Adult Education

Providing learning opportunities for our parents and surrounding adult community is part of our core mission. We believe that helping adults build crucial life and learning skills has a transforming impact on our families and our community as a whole. Offering educational opportunities in a welcoming, supportive and non-judgmental environment is truly a gift to our adult learners. The cost of these programs is underwritten by generous community partnerships and donor contributions. Classes offered throughout the year:

Parenting – Kaiser Permanente offers several programs to help Spanish-speaking parents find practical parenting solutions for highly emotional or impulsive younger children and at risk adolescents. The parenting groups provide empathetic and practical support to encourage adults to make significant and positive changes in the home.

Infant Stimulation & Child Development – Monthly class taught by a Registered Nurse focusing on a range of topic for infant and newborn care and development. Over the course of classes, parents and parents to be, learn about the development of their child from conception through preschool years. They are taught key developmental milestones, how to help ensure that their child thrives and how to assess their progress.

Family Literacy – The Los Angeles County Public Library, San Gabriel Branch holds parent and child programs conveniently within walking distance from La Casa. Adults are assisted with computer use and children have a special story hours, emphasizing a love of reading.

Food and Nutrition – The University of California Cooperative Extension Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program promotes good nutrition and physical activity as a means of maintaining a healthy lifestyle free of chronic disease. The goal of this class, while advocating for nutrition, is to help adults and their families establish and maintain healthy eating habits and physically active lifestyles. Participants learn to plan nutritious meals, increase physical activity, stretch their food dollar, practice safe food handling and prevent obesity through healthy lifestyle choices.

Financial Literacy – East-West Bank provides a Spanish language basic banking seminar. East-West’s staff members are able to help our parents develop a higher level of institutional trust, and in some cases, move to online banking. The range of topics include instruction on how to manage a checking account, apply for a loan, establish credit, or obtain insurance.

Family Planning – Monthly programs presented by Planned Parenthood help Spanish speaking parents gain knowledge and confidence in their ability to discuss important issues with their children.

Domestic Violence Prevention – Peace Over Violence workshops are designed to alleviate domestic violence and sexual assault. Participants learn about community resources, victim’s rights, self defense, effective parenting and techniques for engaging in healthy interpersonal relationships.

Gang Prevention and Personal Safety – Participants meet with a Spanish speaking police officer from the San Gabriel Police Department to discuss the dangers of gangs, drugs and the Internet. This series helps parents set clear boundaries to keep young children and adolescents safe.

This core group of programs is augmented with talks by Spanish speaking health care professionals, as well as, classes offered by the San Gabriel Unified School District. In addition, utility company representatives make annual presentations to help families conserve energy usage and reduce monthly household costs.