The Juntos Program

The process of scaling Juntos to a national level has been evolving, and there have been many growing pains that continue to improve the process. Below are some lessons learned along the way.

Don’t say yes to everyone. Professionals/partners can be demanding and have their agendas. Slow down and ask questions. Are the people asking for the program doing so for the right reasons? Have they done their research and needs assessment? Maybe create an assessment tool on readiness. What does it look like to add another community (school, city, county, state) to our work? Do we have the capacity and support?

Program fidelity and evaluation are a must, but allow for flexibility that supports the environment and resources of each state/community implementing the program.

Have clear guidelines and talk with your university legal team, marketing team, and Extension leadership as the program scales up.

You are not going to serve every need. Focus on your vision and mission, or you risk losing the focus of why you started this work.

The experts are the participants; go to them before making significant changes to the structure and development of the program. Parent and youth focus groups and youth leadership opportunities have allowed Juntos NC to listen before taking action on program changes that will affect the community we want to serve.

Interested groups need to be aware that programs like Juntos are more than just a curriculum and need to be willing to invest time, personnel, and resources to ensure its success.

Trust, respect, partnership, time, investment, honesty, and communication are keywords that are leading the national Juntos movement within Juntos state teams.

It’s not about having the perfect program but about persevering through growing pains.

Here is an example of how the national Juntos movement is spreading its impact:

A migrant education teacher from North Carolina traveled to Oregon to attend the National Migrant Education Conference. She participated in a workshop led by the Oregon Juntos team on their Juntos Program. They directed this teacher to the Juntos NC office, and a partnership was developed. Three years later, this teacher has run the program successfully with sustainability efforts made by the county migrant education program. Due to this example of success, other migrant education county leadership wants to follow suit. This same migrant education teacher met the Juntos team from Idaho, which runs a successful Juntos credit course/class during school hours. Juntos NC team brought this successful and sustainable strategy to our school superintendent, where the migrant education teacher has shown success. Approval was granted to start the first Juntos one- credit class in the fall, implementing Juntos 4-H clubs and success coaching. These examples of innovation and connection will continue to take shape as our Juntos states learn from each other and have great partnerships.