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Adelante re-focuses
its mission
By Kevin Milliken for La Prensa
One of Toledo’s longest-running agencies that assist the Latino
community is re-focusing and re-energizing its operations to
better serve individuals and families. Adelante, the Latino
Resource Center, hosted an informational breakfast for its
partner agencies and community leaders on Wednesday morning,
Nov. 30, 2011, at the United Way of Greater Toledo’s downtown
headquarters.
Those invited were treated to a traditional Mexican breakfast of
chorizo, migas, blanquillos, and tortillas. Local
elected officials in attendance included Toledo City Council
members Adam Martínez, Mike Craig, and Paula
Hicks-Hudson. City and county administrative officials
included Children Services director Dean Sparks, Lucas
County Job and Family Services (JFS) director Deb
Ortiz-Flores, and Toledo Board of Community Relations
director Linda Alvarado.
Many of Adelante Inc.’s board members also attended the
breakfast, including board president Dan Briones, Herzing
University president Greg Guzmán, city of Toledo budget
analyst Roberto Martínez, and BGSU professor Rubén
Viramontez-Anguiano.
Adelante’s new executive director Mary Price shared a set
of three new primary goals for the agency going forward: more
engaged partnerships, best practices for programming, and
enhanced physical capacity. She called it an “investment of
time, talent, and resources.”
“We’re moving forward and the demand is growing,” she said,
emphasizing the agency’s service offerings are spreading by word
of mouth. “They have a positive experience; they go tell a
family member. So Adelante is a huge family that is very
connected.”
Ms. Price pointed out the agency recently hosted a “family”
Thanksgiving dinner “full of kids, where everyone knew each
other.” Adelante also is planning a similar event for Christmas.
Ms. Price told the audience she hoped to increase the agency’s
partnerships in pursuit of more comprehensive programming,
including more services at satellite locations, and
well-structured opportunities for volunteering, service-based
learning for young clients, and internship programs.
For example, Adelante already offers off-site tutoring at
several schools, including Leverette, East Broadway,
Hollingsworth, Woodward, and Waite. The agency also hopes to add
Spanish classes to its English as a Second Language (ESL)
offerings.
“At the end of the day, we want Adelante to be a hub for
education,” she said. “We can have our educators come to our
facility and facilitate education.”
The agency also plans to deploy evidence-based, best practices
with programs focused on early literacy and community
organizing. A six-month pilot project will launch in January,
focusing on empowering parents to talk to teachers about
difficulties in school with their children, as well as other
activities to strengthen families.
Ms. Price also alluded to Adelante’s long-standing need to
renovate its aging office building, which has reached its limit
to handle agency operations and programming. She talked of
enhanced technological capabilities to increase the computer
literacy and skills of adults and children alike. She alluded to
the hope of offering online and English classes as an example.
“They could come to Adelante and have the opportunity to do that
without the barrier of transportation,” she said.
Ms. Price stated such renovations would allow the agency to
better meet its physical, program, and service capacity demands.
“We have physically outgrown our space,” she said. “We have to
use available space at our partners to facilitate our programs.”
Adelante’s vision statement speaks to those goals: “empowered
individuals and families modeling the way for a better quality
of life.”
Adelante currently has a dozen staff members, ten full-time and
two part-time. Most of the agency’s employees are bilingual.
Among its accomplishments, the Adelante executive director
stated the agency had served more than 800 people over the past
year, 80 percent of them Latino and 77 percent of them under the
age of 25. Through a city-sponsored program, Adelante has helped
40 families to achieve home ownership. Another 400 have
participated in financial literacy programs.
Alfredo Escalera: Adelante, Inc. success story
Alfredo Escalera,
who just graduated from Woodward High School and now attends
Owens Community College, told the crowd how participating in
Adelante programs has opened his eyes to a better future and
opportunity. He took a trip to Washington, D.C. over the summer
to participate in a National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
leadership conference, met the president and shook his hand.
“I have the video to prove it,” he quipped, which prompted loud
laughter from the crowd. “I learned more about how to network,
more about politics, leadership skills. That’s really going to
benefit me in the future.”
Escalera’s story was poignant because it was meant to
demonstrate the agency’s mission on a personal level: “Moving
forward...to serve and empower individuals and families in
Northwest Ohio through education, prevention, health and other
social services.”
Escalera also told the crowd of supporters where he and his
family would be at without Adelante and its programs.
“These other students are dropping out, roaming the streets,
doing bad,” he said. “If they go to Adelante, I guarantee they’d
still be in school, in college, learn about a better work
environment, things like that. The reason I want Adelante to
stay open is to help my community, help Latinos, help people,
help other cultures. The other people fall through the cracks,
don’t know what to do and they’re struggling with life. Adelante
helps you grow stronger, become a better person.”
Escalera then thanked anyone who had ever donated time or money
to help him and others like him. His story drew a hearty round
of applause, before he rushed off to take a college exam. Ms.
Price explained that Escalera has benefited from the agency’s
aims to provide “academic, economic, and life skills literacy.”
Adelante’s adult division includes programs to prevent low
birth-weight babies, promote early literacy skills, financial
literacy and home ownership, as well as domestic violence
prevention.
Ms. Price ended the informational breakfast by asking to meet
individually with the agency’s community partners and funding
sources.
“See how we both can help this organization better serve the
community and expand its capacity,” she said.
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