Focus Area: Youth Development

Grant Amount: $10,000

Based in Red Wing, serves Goodhue County. Created in 2006 to target the needs of the county’s rapidly growing Hispanic population, HOGC serves the Latinx community through support services including mental health, advocacy and education to ease their integration into the community while preserving their culture. HOGC operates the Youth and Family Services after-school and mentoring program at two Red Wing schools for Latinx students in grades 5-12. Youth are increasingly coming from Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Chile, in contrast to Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador in previous years. HOGC is the only organization serving the Latinx population in this part of the state.

Grant supports HOGC’s summer programming focusing on health, wellness, and social-emotional learning for youth ages 8-12. The program will run for 2 months and will be a continuation of school year programming. Families will be engaged in the program as volunteers and will help to plan the curriculum, especially the Spanish language and cultural elements. A Parent Advisory Council is concerned with making the voices of Latinx parents heard at the school district level, as well as one-on-one meetings with parents to help them understand their child’s social-emotional development.