Hispanics represent the largest and one of the fastest-growing racial/ethnic minority population subgroups in the United States. With one in four children in the U.S. now Hispanic—and roughly one-third of Hispanic children living in poverty—the well-being of this community will have profound implications for the future workforce and economy of our nation.

To help programs and policy better serve this population, Abt Global, in partnership with Child Trends—together with several university partners— launched the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families in 2013 with a five-year cooperative agreement from the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation, an office of the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The center, which is led by a team of national experts on Hispanic issues, serves as a research hub for conducting and disseminating work in three priority areas:

• Poverty reduction and self-sufficiency;
• Healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood; and
• Early child care and education.

A key goal of the center is to build capacity within the research, policy, and practice communities, in part by supporting emerging scholars focusing on the problems of low-income and vulnerable Hispanic children and families.

The center launched a Summer Research Fellowship Program in 2014 to attract, develop, and expand the pool of emerging scholars focused on studying issues of relevance to low-income and vulnerable Hispanic children and families, as well as train young scholars in rigorous research methods carried out in a non-academic environment and in ways that impact programmatic and policy issues of relevance to Hispanic children and families.

Abt Global and Child Trends lead the project along with New York University, the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. 

To keep up to date on center activities, join our LinkedIn Group and visit the center’s web site.

Related:

• News Release: Hispanic Children in Chicago Show High Rates of Participation in Early Care and Education
• Developing Culturally Responsive Approaches to Serving Diverse Populations: A Resource Guide for Community-Based Organizations
• The Complex and Varied Households of Low-Income Hispanic Children
• Using Existing Large-Scale Data to Study Early Care and Education (ECE) among Hispanics
• Integrated Data Systems: An Emerging Tool to Support Services for Low-Income Hispanic Families
• Hispanic Children's Participation in ECE: Type of Care by Household Nativity Status, Race/Ethnicity and Child Age
• Family Structure and Family Formation among Low-Income Hispanics in U.S.
• News Release: Pre-K Program and Subsidized Center-based Child Care Show Benefits for Low-Income Latino Children