Oregon Encounters

I spent the week in the Central Willamette Valley last week.  My base was in Corvallis, home to Oregon State University. Oregon State University has been endowed with major gifts for building a center for families, scholarships to first generation college students from rural areas and to promote parenting education throughout the state of Oregon.  The Ford Family Foundation has been a leader in the process and has joined forces with other foundations in Oregon, including the Oregon Community Foundation and the Meyer Trust.  The Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative (OPEC) is coordinated by Denise Rennekamp at OSU.  Doris and I were fortunate to be abler to meet with Denise at her office in the lovely Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families.

Pictures do not do justice to the beauty of this building.  The wood all came from Oregon as a condition of the funders who made their fortune in the timber industry.  

It was a pleasure to catch up with Denise who both Doris and I know from our work.  Doris earned her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies at OSU and I know Denise from a multi-state collaboration in which we were both involved for a number of years.   I spent most of the time listening to her share about the evolution of the OPEC Hubs and the real expectation that the hubs are about developing community based sustainable collaborations and not to fund programs long term.  She shared some success stories and some not so successful examples.  I admire the work OSU and the greater statewide community of funders have tackled the need to support parents of young children.

I had contacted Denise early in my sabbatical planning about making some program visits and she recommended several exemplary programs.  The one program I connected with is Adelante Mujeres based in the city of Forest Grove in Washington County, Oregon, west of Portland.  I was able to travel to Forest Grove after landing at Portland Airport and before I drove to Corvallis through the verdant orchards of the Willamette Valley.  I was a little familiar with Adelante Mujeres because I had done research on their programs on Denise's recommendation and had met the director, Bridget Cooke, at a WSU event some years before.  

I drove into Forest Grove, a sleepy little college town (home to Pacific University) on Monday morning.  Thanks to my trusty GPS I had no trouble finding my way to the Adelante headquarters.  I was immediately charmed.

Adelante Mujeres: Education, Empowerment, Enterprise

Bridget Cooke, co-founder and director

Adelante Mujeres (Forward Women!) was founded by a small group of low income Latina immigrant women and their allies to improve the quality of life for themselves and their community in 2002.  I highly recommend you visit their website and learn more about the mission and the amazing work that is being done.  Two of the programs Bridget told me about that I wanted to return to visit are the Chicas Program and ESPERE.  I took the descriptions right off their website.

• Chicas is an innovative youth development program empowering Latina girls to develop their leadership potential, adapt healthy lifestyles, develop cultural identity and achieve academic success with high school graduation and college enrollment.
• ESPERE stands for Escuela de Perdón y Reconciliación (School of Forgiveness and Reconciliation) and is a workshop that helps people develop proactive strategies to address and overcome conflict and learn the power of forgiveness. ESPERE trains families to manage conflict with compassion and understanding in a way that leads to healthy, violent-free relationships.

The Chicas program is an afterschool and summer program and soccer camp for girls from 3rd-12th grade.  It currently operates in 13 schools.  The program began in 2008 and has grown exponentially. Bridget shared that the big event everyone was getting ready for was the soccer tournament for the girls teams that were drawn from the different Chicas programs.  Chicas works with girls in the following age breakdown: Grades 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 and 9-12.  Some of the graduates are now on staff with the program.  The Spring 2015 newsletter that Bridget shared with me features the inspiring story of one such young woman.

I am also very intrigued by the ESPERE program.    The six sessions are taught within the context of a a leadership class for Latina women and focuses on letting go of fear, sense of danger, desire for revenge and related feelings that come from historical trauma from being victimized.  Many of the Latinas who have come to this country in recent years have experienced sexual assault, domestic violence and other forms of abuse.  ESPERE provides a space to explore and release the feelings of shame, anger, fear and more.  Bridget reports that it has been very powerful for the women who participate.  I want to know more and to talk with both participants and facilitators.

Adelante Mujeres takes a holistic approach to their work with Latinas.  I have not addressed the other projects they operate.  A visit to their website is worth the time.

I left Forest Grove wanting to return and spend a couple of days there. 

I drove from Forest Grove through the lovely Willamette Valley and was surrounded by hazel nut groves, vineyards and rolling green hills.  It was a great way to travel to Corvallis.  My long journey to Arizona and back has diminished my already lukewarm feelings about interstate freeways.  I arrived in Corvallis to meet Doris at the Multicultural Literacy Center.  The center was filled with color and textiles from around the world.  I was right at home with al those fabrics. I met with the director of Casa Latinos Unidos de Benton County (CLU), Erlinda Gonzales-Berry, and Doris Cancel-Tirado, my host for the week.  Erlinda is the founder of CLU and has returned to be interim director. The purpose of CLU is to provide connection, education, support for Latinos in Benton County.  They nurture leadership in the community.  Erlinda said that two things were currently occupying her time - a Festival (Summer Fiesta) that will be held this Sunday, June 21st, and labor issues.  They have worked with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries to solve wage and other labor disputes.  The event will be a fundraiser.  CLU works on a very low budget and is looking at ways to create sustainable funding paths, perhaps charging for translation services.

This lovely display was in a storefront window in downtown Corvallis.  I went twice to photograph it and was unable to get a great shot but you get the idea from this and the poster.  I love the embroidered cloth on the table.

I met and interviewed the president of the Organization of Latinas Unidos (ULO), a women's group that are supported by CLU.  Felisa Torres was featured in the Corvallis Gazette Times yesterday for her work as a community volunteer.  Felisa was also recognized by Benton County Health Department with a "public health service award."  Felisa, Doris and I had a great conversation about the development of the ULO group.  It grew out of a group of women who came to Zumba and Cooking classes offered (through a grant Doris wrote) at their children's school.  Once the grant ran out the women who had grown close organized themselves to be able to pay for on-going classes and childcare.  Two of the women became part of the founding board for the ULO.  The original group focused on planning and organization.  The Women's Group meets weekly and they educate themselves and support each other.  Felisa shared with me that most of them had minimal schooling in Mexico and felt the need to grow with their children.  They also wanted to feel better about their lives so they worked on self-esteem and leadership.  The group has been very empowering for each other and have contributed to the community.  About 10 women belong at any given time.  They are cultural ambassadors for health, families and the school and community.  The women were recently asked by the school board to meet with candidates for the superintendent position and their feedback was taken seriously in making the decision.  This group also wanted to be able to talk with their youth about sexuality so they started by taking a class with a trusted community member who helped them create a workshop for the teens.  The idea that a trusted person is delivering information that they understand and feel comfortable with is the secret to their success.

Doris and I had an interesting conversation with Felisa and afterwards about a statement that I have heard from several sources, that Latinos do not volunteer.  Doris and Felisa and Adelante and many I had seen on my journey belied that notion.  Doris pointed out that the word "help" was more characteristic of what happens.  Latino culture has a more communitarian (as opposed to individualistic) orientation to life.  Helping the family, the school, the neighbor all happens because it helps the community in which the families live and work.  Both Felisa and Doris stated that the community needs us.  Doris also pointed out that a shift in frame of reference is important for understanding the phenomenon of helping.  She stated that volunteering is something that often comes from a place of privilege.  Having time and/or money to volunteer is often something that is a condition for doing worthy work.  It gave me much to think about as I prepare to return to my usual duties where so many of the volunteers who work with our programs have time and money.  

Doris and I traveled to Eugene the next day to visit an agency that has been serving Latinos in Lane County for 42 years!  Centro Latino Americano started as advocacy group and is now a multi-service center.

Service Directory for Centro

Trevor and Doris

Doris and I met with Trevor Whitbread, Program Manager, who gave us an overview of all the services the agency offers. He spoke passionately about the services they are providing for "minority" at risk to keep them out of the juvenile justice system and for those who are already involved with the system.  They have developed a successful mentoring program and work with a number of community partners.  They have developed a community impact model in which many sectors of the community (education, health, parks and recreations, workforce preparation, social services) team up to help steer the youth towards positive futures.  Both Doris and Trevor spoke to concerns about Eugene being a center for Human Trafficking which is a concern statewide.  I was surprised to hear that Eugene was a center in the state where issues of forced labor, sex trafficking and ongoing issues with coyotes and immigration paths arise.  I wonder what the landscape is in my state?  

Trevor also spoke about a successful women's support group that has grown out of the Alcohol and Other Drug treatment program but is not focused on addictions as much as support for life.  

I asked Trevor for what advice he might share with others and that I would add it to my blog.  He said that is very disappointed in the inequities in education that still exist and that any way we can tell the stories of of the "other side" (realities of life in the Latino immigrant community) we should.  We need to make the message about the life challenges that these generous people face accessible to both politicians and the general public.

I think I will stop for today.  I will write one more time about my visit to Oregon and some insights Doris shared with me that I think need to be recorded.

As always, thanks for reading.

Lessons Learned in NYC, Part One - Worker Justice

I have decided to write first about what I learned about worker justice issues in NYC and beyond.  I will start by stepping back to my first full day in the city and one of many experiences my colleagues at Cornell University Cooperative Extension in New York City (CUCE-NYC) arranged for me.  They set up a very busy two days of meetings, listening sessions and informal conversations.  I was very fortunate to get time to speak with KC Wagner, who is the Director of Workplace Issues at the Worker Institute in the Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) School at Cornell University.  The ILR is part of the land grant structure and does a fair bit of work on promoting workplace fairness, health, safety, equity and social justice under the land grant or outreach banner.  I was really impressed because as far as I know, my own land grant university does little in this area.  I had an intense conversation with KC and Emily Mandell, a graduate student, who were working together on the Nanny Training project and who are now engaged with training elder caregivers.

Emily and KC

I will leave it to my reader to follow the weblink to learn more about the Worker Institute and the fine work they are doing.  The ILR was founded in 1945 to help NY workers with collective bargaining and is a leader in work on national and international workplace issues - the focus is very broad.  I love it that some of the work focuses on the workers themselves and not just the people, organizations and institutions that employ them.  This interview helped me shift my focus for this trip to the conditions that blue collar and unskilled workers endure and have for many decades (and I could say centuries).  We may not have called the skilled laborers of the past who built cathedrals, castles, tenement buildings, roads, etc, blue collar but I think there is a parallel.  I also think of the names we have used for people who help with the household work for more affluent classes: drudges, slaves, servants, chorewomen, etc.  The names have often lacked the panache that they deserve.  I digress.

KC excitedly told me about several projects with which she is involved and how she sees her work one of translating research and education into practical applications.  She worked tirelessly on helping establish the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights for NYC.  She is now working with a collaborative that provides a 35 hour training for caregivers, first for Nannies and now includes elder caregivers.  

I realized early in our conversation just how important labor issues were in the state of New York and in the city.  I came into this trip wanting to know more about the conditions that impacted the immigrant population (past and present) and knew that would be one of the themes of this trip.  I was not disappointed.  I will write more about what I learned about the sweatshops and garment industry in another day or two.  For now I am going to focus on the issues that challenge the current immigrants, especially the women who seek work as house cleaners.

She asked me how long I would be in NYC and highly recommended that I arrange to visit people involved in workplace justice issues in Brooklyn.  I learned about one of the only corners in the country where female day laborers gather seeking housecleaning jobs.  It is in Williamsburg, a working class area of Brooklyn.  I was able to contact Yadira Sanchez at the Worker's Justice Project in Brooklyn and she invited me to come meet her in Williamsburg.  I offered to take her out to lunch.  Mike and I came as arranged to meet at the corner where the women gather each day in hopes of finding a cleaning job,  most of which are in homes of Hasidic Jews who live in the area.  When we found our way to the corner and Yadira there were many women milling about, waiting and hoping for work that day.  It was already 11:30 am.  Some may have already worked once that day.

Day laborers in Williamsburg

We found Yadira and with her were Angel and Maria, both of whom work with the Worker's Justice Project.  The women gathered around us.  We were so different that we stuck out.  Yadira introduced me and I gave a little speech about myself, my sabbatical and wishing them well in their lives and thanking them for their attention.  Yadira, Angel and Maria then led us to a Mexican restaurant where we could talk and we had a wonderful meal and a very animated conversation about the conditions under which these women work, the work that Yadira and her team are doing to ameliorate the conditions and their hopes and dreams for the future.

Maria, Yadira and Angel.  All three are from Mexico.  

I wanted to spend the rest of the day talking with them.  We all had to go our separate ways sadly for me.  I heard from Yadira today.  She asked if I would be writing about our visit on my blog because they need publicity.  They felt that it was a relief to have a real conversation and not to have to speak in sound bites about their work.  I decided to make their story a priority for today's writing.

They told me the story of the really poor conditions under which the women labor.  The Hasidic tradition is to clean all floors on hands and knees and to use harmful chemicals to do that to make sure they are as clean as possible.  They hire the day laborers to clean anywhere from 2-8 hours a day and much of the work is done on their hands and knees on hard surfaces.  Yadira shared with me some of the physical damage that is being observed in the workers.  They have seen a number of women who have hardened calluses on their knees that impact their ability to walk.  They see raw skin from the hands all the way up the arms that do not heal and are being irritated daily by harmful, and possibly carcinogenic chemical cleaners.  They know of women who organs are being permanently pushed in because of the position they must maintain for hours at a time on their hands and knees.  Cleaning synagogue floors may take a full eight hours when done on hands and knees.  They report a more frequent rate of miscarriages than one might expect and postulated that the daily exposure to cleaning chemicals and the constant position of being on hands and knees may contribute.  

The Worker's Justice Project is working with the women on several fronts.  They are giving the workers who will come a 10 hour OHSA training on the recognition and use of harmful chemicals.  They are addressing intimidation in the workplace and standing against being asked to do things that are unsafe.  They are also teaching them about worker rights.  They are creating a housekeeping guide for both employers and workers and are making some progress on identifying leaders within the Hassidic community who can help that community be part of the solution.  They have begun a campaign entitled Stand Up to Clean Up that says it all.  The art work is great.  Take a look at the pictures and the stories.  It is a campaign that makes sense and the time is now for action!  I admire that the Worker's Justice Project has formed a cleaner's cooperative.   Maria was the first member.  She began as a day laborer on the corner.  She enrolled in English and computer classes through the Worker's Justice Center and is now the bookkeeper for the cooperative.  She uses Excel.  I was impressed because I have still not mastered Excel.  She has become a spokesperson for the group.  Maria is from  the state of Puebla, Mexico.  There is a large group of immigrants from Puebla in the NYC area.  Most are recent immigrants.  

The work with the women is only one of the things these devoted folks do.  I was really inspired and grateful to get a closer look at this project. I would like to have had time to shadow Yadira for a week.  I asked Yadira and Angel about their stories and passions.  We ran out of time before I could hear much from Angel who studied business in college and who was applying that the work on labor and social justice.  Yadira helped co-found the Worker's Justice Project after being involved with the plight of the day laborer when her husband became involved.  She got involved in an organization for day laborers that she loved because it connected her with the community.  When it closed, she used her organizational skills to help found the Worker's Justice Project with Executive Director, Ligia  Guapia.  One of the most gratifying parts of conversation came when I asked Yadira what about the work she does makes her most hopeful.  She answered:

• She really wants to see changes and to see the workers protected under the law. She wants the law to be enforced for safety and dignity.
• She wants women to retrieve what they have lost (in coming to this country, working as virtual slaves under very harmful conditions, etc).  She said that "our country (Mexico) has failed us and this country (US) has failed us.  I want these women to believe in themselves and to know they deserve support.  This is hard work - you have to be emotionally and psychologically healthy to survive."  

She stated as had KC and others across this journey that social justice is very important.  Social justice is not something that lip service fixes.  Taking real steps can make a difference.  The Worker's Justice Center is one beacon for that work.  I was really glad I took KC's advice and reached out to Yadira.  My visit with in Williamsburg was one of the many highlights of my trip to NYC.

I thought I would close with two more pictures.  KC shared her art work with me.  She goes to the Folk School in North Carolina each year and she has been using printing on fabric to connect her work life with her art.

What the day laborers deserve.

The last is a piece of glass art that greeted us when we stepped off the subway at Marcy Avenue to  meet Yadira after an awesome trip over the Williamsburg Bridge.

Beauty is everywhere.

My next post will focus on my visit with the CUCE-NYC group.

Thanks for reading.