St. Anne Church is becoming more active in North Little Rock through its program, FAMILIA or Forming Assured Motivated Inspired Loving Informed Adolescents.
Hispanic students from sixth grade through high school show up for the various activities throughout the week, including religious education, after-school tutoring, field trips and time just to talk, laugh and play.
Sometimes they play board games, learn to cook while learning about nutrition, or learn how to deal with problems. This year 22 youth are involved.
One evening, Perla Rivera, Maria Rivera, Aby Arredondo, Karla Guardado, Luis Portillo, Rocky Garcia, Brayan Garcia and Kike Arredondo watched a movie about French mime artist Marcel Marceau and then sat around discussing his life with St. Anne pastor, Father Tom Stehlik, CM, while another group was off preparing a program for the holidays.
FAMILIA, which also means “family” in Spanish, is in its second year, Father Stehlik said. The program received a $1,500 local grant from the Diocese of Little Rock’s Catholic Campaign for Human Development, he added.
The program’s aim is to improve the quality of life for Hispanic youth and their families through mentoring, education and appreciation of cultural diversity and recreational activities, Father Stehlik said.
Some examples of what the education program strives to do is promote lifelong learning skills, improve their English, math and science proficiency and raise their level of academic achievement. Father Stehlik said they check the students’ report cards to see how well they are doing and if they are making improvements.
Not surprisingly, the more parents are involved with their children, the better students they are, he said.
“We have some parents who are very steady and interested; we have others who struggle in that area. … FAMILIA is kind of a pilot project, but the immediate idea would be to go all the way with the kids to make sure they get through school, rather than pick them up in sixth grade and then drop them,” he added.
Other goals are typical for kids their age, including enhancing self-understanding and self-confidence, improving relational skills, promoting pride in their cultural heritage and respecting others’ cultures, Father Stehlik added.
Father Stehlik said he saw a need for something to help Hispanic families in his parish and could not find anything that fit the needs.
“In general, Hispanic immigrant families are here on their own, without the family support; many times the parents and grandparents are not here,” he said. “The families needed support, for example, with babysitting.”
Father Stehlik said the parish is seeing positive results.
“If there is community interest, if adults show interest in education and youth activities, the youth respond to that support,” he said.
He said it becomes obvious that parents are concerned about their children’s faith lives, wanting to know how they can help their children when they are between 10 and 12 years old.
There are other youth programs, and Father Stehlik wants to keep them involved.
“We have noticed, kids who go to Busqueda (a retreat weekend similar to Search), that is a huge boost for them,” he said.
In addition to the diocese, the FAMILIA program is supported by the Rev. Mary Hoey and Butterfly Community Ministries of the First United Methodist Church of North Little Rock, the Arkansas Ladies of Charity, an anonymous donor, a matching grant from the Vincentian community and Ramona Ilg, family program assistant with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service.
