Project Summary:

The mission of the Las Cruces Title I Even Start Project is to provide young parents with the opportunity to continue their education after the birth of their children. The project seeks to empower participants to be great parents as well as their child’s first teacher by promoting literacy at a very young age. The goals of the Las Cruces Even Start Project are divided into four categories: adult literacy and economic self-sufficiency; child literacy; parenting; and parent and child interactive literacy. The project provides services to families, including those headed by teenage parents, who are in need of language skills, job training, parenting education, and life skills. Many of these parents have not completed a high school education and struggle to find and maintain employment due to their lack of skills.