EPIC, short for Every Person Influences Children, is a non-profit organization founded in 1980 with the aim of helping those two groups with the most profound effect on children—parents and teachers, help kids to become caring and responsible adults. To this end, the organization provides 50 distinct skill-building workshops for parents of children from birth to 14 years of age.  EPIC offers a distinct workshop for each stage of childhood development—infants, toddlers, young adolescents, and teens. In these workshops parents are given tools so they may become active participants and advocates for their child’s education. Almost all of the programs are bilingual, offering materials in both English and Spanish.

EPIC currently operates seven Parent Information Resource Centers throughout New York State in the neediest districts of Buffalo, Mount Vernon, Niagara Falls, Monticello, Fallsburg, Yonkers, and the Bronx.  The project has been a tremendous success with parents expressing increased self-confidence and increased knowledge regarding how to deal with stressful situations.  Teachers have credited EPIC’s centers with increased parent involvement in their students’ education.

The child literacy rates in New York State are staggering with a high percentage of third and fourth graders reading below grade level.  Unfortunately, a large proportion of these students are Hispanic.  EPIC has responded to this problem with its latest project “Ready, Set, Read”  is a bilingual literacy program focused on first generation Hispanic mothers, teaching them methods of creating an environment of literacy in the home. The program consists of seven two-hour weekly sessions of 15 to 20 parents.  Since its inception in Buffalo in 2004, the program has expanded into areas with high Hispanic populations throughout Westchester and New York City.

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