Latino Service Agencies Want to Listen to Clients, Discover Their Needs in 2023

More than 30 local, state and even federal agencies were available at the February 4 Latino Service Day at the Central Branch of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (EVPL). This was arranged by Evansville Centro Latino. (Tim Jagielo/¿QPM?)

This ¿Qué Pasa, Midwest? article explores Midwest Latino service agency goals in 2023, the goals of individual Latinos and what they need right now

Karla Munive-Lima (second from left) and Rodrigo Grijalva with the Mexican Consulate, speak with attendees about documentation. (Tim Jagielo/¿QPM?)

It’s Latino Resource Day at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, Central Branch in Evansville, Indiana.

It’s a bustling space with lots of families and tables lining the activity room. Karla Munive-Lima from the Mexican Consulate Indianapolis office is talking with guests about doble nacionalidad —  dual nationality — for an individual named Ana.

“Para la doble nacionalidad seria el acta de nacimiento de Ana, el acta de nacimiento estadunidense, las dos actas de nacimiento de ustedes y sus identificaciones,” ella diga por the family before her table.

Area Latinos are here to connect with more than 30 organizations and agencies that offer employment, health and education-related services and others.

“We have found that there's a big gap and disconnect with the Latino community, especially the ones that just recently came to the area with very important services like educational services like the Vanderburgh School Corporation,” said Abraham Brown, director of the Evansville Centro Latino, which organized this event.

“And so we want to have representatives from the different agencies here that can help them in their own language and show them how to navigate their resources.”He said first generation Latinos are very shy about going to events like this. “We want to make sure that we are offering a very welcoming environment,” he said.

Families wait in line to speak with service providers while checking out the free items they're given. (Tim Jagielo/ ¿QPM?)

So there are prizes, swag, and of course snacks. And to Brown, such an event encapsulates a main goal or meta, of the Centro Latino in 2023 — to be a bridge between the Latino community and the services and agencies they might need.

That is what we'll be exploring in this ¿Qué Pasa, Midwest? story — the goals for some Midwest Latino community service organizations in 2023 and some goals of individual Latinos.

In exploring this, we’ll also learn about what people need in 2023.

The United Community Center, or Centro de la Comunidad Unida in Milwaukee Wisconsin, is a $45 million non-profit organization, and Laura Gutiérrez is the Chief Executive Officer.

“Nuestro deber es proveer los servicios necesarios para que nuestra comunidad hispana siga adelanta y le siga dándole a la comunidad lo que nosotros le estamos dando,” dice Gutiérrez. They are in year one of their three-year strategic plan. Gutiérrez said they’re going to focus on “operational excellence” in 2023. Especially their core areas of effort: Human Services, Healthcare, Community Development and Cultural Arts.

To her, education is the most important service they offer.

“We believe that education truly is the means out of poverty, and the pathway to opportunity,” she said. “It is the best inheritance that we can leave our children. And so we are constantly looking at, you know, how do we expand quality seats? If and when we can do that? Because that is what the community is asking, as well as how do we continue to support them in navigating that journey.”

The Evansville Centro Latino is working to provide many of the same needs for the community. “Education, health, protection — everything that we can do for them to live a better life here in the area,” said Abraham Brown and the Evansville Centro Latino.

He said they’ve been gathering feedback on what their communities actually need from his organization.

“We're going through something called ‘Community Conversations,’ where we want to have a deep understanding, because one thing is what we think they need, and another thing, is what they tell us of what their basic needs are, and what would be more ideal for them.”

Brown said por ejemplo, a new family came to town in December y, El Centro gave them lots and lots of food. But the family said that actually, they have plenty of food. They just needed a different service to connect with their landlord and communicate with him.

“And we were so worried about providing them with food,” Brown said. “We loaded their house with extra food that probably they didn't need. So just like that families have different needs, and we want to understand what are the real needs that we can be more effective in providing the help with.”

The UCC is also striving to listen to their clients in 2023, and Gutiérrez said early child care was created based on community input.

“Early childhood has been probably the newest addition,” Gutiérrez said. “And what I mean by that is at the (younger children) the 0 to 3, in having conversations with our community, many of our families, especially during COVID, and after COVID, didn't have the privilege of working from home. And we found ourselves having conversations with the community of, ‘can we open?’ ‘Do we open? Do we remain closed?’ and quickly realized by speaking to our community that there was a need for services.”

Back at the service day in Evansville, Karla Munive-Lima from the Mexican Consulate said she’s been fielding a variety of questions.

“We are here to provide information about the consular services that we provide. Specifically, the programs have protection, consumer protection, and the community here in Evansville is very interested in getting an appointment to renew their passport and consular ID, but also they want to know what other programs and services the consulate has to offer.”

She said they want to expand their services in 2023. They serve Latinos in the greater part of Indiana, Ohio and the commonwealth of Kentucky.

“We want to know their needs, and what we can do to to help them. What we also want is to (let) the people know the other services of the conciliate because a lot of people only think that the conciliate provides passports and councilor IDs but they don't know that we have a community affairs office that we promote the culture of Mexico, and that we can help them if they are in an emergency situation …”

Jose Alberto Gonzalez of Evansville, said he’s discovering services beyond his original goal of finding employment.

“Mera yo ahorita vengo por trabajo en verdad pero mi di cuenta de que hay educación hay muchas cosas que te pueden ser útil.”

Berry Global of Evansville employee Jaime Hernandez speaks with Latino Service Day guests in Spanish about potential jobs at Berry Global — which is intentionally courting the Latino community to fill positions. (Tim Jagielo/ ¿QPM?)

Finding buen trabajo is one of his main goals for 2023. Employers like Berry Global are here to talk about job opportunities. There are bilingual employees here to chat with guests.

“We’re trying to make our company bigger, because I know a lot of people don't understand English, right, so we're trying to facilitate — it don't matter if you understand (English) we will get the help you need,” said Berry Global Journeyman Paul DeRosa, sitting with Jaime Hernandez.

This large corporation is looking to tap into the Latino community here as they grow their business, and leverage their bilingual employees to do it.

And regarding employment — it was one of the main goals of every Latino individual or family we spoke with at the event.

Darfin Purto speaks in Spanish with Gretchen Easterday, coordinator of the Vincennes University Adult Ed English as a Second Language (ESL) program. Purto is from Honduras, and one of her goals is to learn English in 2023. (Tim Jagielo/ ¿QPM?)

Darfin Purto recently moved to Evansville with her husband and 18 month-old son from the Bronx, New York. She’s originally from Honduras.

“Claro que sí, este año me propongo aprender inglés necesito aprender a manejar, necesito un trabajo, ir a dejar a la guardería a mi bebe,” dice ella. “Necesito aprender a manejar, entonces esas son mis metas para el 2023.”

This year she‘ll work on things like learning to drive, getting a job and learning English.Many service organizations focus specifically on teaching English. The Hispanic Service Center of Imlay City, Michigan has not been able to hold their volunteer English sessions since the pandemic started.But this May, they’ll bring them back said Executive director Lourdes Emke.

“We've made sure that when we teach the English, enough English to communicate, for them to go, and apply for anything, go to the store in English to practice for them,” Emke said.

Many of their clients are arriving from Colombia and Venezuela.

“… and in the summertime, they got their farmworkers, they come in from Mexico, Haiti, Puerto Rico.”

Her organization also has the only family shelter in Lapeer County. They also have a food pantry. Both services are open to anyone who needs it. In fact only 20-percent of the individuals who use the food pantry are Latino. The rest are white.

But she said the community still thinks the center is only for Latinos — something she wants to change in 2023.

“Le ayuamos a todas las personas no importa la raza el color,” dice ella. “Otra meta para el futuro es cuando vean el centro hispano, queremos que todos se sientan bienvenidos no solo porque se llame ‘El Centro Hispano’ que piensen que solo es para los hispanos.”

Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library experience facilitator Marisela DeLaParra is greeting guests to the service day, and giving them swag bags.

She said the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) table has been very busy, focusing on kindergarten enrollment and free-and-reduced lunches sign-up.

Marietta Rodriguez is the ESL Family Engagement Coordinator for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation. (Tim Jagielo/¿QPM?)

Family Engagement Coordinator Alma Dabrowski is running the EVSC desk with Marietta Rodriguez, the ESL Family Engagement Coordinator for the district.

“We're here to help them especially since we've moved to online enrollment since COVID. That's been helpful. But it's also hard because they don't make that connection to the school individually,” she said.

“I think one of the constant needs that families need is either having an ID, some kind of identification. We're very fortunate that when kids come here to school, we take them as they are when we work with the families (with) limited documents that they have, to get their kids enrolled in school. But these families need these other documents to access other help and resources in the community.”

Rachel Acton, Health Advocate at Ascension St. Vincent hospital is chatting with the children of the Sanchez family of Evansville, using a mix of Spanish and English.

“I don't consider myself bilingual,” she said. “I just learned different words and different in many different languages to help the community to be comfortable with this new environment that they moved to.”

Rachel Acton, Health Advocate at Ascension St. Vincent hospital chats with the children of the Sanchez family of Evansville, using a mix of Spanish and English. At the end of the table is Jessica Garcia with Community Action Program with Head Start. (Tim Jagielo/¿QPM?)

Patient Navigator Adriana Toribio with Ascension St. Vincent hospital is offering assistance with health insurance to the Sanchez family of Evansville. (Tim Jagielo/¿QPM?)

She’s here with Adriana Toribio who is also a patient navigator.

¿QPM? talked to Adriana about being a navigator in Episode 8 of Season 2. “There is a huge need for insurance, of course, because healthcare is expensive,” Toribio said. “So we're here offering assistance with insurance. It doesn't matter if they've got residency or residency here or not, we'll still provide services for them, as well as financial assistance through the hospital. So if there's anything, any bills that they have pending, we can help them with some financial counseling with that.”

On an unseasonably warm February day, father and son Roberto and Jahir Vega, 11, are throwing the football around at a local Evansville Park. Jahir’s goals are mostly scholastic.

“I would like to be a good student at my school and have a good year with my sports that I'm going to play later — football, soccer or maybe lacrosse or track.”

His father is a little less specific.“Mejor vida mejores cosas para el 23,” dice el. “Más que nada que todo esté bien este año, ese es el oro que queremos siempre.”

Father and son Roberto and Jahir Vega, 11, throwing the football around at an Evansville Park in February. (Tim Jagielo/¿QPM?)

For Abraham Brown, educating non-Latinos about the variety of countries represented in the local community es otra meta grande, and sharing the talents of Latino professionals.He said it’s important for these Latinos who happen to need services now, to talk about the future.

“They can actually see that this is not just something to cover their needs at the moment, but they can start thinking about what they want to do in the future. And it's important that people acknowledge that — that they wanted to become a better individual, a better citizen. So that's important to know and learn what their goals in life are,” he said.

He wants to build trust with newcomers in 2023, and of course, he wants to keep learning about the Latino community in his area.

“What are the positive things and the traits that they come and offer to enrich our community?” he said. “Because a lot of people think like ‘oh, Latinos just come and they're needy people that need information, they need this, they need that.’ But then we learned that Latinos, they also come and enrich us with a lot of vibrant cultures, from their different countries with the values that are so important to share in our community.”

Coming soon, we’ll also explore second or third generation Latinos reclaiming their Spanish language heritage. We’ll feature Latino professionals and businessowners, and more.Gracias por leernos, thank you for reading.

This story was funded by America Amplified  and produced by Tim Jagielo, with Spanish translation help from Erick Barerra Miranda. Music is by The Passion Hi-Fi.