a family,” she said.
El Learning Community Center
The program fell like a ring to her finger: she studies in the mornings while staff cares for her daughters similar to a daycare— in rooms made for children to have fun and learn, and green areas where infants have contact with plants and gardens. In the afternoons she is with her daughters until her husband then takes the place and she goes to work at a restaurant.
There are two learning centers, one in North Omaha and the other in South Omaha. Both were created with the idea of strengthening Omaha’s minority communities and generating stronger bonds between adults and children. In the North location resides the Parent University program, where parents have the opportunity to learn skills to enter the labor field.
In the South Omaha location is Parent Education, aimed more at immigrant communities who want to learn English or get the GED while learning to connect more with their children’s development. Fabiola entered the English class without paying a penny.
“Here I not only learn English, but I learn how to cope with biological developments and balance emotions,” she said. She has been a year and a half of the three that the course lasts and managed to reach level 4. “There are six levels, for me this is an achievement. I’m really proud of myself,” she said.
The headquarters where Fabiola studies has two rooms for adults, and four rooms to serve children between 0 and 4 years old. They also have a garden and a small park decorated with a pergola with vines that gives the touch of freshness for the outdoor activities of the children.
The place is perfectly cozy. And it has a capacity to serve more than 300 families in South Omaha. Due to the pandemic, this number has been reduced.
A program that connects
In 2012, the team at the Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties, an entity affiliated with local county governments, was interested in promoting a program that unites two generations, parents and children, and that would help the community of southern Omaha. So they did a poll.
“This is a program that’s something exclusive in Omaha. It’s basically at the government level and it’s not present in other cities or states. It was created as a political subdivision and with that it also unites all the schools in the 11 school districts in the metropolitan area,” Anne O’Hara, director of the parent education program in Southern Omaha, told El Perico.
O’Hara has been around since the beginning of the program, from its inception to its implementation in 2012. When he was proposed to carry that baton he said yes without hesitation. Since it has always focused on helping children who speak English as a second language who are within the poverty rate.
The One World Community Health Center was interested in participating in the program given its proximity to the immigrant community, mostly Hispanics. The program’s curriculum is presented every three years to the board of the Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy who evaluates whether or not to stand.
At the beginning of the program the Learning Community Center was located in the Juan Diego Center on Q Street, then, they were able to expand their facilities and are located on 23rd Street with M.
The center is maintained thanks to property taxes for every Omaha resident — which are distributed among public schools, the University of Omaha and apprenticeship programs like this — and financial contributions from organizations such as the Richard Brooke Foundation, Nebraska Children and Family Foundation, Dillon Foundation, First National Bank, Union Pacific Foundation and Humanities Nebraska. In addition, it has the support of some 30 voluntary organizations involved in teaching parents and children in both the arts, technology and music.
As the learning center is assigned a part of the taxes, for this the period 2021-2021 they have $ 1,639,100 to carry out the program, incentives to staff and service expenses, among other things.
“We want to expand the program, we have capacity for more than 300 families and we want more people to join,” O’Hara said.
Income
To enter the program you must be a mother or father of children under 4 years old. You are offered the options of English classes and completing the GED. “This is like choosing between a chicken burger and a meat burger combo. It just changes the taste,” Nayeli Lopez, family learning manager, explained simply.
He explained that parents are interviewed, explained what the program is about and if they agree with the conditions, which consist of: attending parent orientation classes, the English program and meetings with navigators.
“We are focused on educating children and making them feel good and understood by their parents,” said Lopez, who is also an interpreter in mind-educating classes.
Carolina Ibarra is a program manager and has witnessed the contribution that the Learning Community Center has had in the community. “Parents leave their children in the care of professionals, while they are learning. They know people and develop a good relationship with everyone,” said the specialist who is also in charge of the infant area.
It is worth noting that the GED program is done only in the English language.
On October 1, 50 people graduated from the Learning Center: 45 in English and 5 in GED in the South High Schoolfield. Recognition was also given to children who are now fit to enter kindergarten.
Fabiola is a year and a half away from graduating. She said that, at the end of her English course, she will enter the GED and then study nursing. “Unfortunately my degree as a professional is not valid in the United States because of the free trade agreement. So I have no problem starting over,” she said.