When Reverend Eddie Rivero and his wife Maria opened their church doors in 1994, they wanted to bring dual-language families in their community together by forming a congregation with services in Spanish and English. The Casablanca Christian Center was designed to help families overcome the language barrier at church—parents who only speak Spanish can worship with their children who only speak English—but challenges still existed for these families at home and school. Parents found it extremely difficult or impossible to help their children with homework in an inscrutable language.

To further support dual-language families, the Riveros launched the New Life afterschool program. Beyond the Book recently had the opportunity to sit down with Pastor Rivero to find out how New Life has eased the academic stress felt by dual-language families, and how the program has grown to support more than two hundred children.

BTB: What inspired you to open the New Life afterschool program at the Casablanca Christian Center?

ER: My wife, Maria, is the spark that ignited our afterschool program. She has always been an educator, and served as a teacher and principal in private schools for many years. In my heart, I am a pastor—that's my true calling, but I also spent four years as a high school teacher. We both recognize the importance of a good education, and wanted to focus our energy on helping children succeed in school.

BTB: What impact does the language barrier have at home and school?

ER: We deal with children who predominantly speak Spanish at home, and English at school. Oftentimes, their parents don't know the English language at all, or they struggle with it, making it impossible to help their children with homework assignments.

The language barrier can be especially frustrating for parents who work multiple jobs to make ends meet. They arrive home after a long, stressful day, and are understandably aggravated by their inability to help their kids with schoolwork. Many of our students also lack a quiet space at home to read and focus on their studies. The tension surrounding this issue has led to family problems in many homes in our community.

At New Life, we help elementary school students with their homework and test preparation for all core subjects, and develop their study skills. When parents pick their children up, they get a detailed progress report that includes information about upcoming tests or assignments their children are working on. Best of all, children's daily homework assignments are completed, so families can enjoy their limited time together in the evening.

BTB: Please describe a typical day at New Life.

ER: The afterschool program is four hours per day, from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. Kids are greeted warmly, have a snack, and settle in before they get started on their homework.

We try to maintain a tutor to student ratio of 1:4 or 1:5. Kids are placed at tables with a bilingual tutor; we refer to them as study buddies. Students are grouped by grade, and often by school. We have a board on the wall to keep track of upcoming tests at our students' schools, and keep in close contact with teachers and parents to ensure we're tailoring the program to children's needs. When students come in, we know what they're working on in school. If they have a spelling test coming up that week, we focus attention on it, and they're working towards it.

BTB: How do you staff the program?

ER: The afterschool program is sustained within the framework of our church. We have a small paid staff, but mostly rely on church members, volunteers, and strong partnerships with community organizations. I have worked hard to build and maintain relationships with several organizations to keep the afterschool program afloat.

Miami-Dade College has a service/learning philosophy within their system that helps tremendously. We also partner with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. Retired educators, business professionals, and students who tend to be the best and brightest in their high schools serve as study buddies. There are people who genuinely want to help kids succeed in school and give back to the community; you just have to make it a priority to find them.

BTB: You keep tuition low—it’s just $40 a week at one of your centers, and your services are complementary at your other location. How do you support the program financially?

ER: Tuition is $40 a week in our Miami Springs location because families can handle the expense. In our Little Havana location, that's out of the range for most parents, so we ask them to donate $15 a week. If they can't handle that comfortably, we try to get them to volunteer their time in some way to offset the cost.

We recently qualified as a supplemental educational services provider, supported by the No Child Left Behind Act. Supplemental educational services are designed to increase the academic achievement of students in schools that have not made adequate yearly progress (AYP) for three or more years. With that funding, we have been able to secure certified teachers who help our kids one-on-one with their schoolwork. It was the piece of the puzzle that we were missing. Now, we have a certified teacher who assesses the child, and devises a plan with his/her parents, teacher, and study buddy. Securing supplemental educational services funding is an example of how we continue to build our program without placing financial pressure on students' families.

BTB: How do you measure the afterschool program's success?

ER: We've seen a lot of children flourish in our disciplined environment. We give them focused attention, and a lot of encouragement, and many make dramatic improvements in reading, and overall. We track our students' homework progress, grades, and Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores to ensure we’re making a difference.

We also count on parents for their valuable feedback. You would not believe how many parents have told us we've saved their families, and made their home life more harmonious. We eliminate that whole frustration surrounding the language barrier at home, and help kids improve in school. It's wonderful.

In addition to our Miami Springs and Little Havana locations, we plan on expanding our afterschool program to sites in South Florida because of the overwhelmingly positive response we get from the community.

BTB: Do you have any advice for administrators, educators, or spiritual leaders who are interested in launching similar programs in their communities?

ER: There are several steps you can take to build a program from the ground up:

• Identify the need—If you want people to wrap their arms around an effort, there has to be a strong need. You must be able to articulate that need to stimulate community interest.
• Recognize strengths—Find out what strengths and resources people you're already working with have to support your program. Use what you learn to shape your efforts. Our congregants help in many ways—from donating snacks to raising funds and awareness to supervising or tutoring the children.
• Focus on building relationships—If you want to be a championship team, you need championship players. You need to find people with a heart for education and people who want to provide a real service to students and their families each day. That requires a lot of research to identify like-minded organizations and businesses, and a lot of networking to get them behind your cause.
• Be patient—Expect your network to build slowly. We launched New Life in Miami Springs with just two kids in 1994. Now, we have more than two hundred kids, 90 percent of whom also participate in our summer camp program. It takes time to grow.
• Believe—It's important to believe in the power of collective energy, the power of community. If our students need something, we get it, and worry about how we’re going to pay for it later. The children come first. We’ve been operating the afterschool program for more than twelve years because our community is firmly behind us, and we believe in them.

Honestly, you'd be surprised how many people in your community really want to do something good. They want to contribute to humanity. The New Life afterschool program is proof that they’re out there. They just need a leader. And that leader is you.

For more information about the New Life afterschool program, visit www.casablancaag.org