Our Heritage (continued) 1993 – 1995 Mission….Vision….Opportunity… Aligned The period from 1993-1995 marked a watershed moment in LFDEF, Inc.’s history. At the state and national levels efforts were underway to: promote community service on a large scale, address the needs for citizenship education programs with vast numbers of new immigrants eligible to become new Americans and reform education due to proposals by legislators, governors, parents and progressive educators who called for new ways to increase student achievement. Lawrence Family Development and Education Fund, Inc., with substantial achievements in program design and outcomes, moved forward to initiate programs in each of these areas, all of them involving education and the potential to “strengthen families and build community through education.” Community Service: Building on the success of City CORE, our AmeriCorps program, LFDEF, Inc. designed a summer “YouthBuild” model, building new homes with Habitat for Humanity. The success of this venture, the great need for job training programs for at-risk youth as well as the need to increase home ownership for low-income families, led to a successful application to Housing Urban Development (HUD) to become YouthBuild-Lawrence. These programs rebuild and revitalize both young lives and neighborhoods. Annually, YouthBuildLawrence and AmeriCorps members earn a GED, provide hundreds of hours of service to non-profits throughout the community and build new homes in Lawrence—restoring blighted properties and neighborhoods to the local tax base and “new futures” to families. New Americans: Understanding the needs of earlier family participants in our ALDP and PMP programs for the attainment of U.S. citizenship, LFDEF, Inc. then applied for new funding from the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants and the New Americans Fund at the Boston Foundation. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Immigrants and Refugees Association (MIRA), the necessary training for volunteer facilitators from the Parent Mobilization Project became citizenship educators…assisting hundreds of immigrants to attain U.S. citizenship. Without facilities, classes were held in the public library, Adelante Youth Center, civic clubs and churches throughout the community. Today a beautifully-restored former convent at 404 Haverhill Citizenship Graduation Street is the site of the Maria del Pilar Quintana Family Center, named for a great community leader and the first LFDEF, Inc. Board of Director’s Treasurer, provides ESL classes and citizenship preparation for hundreds of local residents as well as computer classes and ongoing support for families. Independent Public Education: Committed to Academic Achievement for Every Child The 1993 Education Reform Act in Massachusetts sought to bring equity to the financing of education for all children. It supported new ideas that reduced the gap in achievement between children in wealthier communities and those living in poverty. The great majority of children living in poverty were children of ethnic minority parents living in urban communities with an insufficient tax base to support many of the identified components of “better schools.” Along with establishing a foundation rate of statemandated funding for public education, Massachusetts included the licensing of state-funded charter schools as an essential piece of education reform. 7
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