Latinos, others sound off at SQACC roundtable
By Milliken, Kevin | |
Proquest LLC |
While five state lawmakers originally confirmed their attendance at the meeting, only two showed up-Sen.
'There are so many non-profits outthere. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but there are only so many dollars out there," said
"The purpose of this meeting is to get community leaders-not just Hispanic leaders-in the same room talking about social sovices that aid the Hispanic community," said Dr.
According to Dr. Ziems-Mueller, Latino-based nonprofit groups in
"It's just the beginning. We've seen a lot of conversations on how we can serve our community and we thought it was time to bring the Hispanic canmunity front-and-center," said Dr. Ziems-Mueller. "We are hoping to begin to form a coalition of sorts and make sure we are at the table and Hispanies are covered. The importance of our services can only happen if we have the support of the community, of the funders, and we cannot be forgotten."
Dr. Ziems-Mueller compared the needs of the Lucas County Latino community to that of the overall population. 48 pocent of residents consider themselves in good health, as compared to just 38 pocent of Latinos. While 71 percent of the overall community is considered overweight a obese, 79 percent of Latinos fit that category. 17 percent of the county's Latino population is uninsured.
"That's scary," she said.
Adelante client
"We're just gang to have to shout a little louder to ensure that we're heard," said Adelante board member
Ramón Pérez: The History of
According to Ramón Pérez of United North (a merged north end community development coporation): "In the early 1990s a group of Latino(a) activists met in
"The group representing Latinos in northwest
"
"Adelante was given its name because of its significance in meaning 'forward." The idea for establishing Adelarte was predicated on the vision of not only providing direct treatment services to families but to, more importantly, address the bigger picture of causative factors of drug abuse and poverty; and the long standing neglect of funding and services for Latino families in
"Adelante is still poised to be a powerful catalyst for real social, economic and political empowerment for Latino families in
Attendees address the audience of about 35 - 40 invitees
"If we came up with a serious proposal, we'd be getting some serious money, but we haven't done that." said Margarita DeLeón in a heated moment during the 90-minute meeting. "Wehaven't been good at asking for it, but there's aton of money that needs to be coming into our community."
'We need to get back to the fundamentals of what oeated our funding in the first place," echoed Baldemar Velásquez, co-founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee(FLOC), are ference to the civil rights movement and resulting anti-poverty programs."As the money shrinks, we're all sitting around with our hands out-and I think that's the wrong focus."
Velásquez admitted FLOC has focused its recent efforts on migrant farmworkers in
"You have no idea how many people are unseen and unheard in our community- undocumented people afraid to come to any of your agencies and seek sovices because they don't have
Velásquez committed to taking a first step through FLOC, by hosting a community organizing workshop in January for young Latino adults and teens "so we can bring those concerns and those petitions to city and government leaders." The local immigrant population will be included in that training group.
"I'm tired of us having a beggar mentality in the public view," said the FLOC leader. 'We are citizens of this community and we should stand up for what is rightfully ours and it's not a hand out. It's taxes that we paid. Those taxes need to come back so we can build our families and rebuild our neighborhoods."
Retired professor Dr.
"When I come to these meetings, I'm frustrated and I leave even more frustrated, maybe even a little angry," said an emotional Bob Vásquez, who was recently re-elected to the
"How do you avoid a gap in service delivery to a community that is growing when the funding is dropping at such a level?" asked
Additional Roundtable Comments
Representatives from Latino-based groups recognized the need for continued collaboration and the elimination of duplicative services. But they sounded a warning bell that other mainstream, community-based services must be culturally-competent and culturally-sensitive, keeping in mind the growing number of Spanish-speaking families in
Some of the community leaders in attendance were sympathetic and offered their advice to try to help the cause.
"I've learned that we need to learn the culture of the Latino population," offered
Ms. Spencer also reported she could not find any bilingual preschool teachers when she ran day care programs at the
"I have a pet peeve and that is we, as a community, spend way too much time admiring our problems and not putting together a plan of action," said
Other notable leaders in attendance included:
By
Copyright: | (c) 2013 La Prensa Newspaper |
Wordcount: | 1866 |
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