October 1, 2008
Letter to the
Community
Greetings to the Community,
I can hardly believe that it is now fall. Just a few moments
ago it was summer and soon it will be winter and…. there is no slowing down, there
is so much more to do. This summer, in collaboration with the U of O’s Child Care
and Development Center and the City of Eugene Recreation
Department, we provided the opportunity for the children of our families at CLA
to participate in an Outdoor Skills Building Camp. It was a rousing success and
we plan to make it bigger and better for next year. This year’s Back to School
Back Pack project also proved to be more successful than ever before as a
result of the generous donations of many community members. Thank you all. For
this Fall we are working with LEAD to strengthen and build their Bilingual Teen
Leadership program. Add to this the fact that the Children’s Playgroup
continues to grow under the leadership of Roció Diaz. Later on this Fall we will be presenting Infant
Feeding information classes here at Centro. We are also requesting funding, in
collaboration with the Center for Family Development, to provide Perinatal Mood
Disorder, or Baby Blues, group support classes. We have not received the
funding for this project, but I am sure you get the idea, we are not sitting
still. Our focus on women children and their families continues to give us hope
for a better future. There is more of course! Our Board of Directors continues
to strengthen and grow. This is an active group of community leaders guiding us
into the future. We are coming together, Staff, Board, Administration and
Community. These are exciting times.
The backdrop to all of this good work is a
Presidential
election season that is filled with ads full of confusing information,
an economy teetering on the edge of the unknown, and now add to this
mix
an anti-immigrant environment that is tugging at the very moral fabric
of the nation...
and what you have is a formula for great change. The choice is in ours.
No
one else can do it. It is time to open our hearts and minds. As Palmira
Veloz,
one of our new Board members so eloquently put it, “We are all
Americans” “Todos somos Americanos”. Our
immigrant community is a grand resource
of ideas, creativity and strength. Together we can overcome any
obstacle. Our
mission at Centro LatinoAmericano is to empower the Latino community.
Support our efforts to collaborate with other agencies, to open the
doors of opportunity
and advocate for the human rights of this important strand in the weave
of our
community.
Si se puede!
Please support our efforts and write us a
check. Go to the Support
Us page here on our website, to either, download our
donation card, fill it out and mail
it in, or, if you
feel more
comfortable, make an online
donation by clicking on the Donation button.
Jorge Navarro
Executive
Director
