In 2011, the Archdiocese of New York made the heartbreaking decision to close nearly
60 Catholic schools.
The bulk of these were K-8 schools providing a safe haven to children living in poverty
and an education that nurtured the head, the heart, and the soul.
Cardinal Dolan did not want to abandon these communities, so he asked Seton Education Partners
to help.
In 2013, we launched El Camino, which means The Way.
El Camino is a new way to share the beauty of the Catholic faith with the children and
families who no longer have access to a Catholic school.
The church has been a beacon in so many underserved communities, so we launched El Camino in the
Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx, one of the nation's poorest congressional
districts with a largely Hispanic community.
We partnered with a public charter school that is academically strong and has a focus on
helping children grow in virtue.
Then, families can choose to enroll their children in El Camino to receive daily faith
formation after school.
In the school day ends, children receive homework help from their teachers as well as a nutritious
snack.
Then, each child receives a 45-minute religion class and a 45-minute sports, physical fitness,
or activity class as part of our holistic model of nurturing the mind, body, and soul.
Our Father, Who art in Heaven.
We refer to our children as disciples.
It's extremely important that they know that they are children of God and understanding
that He is their strength and their salvation.
In some after-school programs, the curriculum can be watered down.
For El Camino, we decide not to do that.
Why are we going to make this rainbow today?
It's aligned to the Catechism.
When lesson planning, we look at it and see how can we make this engaging for our disciples.
One of the things that I've seen with El Camino, just the growth, the knowledge, the beauty
of the formators, the teachers, and the students, and it's revitalizing a community.
It's revitalizing a parish.
It's revitalizing a whole subsection of society because of this incredible program.
The first book of the Bible is the book of...
Jail!
Jail!
I love reading from the Bible.
The Bible teaches me that God loves me and will always have my back.
I like the Bible because it teaches about the Word of God.
For a lot of Catholics, the knowledge of Scripture, it's not as good as we wish it was.
Yo manté a mi hija a la escuela de after-school porque creo que es un programa católica.
Yo soy católica.
Aquí ellos se lo pueden explicar de una manera mejor porque eso es lo más importante para
ellos de creer en Dios.
Ella habla de Dios y me gusta mucho eso.
The lives of our children are extremely noisy, both in their neighborhoods and in their home.
That's why each El Camino class begins in silence and prayer.
I think my relationship with God is really strong, although I sometimes sin.
Some things that I'm grateful for is my family.
I'm grateful for my school because it helps us get educated.
My daughter before was a C student and now she's an A and B student.
Her grades went up drastically.
When she wasn't in El Camino, the teacher told me she's misbehaving and when she joined El Camino,
she learned how to deal with her anger.
I've heard from many of our teachers that there's a couple of students who join El Camino
mid-year and that's when it's easiest to see the impact that that program has.
It's had a pretty strong impact on both behavior and academics when students are a part of
the El Camino program.
Latinos are the future of the Catholic Church in this country.
At only 3% of Hispanic children attend a Catholic school.
We wanted to find a way to better serve our growing Latino community.
In El Camino, our approach to family engagement is bringing families to Christ.
Every Thursday we have family fave night and once a month we have some sort of activity
that helps the family bring them together to Christ and to the church.
New York is busy and it's chaotic and it's crazy and it just felt like something was
missing.
When our children started going to El Camino, it really brought prayer back into our lives
again and we're grateful for El Camino.
I doesn't like to go to church and he loved to talk about Jesus.
I pray for other people because some of them are poor and I want God to take care of them.
He's really into it.
El Camino's approach to reaching out to the family as well as the child is of great importance
and then you're not just reaching an isolated kid during the week.
You're working out organically to their family because that's how you really get to know
a child.
El Camino helps to bring the faith alive in disciples.
We want them to come to know Jesus.
We want them to come to love the church and so we see that it enriches the church at
every level.
We see how our disciples leave here and that they evangelize their friends, they evangelize
their families.
We see that they're praying more, that it's become now a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ not just an idea.
We could not be happier with the results.
Four out of five parents say their family prays more because of El Camino.
Eighty-five percent say their children behave better and in only four years over seventy
children have been baptized.
El Camino has grown every year.
We now are serving over a hundred and eighty children K through four and we have a wait
list.
We're launching El Camino at two new locations next year.
When we're fully enrolled, we expect to be serving over seven hundred children, grades
K through eight, preparing our disciples to become young men and women of deep faith
and integrity.
We would love to bring El Camino to more diocese across the country.
Children and families grow closer to Christ and the church gets stronger.
We're immensely grateful for our partnership with El Camino.
I think every school out there hopes to have a community-based partner who can add such
value and richness to their students' lives.
I would recommend to anybody who has an opportunity to partner with an organization like this
to take advantage of it because the benefits for our students are truly immeasurable.
This is gold.
This is doing what other places can't do and we are seeing young students, their lives
are being changed.
I'd recommend it to every pastor, to every bishop in the diocese.
We have something here that we want to bottle and we want to spread all over the entire
country.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with me.
Blessed are thou among the women.
And blessed are the fruit that die on Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.
Now and at the hour of our death, amen.
St. Elizabeth and senior, pray for us.
