Mario A Magaña, 4-H Specialist, Oregon State University Extension, Oct. 2005
4-H Soccer in Oregon for Latino Audiences
Soccer
Why Soccer?
In 4-H we would like to say that this project is the door for getting kids
exited about having fun and learning in a safe and caring environment. In
the Latino community, soccer is the “#1” favorite sport. The soccer club
will bring Latino youth and families to other 4-H programs, other programs
in the community, connect them with public resources available for them,
which will increase their potential for a better future. Through this project,
we identify youth and families, and encourage them to look for better
opportunities, inform them about the resources available in the community
where they live, guide them in any way they need to be successful, and
support them along the way so they can succeed.
In 4-H, we encourage young people and adults to develop lifelong skills.
Learn about other after school activities in the community to keep their
families well inform and educated. 4-H provides information about Federal
Financial Aid, scholarships, and internships to pursue a higher education.
We have no doubt that the 4-H Soccer Club is the door to other 4-H
resources nationwide. In Oregon, in Marion County itself, the 4-H Latino
youth programs have more than 1,300 youth and families participating in our
clubs. Through 4-H clubs, for more than 100 years, 4-H has built strong and
competent youth and families in the United States.
Situation of the Latinos Community in the Willamette Valley.
Many children in the state of Oregon are not active in after school activities
because the lack of financial resources to pay for exorbitant cost that is
required to participate in most of those activities. For most Latino children,
playing sports in after school programs is almost impossible because they
are too expensive and most of the Latino parents cannot afford the cost.
Example, the Salem Cascade Fútbol Club “U11-U14 Competitive Soccer
(2005/2006). Total cost for Fall/Spring is $830.” “U15-U19 High
School Summer League Registration (2005). For players who are
starting High School in the fall of 2005. Cost is $85”. Most of the
Latino parents from our communities are low income. They are earning
minimum wages and cannot afford to enroll their children in sports.
Therefore, the 4-H program from Oregon State University has created after
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Mario A Magaña, 4-H Specialist, Oregon State University Extension, Oct. 2005
school educational programs and physical activities free or at very low cost
affordable for almost every child regardless of their financial status.
So What?
Problem: Latinos in the United States according to our population ration,
they are the number #1 with diabetes, are the #1 in obesity, the #1 dropping
out of high school and the #1 in jail, the #1 in poverty.
Most of the Latino parents are working in nonflexible jobs; therefore they
cannot bring their kids to practice and games, they do not have time to attend
parent/teacher conferences in school. For that reason, they do not know
about after school activities for their children, they do not speak, read, and
write English. Therefore, when they see a flyer in English most of the time
these flyers end up in the garbage can without been read it, they lack of
knowledge on how to get help for their kids, some of them do not know the
importance or the ways for college education, and the majority of them have
not a clear understanding of the education system in the US.
The educational system and most of the after school programs and activities
are not structured to serve the Latino community in the state of Oregon. One
is because we lack of professional Latinos (role models) in most of our
schools and in other educational institutions. One other reason is that most
of the Latino parents do not speak English very well and are not comfortable
asking questions about their children’s education and the educational system
dos not have the enough bilingual/bicultural personnel to meet all the needs
of the Latino community. In the state of Oregon, the Latino population has
grown to the point that not even 20 4-H educators will be able to meet the
basic needs of the Latino community.
The problems that are facing the Latino youth
The greatest problems that Latinos are facing are the lack of Latino
professional role models for youth; the parents’ lack of knowledge about the
educational system to be able to help their children, unqualified to receive or
unaware of community resources; lack of knowledge on how encourage,
advice or educate their children about career opportunities and financial aid.
Due to the lack of Latino parents participation in after school meetings,
programs, and activities, parents and children are not receiving valuable
sources or information that would help parents and children to learn about
college opportunities, scholarships, Federal Financial Aid, how to choose a
college or university, how to meet deadlines for different types of
applications, and the possibility of meeting professional people that could
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Mario A Magaña, 4-H Specialist, Oregon State University Extension, Oct. 2005
inform and help them. Why Latino parents do not participate in parentteacher meeting? The reasons are many, one is because most of them do not
read, write or speak English. Most of the parents do not receive the
information about the meeting in a form that they can understand it. The
majority of them work many ours in none flexible jobs, others because they
do not know how important these meetings are for them and for their
children education, others because their children education is not a priority,
and others because do not realize that by attending these meeting will help
them to better guide their children through the educational system.
The consequences for the lack of after school activities among Latino youth.
The Latino youth have a lot of free time and too much energy. Due to the
fact that they do not have appropriated places to have fun and expend their
time and energy in a positive way, they start getting out on the streets
without of purpose and engaging themselves in trouble. Unfortunately, what
they find on the streets are other kids involved in drugs, alcohol, and tobacco
use. Due to the lack of fun and educational activities; gangs, sex, and other
crime related activities are most accessible for youth after school because
they are easy to get in, no cost involved, no special skill necessary, and the
only requirement is free time and interest. I wish all communities in Oregon
had a program that the only requirement will be time and interest. I am sure
that that program itself will minimize crime in Oregon very rapidly. In most
of the programs, kids need to have some type of proficiency in order to join
a team, a class or a club. This adult behavior in Oregon has and will
continue closing thousands of doors to children interested in having fun or
improving their skills.
Teen pregnancy is another problem.
Again, the cause is excessive free time and lack of positive youth
development after school activities. Do to the lack of activities, the boys and
girls spend too much time alone with out parents or adult supervision.
Studies show that most of the youths’ pregnancies occur between 3:00 PM
to 6:00 PM. Right after school and before their parents returns form work.
Some of these problems could be resolved with programs that the only
requirement will be time and interest.
Drop out of school is due to the lack of parental and teacher support.
Because the Latino parents do not attend parent/teacher conferences, some
teachers assume that the parents do not care about their kids. The reality is
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Mario A Magaña, 4-H Specialist, Oregon State University Extension, Oct. 2005
that most of the Latino parents do not visit their children’ teachers or attend
parent/teacher conferences is because they do not speak English and do not
know the importance of these meetings. This problem could be reduced if
teachers make the effort to meet with parents and students at the parents’
home once a year or by making personal invitations by phone, asking
parents to come to these meetings and expressing to the parents the
importance of attending parent/teacher conferences. Another effective way
is by offering incentives for Latino students who bring their parents to
conferences. Any of these steps could motivate Latino parents and students
to attend meetings or conferences.
Low percentage of Latinos in colleges and universities.
The cause of low college enrolment of Latino students is the lack of teacher
and parental support. Most of these young man and woman, would like to
be successful in life, have very good jobs, earn good salaries, raise good
children, and live in a nice home, but they are too young to learn about these
things in their own. In most cases, after many attempts in their own,
students loose hope in achieving their goals and their dreams go through a
tunnel of confusion and misunderstanding.
Bad habits and crime.
Drugs, alcohol, smoking, and sex are the refuge of thousands of young
people as a result of the lack of the topics mentioned above. Due to the lack
of activities, adult supervision, and parent/teacher advice, the students get in
difficult situations that in their minds never thought will put them in trouble.
Young people want to have fun and in most cases what is introduced to them
to have fun are not healthy things. For most youth, drugs, alcohol, tobacco,
sex, gangs, and other crimes are like ambush where they did not ask to be
but because those ambushes are every where in our communities, some
times free of charge and do not require any special skills, they get into it
very easy.
Sometimes drugs are expensive and addictive. It is hard for teenagers to stop
when they are addicted, for that reason, they start steeling money and
property from their own family, later from their friends, later from their
neighbors, and some times they need to kill someone to be able to get money
for drugs. If at least we could provide fun, healthy and educational activities
for students after class, the majority of these students will end up in college,
graduate with a professional degree, become good citizens, and serve other
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Mario A Magaña, 4-H Specialist, Oregon State University Extension, Oct. 2005
children in our communities but instead, they in up in jail consuming the
resources that other members of the community could use it for college.
As a result from many Latinos involved in crimes or elicit activities in the
state of Oregon, a jail of 3,000 inmates, have more Latino residents than a
university of 15,000 students.
Why this is happening?
The lack of after school educational, health, and fun activities for Latino
youth; the lack of Latino professional role models in schools or in their
communities; and the low expectations from teachers and parents from
Latino youth are playing a major role in our youth development and
education. I have heard many Latino parents saying “I will be glad if my
children finish high school.” Parents have lower expectations for their
children than what our workforce requires these days. Some teacher and
parents do not encourage Latino youth to get good grades or finish high
school because they do not believe that these children have the potentials to
succeed in college or because some teachers and parents have too much
under their responsibility that they do not have enough time to advise
students with special needs or those that will take a lot of time to be able to
prepare a student for college. Often is also because parents and teachers
have not develop a relationship with the student, they have not discover the
potential and capacity of the student.
Poverty-low income families.
Many parents cannot pay the fees required to involve their children in
positive environments such as sports, fieldtrips, and conferences because
they are too expensive for them. Therefore, their children spend most of
their free time watching TV at home or with neighbors and walking on the
streets without purpose.
Parents lack of knowledge.
The majority of Latino parents cannot help their children to succeed in
school. They have no idea how most of the after school programs work and
do not know how to get scholarships for after school activities if they are
available. Furthermore, when is time for their children to go to college, they
have no idea what financial aid is, and have no knowledge about the
deadlines or application’s process or requirements.
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Mario A Magaña, 4-H Specialist, Oregon State University Extension, Oct. 2005
Language barrier.
Education starts at home. Unfortunately, Latino parents do not speak, read
or write English. Therefore, most of the Latino children do not receive any
academic support at home. Many students return to the classroom with their
homework half-way-done or with no homework that all because they were
not able to do it and their parents were not able to help them. That situation,
really discourage teacher to help kids to succeed in school because some
teachers understand that the students do not want to do their homework,
some of them believe or think that they are lazy or that the student do not
care about school, etc. Some teachers never think that the main reason for
which the students do not bring their homework is because the students were
not able to do it or because the student did not know how and because at
hone no one is available to help them to do their homework.
The majority of the Latino parents are low literacy even in their mother
language. Most of the Latino people that came to the United States, they
come from very poor and rural communities from Mexico where middle and
high school education is not even available.
A larger majority of Latino parents do not understand the complexity of the
educational system. They do not know how the educational system works
because not even they had the opportunity to go to a professional education
in their county. Teachers, counselors and principals in many schools do not
pay attention to Latino youth because it will take too much of their time and
most of them are very busy with other students and many other
responsibilities.
How soccer and 4-H are going to solve the problem?
4-H is NOT a soccer program, 4-H is and educational program linked to
Oregon State University to bring knowledge and support to meet the needs
of the community. For more than 100 years, 4-H has been working with
children youth and families in the United States, helping them to become
good and productive citizens in our communities. 4-H will develop a soccer
league available to all children interested in having fun and learn about other
activities that will open their minds and doors about educational
opportunities. 4-H will have several soccer tournaments where parents are
encourage to attend. During this events we will offer information for parents
and kids about other programs in the community, about field trips, summer
camps and conferences were they will learn about college opportunities, how
to apply for financial aid, how to fill out scholarship application, and about
the requirements, and deadlines for colleges.
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Mario A Magaña, 4-H Specialist, Oregon State University Extension, Oct. 2005
Children and parents will learn about other opportunities with 4-H. At least
once a year we are going to have a leaders’ recognition night were we will
bring counselors and recruiters from different colleges and universities to
talk about their programs and opportunities for students with special needs.
Other 4-H Agents will talk about other 4-H clubs and opportunities for
children to get involve in.
How are we going to help kits go to college?
Once we have their contact information, we will contact them; we will offer
educational workshops for parents and students so they can learn about the
FAFSA’s applications process, about college requirements, about the special
programs available in different colleges and universities, and how to get
financial and academic support if they have no money to pay for college.
I am sure that through this process, the number of graduating Latinos from
high school will increase; the number of Latinos will increase in colleges
and universities in the Willamette Valley. More parents will have
knowledge about sending their kids to college. Latino parents know how to
help each other and help their own kids to succeed. Parents will gain
confidence in attending parent-teacher meetings in public schools and their
youth will gain knowledge about career opportunities, scholarships, Federal
Financial Aid, college admission, and special programs for minorities. They
will also participate in workshops, conferences, and fieldtrips where they
will have the opportunity to meet professional Latinos and listen to their
successful stories. In this events students are encouraged continue their
education and improve their grade point average. By increasing the number
of Latino in colleges and universities, the Latino community will improve
their physical, social and economical lifestyle. Latinos are suffering from
deadly chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes; this will help them live
longer and in better health.
Children will make new friends; they are developing better relationships for
the future; that means better connections, academic support, and good job
opportunities for their future. They will develop professional skills to fulfill
the needs of Latino professionals in the state of Oregon.
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