Willow Glen Resident

Community

Goei, new executive director at Estrella, created parenting, diversity curriculum

By Beth Hobbs

"I know you," bubbled a preschooler when Veronica Goei walked into the classroom.

"I know you, too," said the new executive director of Estrella Family Services in San Jose as she recalled the child's name.

Goei, a native of Chile who became head of the nonprofit agency in January, has immersed herself in all aspects of the agency. "We found Veronica Goei and unanimously agreed she was the ideal choice," says Estrella Family Services board president John Dods. "She lived locally, knew the players in the field, and had childcare and fundraising background."

Her background is apparent as she moves seamlessly among students, literacy curriculum development and long-range facilities planning.

Goei is committed to supporting local families and says, "You need a close network of support, no matter who you are."

Willow Glen-based Estrella Family Services is a nonprofit agency that offers childcare and education, youth services and family support at four sites in the San Jose area.

When veteran executive director Fred Ferrer resigned in 2005, an interim director was appointed while the board searched for a replacement.

Board vice president Paul Porrovecchio says, "We were looking for someone who would serve our community and carry the torch for family care with state-of-the-art programs."

Goei holds a bachelor's degree in child development from the University of Chile. She is also a graduate of the Harvard University's strategic perspective in nonprofit management program.

Goei began her career with nonprofit groups in Los Angeles, where she coordinated daycare for low-income families and managed a program for child abuse prevention. Realizing her work was sometimes undone within difficult home environments, Goei knew there was a need to establish family-support programs that educated parents.

"Parent education became my passion," she says.

She developed curriculum on parenting and diversity and worked with hospitals where she implemented a program she wrote for educating parents of newborns. Today that curriculum is used by other states.

When Goei, her husband and two children moved to San Jose, Goei became executive director of Grail Family Services. Grail provides family support and empowerment programs with a focus on family literacy and adult education. There, Goei worked on early literacy programs and developed the Lee y seras Family Conversations Workshop Series, a component of a National Early Literacy Initiative for Latino families. Scholastic published her curriculum in 2005.

Goei is enthusiastic about her new role at Estrella Family Services.

"My first task," she says, "is to make an assessment of the organization--where we are and how well we do our job. We have to define how we take the organization to the next level. I liked the idea of coming in and looking at how we can be great."

With her expertise in curriculum development, parent education and early literacy, Goei envisions Estrella as more results-oriented. She would like to partner with local universities to develop evaluation tools

She says this partnership would help highlight the impact Estrella Services has in the community, and better gauge how effective it is.

Goei also wants to increased parental involvement, feedback and education, and is opening a half-day preschool with a focus on family literacy.

"Parenting is the most difficult job," she says. "It's my real job, my real commitment."

While Estrella is already innovative in its childcare and literacy programs, Goei would like to establish a model preschool that focuses on school-readiness academic skills and social development. She envisions the curriculum in her programs being shared with other agencies and child-development centers.

She is actively involved with the community and serves on local boards. She has also played a leadership role in the development of the California Family Resource Center Association as a member of the design team, and was selected in 2006 as one of the participants of the Hewlett- Packard Nonprofit Leadership Initiative. This spring, Goei was invited to speak to the Illinois Association for Cultural Diversity at Western Illinois University.

Estrella Family Services is at 1155 Meridian Ave., Suite 110. For more information, call 408.269.7827 or visit www.estrellafamilyservice.org.