When a child psychologist from Laredo, Texas turned to the newly established community foundation created in his home town to help him realize his charitable goals, a great partnership was born. The donor had seen a program in Israel named HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) assist parents to get their youngsters school-ready by enlisting parents of preschoolers in volunteer activities at their local schools, and by a home visitation program. The Laredo Area Community Foundation acted as a convener to bring the donor together with public and private not-for-profit organizations and a local charitable trust to initiate a replica of the HIPPY program in Laredo. The HIPPY model was designed to remove barriers to participation, due to a lack of education, poverty, social isolation and other factors.

And it seems it is succeeding. In the first five months of the program, HIPPY parents volunteered a total of 699 hours for an average of 20 hours per parent. HIPPY is about planting seeds for the future---the future of the student, the parent, their school and the community. As families that are for the most part marginalized become more integral parts of the school community, important social changes begin to take shape and ripple throughout the broader Laredo community.

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