Timeline

AVANCE opens a new chapter in the state capitol, AVANCE-Austin. 

AVANCE-Dallas (now AVANCE-North Texas) opens with five employees, three sites, and a budget of $300,000. AVANCE is featured in First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s book “It Takes a Village” in which she presents her vision for the children of America.

Oprah Winfrey invites AVANCE to be part of “Scared Silent,” a documentary about child abuse. 

AVANCE opens the National Headquarters in San Antonio, TX and establishes the first National Board of Directors 

AVANCE receives one of the first Nationwide Even Start Programs grants to improve the academic achievement of young children and their parents in low-income families, especially in the area of reading. 

AVANCE expands in Texas with the opening of a new chapter office, AVANCE-Houston. 

The New York Times and ABC World News present the widely acclaimed Parent-Child Education Program, and the First Lady, Barbara Bush visits AVANCE for the first time.  

During his trip to Texas, Prince Charles, now King Charles III, King of the United Kingdom, stopped by San Antonio’s West Side to visit the organization advocating for parent education, AVANCE. 

In an expansion of the Dallas model, Dr. Gloria Rodriguez, a teacher and advocate for parent education, founds AVANCE in San Antonio and begins offering the Parent-Child Education Program (originally called the Mother-Infant Program) at the Mirasol Housing Project on San Antonio’s West Side.  

With funding from the Zale Foundation, doctoral students studying under Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner at Cornell begin piloting the Mother-Infant program in Dallas, TX.