ENLACE program participant

The ultimate goal is to create four-year college graduates. But when you’re targeting the K-16 pipeline, you’ve got to get students through high school first.

— W. K. Kellogg Foundation ENLACE program participant

Hispanics are the fastest growing group in the United States, and it is projected that they will make up 20 percent of the workforce by 2020. However, one-quarter of Hispanics live in poverty, Hispanic children have the highest dropout rate in the nation and barely half of Hispanic adults have high school diplomas. In 1997, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation initiated the ENLACE (ENgaging LAtino Communities for Education) program to encourage Latino youth to finish high school, attend college and graduate. Houston Endowment became a part of the effort by supporting the program in three Texas communities. Derived from the Spanish word enlazar (to weave or link), ENLACE creates partnerships among community organizations, businesses, schools and colleges that combine their resources to identify and eradicate barriers and create opportunities that help Hispanic students succeed. Successful intervention strategies are being shared and distributed through an agency that also studies current K-16 policies that can be improved to create greater academic success among Latinos and the underserved.

To initiate ENLACE programs and promote their successful strategies, Houston Endowment has supported:

. Intercultural Development Research Association

. St. Edward’s University

. Southwest Texas State University

. The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College

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