The Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle (MAS) is looking for volunteers to assist with their spring concert called “Pregones de mi tierra” on Saturday, June 9, from 4 PM to 8 PM at Plaza Roberto Maestas. Click here to learn more about the available volunteer opportunities.
MAS activates and empowers communities through art by raising awareness about the history and cultural contributions of Latinos of African descent. This free event is sponsored by 4Culture and supported by El Centro de la Raza.
Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney was a trusted pastor, civil rights advocate, and visionary leader. During his lifetime, he recognized many injustices facing communities of color and was moved to take action. Dr. McKinney was compelled to give his fellow community members a stronger voice by protesting peacefully. He saw the civil rights era as a more prominent movement to promote stronger protection rights for all people. We are an extension of Dr. McKinney’s work because our community members continue to face social, political, economic, and legal injustices. However, his passion for and legacy of social justice remain a source of inspiration to us. We continue to keep his loved ones in our hearts and thoughts. Read Dr. McKinney’s obituary, here.
Aureliano arrived at El Centro de la Raza where he initially requested assistance for translation services. He had received a box from CenturyLink though never subscribed to such a service himself. Could it be that someone was using his identity?
One of our case managers at El Centro de la Raza then called CenturyLink on Aureliano’s behalf to inquire about the unsought box. It turned out that CenturyLink had dispatched the equipment in advance of obtaining Aureliano’s signature. While someone had used Aureliano’s identity to acquire telecommunication services, he was free of any liabilities.
That case manager identified another opportunity to further assist Aureliano by asking him about his experience with pulling credit reports, a management tool to track his credit history. Aureliano had yet to request one. With his consent, the case manager proceeded to help him obtain his first credit report on the spot.
Moments later after downloading Aureliano’s credit report, he was staggered to discover that he was liable for $30,895 in collection debt, much to which he was not privy. He had never received any bill notifications related to the list of unfamiliar expenses. Aureliano and his case manager acted immediately by challenging the supposed debt across eleven accounts. On that same day, they prepared and submitted debt validation letters to multiple creditors.
After roughly three weeks of anticipation, Aureliano was able to breathe a deep sigh of relief as the weight of $28,000 dissipated from his shoulders. An insurance company had mistakenly billed Aureliano and thus issued a reversal notice. Aureliano’s name was no longer tied to that enormous debt.
Today, Aureliano remains on the right path towards financial empowerment. He meets monthly with his case manager at El Centro de la Raza where he has demonstrated with proficiency how to complete and maintain a budget. He continues to save despite living from paycheck to paycheck.
El Centro de la Raza conducts a formal Community Needs Assessment every three years to summarize the current needs of the Latino community in our region. This assessment directly informs El Centro de la Raza’s organizational strategic planning process to design, improve and sustain effective programs and services that best serve the community’s needs. It’s also used to advocate for the community at the local and state level.
For this year’s Community Needs Assessment, we conducted two studies using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. CBPR engages community members as leaders in planning and implementing the study as well as analyzing and creating a plan of action from the results. This approach maintains accountability to communities most impacted by the issues studied.
We found that the top three concerns in our community are in the areas of employment, discrimination, and housing. The most pressing needs are for secure, family-wage jobs; safety from interpersonal and institutional discrimination on the basis of race, language, and immigration status; and for affordable housing with access to transit, stores and businesses, and childcare. The complete report (available here) covers these findings in more detail, and includes information about the other six areas we studied (education, healthcare, financial stability, transportation, nutrition/food access, and service utilization).
El Centro de la Raza’s leadership team is developing recommendations based on our findings for service providers, funders, and advocacy work. We will release a report summarizing these recommendations later this year.
Learn how we are helping families create Emergency Safety Plans in the video below: https://goo.gl/LoNXBW.
El Centro de la Raza is excited to announce that we are currently enrolling participants for our next cohort of the Unidos in Finance (UIF) program. UIF provides a 6-week Financial Sector training along with job readiness, money handling, and customer service skills for adults with barriers to entry in the employment system.
We are looking for participants, basic eligibility requirements are as follows:
Schedule:
We have two upcoming training series:
– October 22 to December 12 (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 9 AM to 12 PM)
– January 14 to March 6 (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 9 AM to 12 PM)
Contact information:
Juanita Unger – Program Coordinator
Phone: (206) 957-4608
Email: junger@elcentrodelaraza.org
Cecilia Acosta – YAT and UIF Program Manager
Phone: (206) 957-4624
Email: cacosta@elcentrodelaraza.org
We have taken on the mantle of environmental equity for our beloved Beacon Hill community where the population is 70% people of color, 44% born outside the US with 36% not speaking English well, and one out of 5 live in poverty.
Beacon Hill is surrounded by air and noise pollution emission sources from roadways (I-5, I-90, Rainier and MLK) and airplanes that fly overhead every 3 minutes. Road traffic is getting worse. As to airplanes, from 2012 to 2016, flight landings increased by 33%. In 2016, 70% of ~200,000 landings flew over Beacon Hill at 3,000 feet at times 2,000 feet. Airplane passengers will increase from 38 million in 2014 to 66 million in 2035, and international flights will double and cargo volume to triple from 2017-2021.
Air and noise pollution health impacts include asthma, reduced lung capacity, irritation of eyes, nose, mouth and throat for air pollution; and heart disease, stress and sleep disturbance for noise pollution along with many other factors. Neighborhood residents and workers have repeatedly complained to no avail.
The last couple of years, we learned about Beacon Hill’s environmental and health situation, hosted 24 community meetings in Chinese, English, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese and talked with 467 concerned community members to get their ideas and guidance for the Community Action Plan. Noise measurement, reduction and getting mitigation funding is on the top half of the list.
We are launching a petition to Congress and the Administrator of FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to ask them to:
The timing is right because FAA’s authorization will expire this March 30, 2018 and Congress needs to reauthorize FAA.
Our goal is to collect 1,000 online and hard copy signatures from concerned residents, workers and friends.
Our deadline is February 28. Please sign the petition and help us gather online and/or hard copy signatures. Please note translated versions of the petitions will be coming soon.
If you want to get more involved or have any questions, please contact our volunteer organizer Maria Batayola at environmentalequity@elcentrodelaraza.org or 206 293 2951.
I learned that during the community meetings, it was not unusual for attendees to say that there “is nothing we can do about it” and to just “ask for what little you can get” because the “problem is too big”. Environmental equity covers the natural and the built environment. We believe that what we have built, we can be rebuild for the sake of our beloved communities. We believe and call for “Equal benefits, equal burdens.”
Si se puede. Yes, we can. Mil gracias.
Sincerely,
Estela Ortega
Executive Director
A new legislation would raise the legal smoking age to 21, and would be a powerful move to reduce youth tobacco use in Washington State.
It will prevent smoking-related disease and death for future generations.
To improve the health of all of Washington’s youth, we center equity in the requirements and implementation of Tobacco 21. The Healthy King County Coalition Tobacco, Marijuana, and Other Drugs (TMOD) work group has developed the following recommendations for an equitable Tobacco 21 law:
The tobacco industry blatantly targets youth. Laws that punish youth have little evidence to support their effectiveness, and they are a tactic to shift blame from the tobacco industry onto youth. Communities of color, LGBTQ, and low-income communities are already targeted by the tobacco industry, meaning that punishments will fall disproportionately on youth in communities that are already the most affected by these disparities. Fines and other civil and criminal penalties can have an adverse effect on youth and their families already struggling.
Liquor and Cannabis Board enforcement officers carry guns. Current enforcement of sales laws can involve stopping people who appear under-age after they make a tobacco purchase. Raising the age of sales, these encounters will increase and with older youth and young adults.
The communities targeted by tobacco companies are also ones who experience unequal treatment from law enforcement. With increased encounters with officers, an incident could escalate and compromise the well being an LGBTQ-identified youth or youth of color. Enforcement can continue using compliance checks as well as establishing ongoing retailer and community education instead.
Tobacco 21 is not just a law; it is a norm change. With successful implementation, today’s tweens will adopt a worldview where eighteen to twenty year olds can’t buy tobacco. Risking the safety of a youth to catch one offense is not worth it.
Tobacco use causes nicotine addiction. Most people who smoke wish they could quit. Raising the age of legal of tobacco sales will have the strongest effect on youth entering their teens.
It is also an opportunity for eighteen to twenty year olds at the time of implementation to quit before continuing a lifelong addiction. An investment of adequate resources to support tobacco prevention education and cessation services is necessary.
The children of the José Martí Child Development Center enjoyed a special month of December, following the theme of the month “Family Celebrations.”
On Monday, December 11, our children, teachers and even participants from the Senior Program enjoyed the joyful spirit of Christmas with a visit from Santa! Each child received a picture with Santa in front of a beautiful winter scene, and our friends from the University Sunrise Rotary Club, who volunteered their time for the ninth year in a row, made the celebration extra special by gifting each child a new book, to encourage their love of reading and help build their home library.
In keeping with the holiday spirit, Toys for Tots made a generous toy delivery so we could provide gifts to each of the 308 students of the José Martí Child Development Center at Beacon Hill and Hirabayashi Place and our Luis Alfonso Velasquez After School Program. This was made possible thanks to the hard work of Julius Gibson and the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves with support from the local fire stations. Every single one of our children was overjoyed to receive an individual gift, and these gifts helped ensure a joyful holiday season for our beautiful children!
It was a magical time for everyone and for us it is a rewarding feeling to see so many smiling faces. Mil gracias to the University Sunrise Rotary Club, JMCDC Staff, Toys for Toys and Julius Gibson for helping to bring so much joy to our children during this holiday season.
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