Abriendo Puertas / Opening Doors (AP/OD) is the nation’s first evidence-based comprehensive training program developed by and for Latino parents with children ages 0-5. The program’s tenet, “Building a Better Future Through Parent Leadership,” emphasizes the role of engaged parents and the impact of culture inclusion on lesson development and their children’s long-term educational outcomes.

Background: In October 2016, the First 5 LA Board of Commissioners approved a Strategic Partnership with AP/OD through June 30, 2020. The partnership promotes the scaling and expansion of the program’s evidence-based family engagement model. It further includes Abriendo Puertas’ current and emerging organizational capacity efforts, leverages other funders’ scopes of work, and draws on staff expertise of Abriendo Puertas program implementation in other regions and states.

Partnership Goals: The purpose of this Strategic Partnership is to increase family protective factors in Early Care and Education settings in Los Angeles County. The overall goals are to:

  • Identify Implementation Barriers and Best Practices. Existing evaluations and studies in the field of family engagement often verify the effectiveness of programs, yet there is very little understanding of the conditions and contexts to support evidence-based programs overtime, specifically beyond initial cycles of training and implementation. Participating sites in this project will improve the field’s understanding of factors that support and hinder the implementation and sustainability of evidence-based parent engagement in various settings that support families of young children. In addition, this will provide opportunities to explore diverse program audiences, including informal care providers, multigenerational families, and young parents.
  • Build Provider Capacity Across Diverse Settings. In addition to being evidence-based, Abriendo Puertas has a strong reputation of effectiveness among providers and parents in Los Angeles and across the country. The scaling of Abriendo Puertas within this work plan is to engage with providers within various natural points of connection for families with young children, such as preschool (e.g. Early Transitional Kindergarten, Transitional Kindergarten, Head Start), faith-based institutions, housing sites and museums. These environments are non-stigmatizing, thereby creating a unique opportunity to reach families that may be relatively more isolated from the broader array of family support services.

Key Milestones

Since January 2017, and as of June 30, 2019, the Abriendo Puertas has:

  • Certified 164 Facilitators at 26 agencies/organizations in Los Angeles County to deliver Abriendo Puertas programming to parents and other caregivers
  • Reached 1,821 participants in Los Angeles County
  • Graduated 108 unique cohorts of participants at 90 programming sites
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