The HABLA Program Overview

HABLA is a broad-spectrum Latino-focused educational outreach program based in the School 
of Social Sciences at UCI and created by Dr. Virginia Mann in June 2000 with the support of the Orange County 
Children and Families Commission.  Its goal is to provide parent coaching and home visits to increase the school 
readiness of disadvantaged Latino children aged two-to-four years.  Its strategy is to unite faculty and students 
at UCI with members of the Latino community in Orange County, the Santa Ana Unified School System, Project Access, 
the Corbin Family Resource Center, AmeriCorps/VISTA, FACT, the Parent Child Home Program (PCHP) and the Merage 
Foundation.  The salient features of HABLA are its:

1.	Focus on very early, home-based intervention to promote school readiness for disadvantaged Spanish-speaking 
	children 

2.	Emphasis on Spanish skills in early childhood as a scaffold for the acquisition of English in school

3.	Development of a Spanish language curriculum adapted from the proven PCHP English language curriculum with 
	emphasis math and science fundamentals as well as on emergent literacy. 

4.	Employment of bilingual, culturally sensitive Latinos, college students and community members who are 
	compensated in various ways (course credit, salary, AmeriCorps membership) to be part-time home visitors 
	who intensively coach parents to facilitate school readiness by providing optimal language play, shared 
	reading and developmentally appropriate activities

5.	Goal of service learning for home visitors , of helping them achieve both an education and a career, to 
	graduate on time and to find public service career opportunities in their communities.