Latino Enterprise Center (LEC)

I have been meeting frequently with folks involved in all sorts of "green" businesses.  All have agreed that training local Latino/a crews on alternative energy and building technologies is a win-win situation (city’s plan to integrate the growing Latino/a population) for the economic health of this community.  Below is an article that points to this same issue in other places in this country.

Once you read the article, I hope you will look at our vision in Northfield a bit different, not as an isolated idea but as something that is part of an international trend, one in which the U.S. lags behind other developed and even underdeveloped countries.  I like to call myself an environmental, socially responsible, fair trade, entrepreneur and also an "agripreneur" as I am also working with Latino/a beginning farmers, ranchers and market gardeners.  But all of these "qualifications" have deep roots in my own experience in life, having grown-up in a village without electricity, potable water, streets (just paths), etc. Because of my background, I cannot make myself just support businesses or industries for one or two reasons (say jobs and investment), I feel a responsibility to ensure that I look in all directions when working with business owners to ensure that their proposals reflect a long-term sustainable strategy.  I today’s environment, evaluating the environmental footprint of a company or product, is probably more important than finding customers, since those customers will be switching to another product the minute they realize that we are destroying the environment where they live.

I have been looking for histories of projects that reflect my own thinking, the story below is one of them, in other postings, I will also address the economic impact that derives from the conventional approach to attracting industries into a city, versus the strategic development of locally grown industries that reflect more on the make-up of our city, keeps previous investments growing and taps into locally grown, loyal residents, while attracting outside businesses that can help move forward our future vision of the city.  For my work in Latino communities, the vision of "green industries" has a specific appeal and carries a powerful argument with tools to create hope and invigorate local leaders to take action and become more active in exploring and launching green businesses.  Given the economic, social and political conditions and profile of our local Latino/a population I thought this article would help folks who visit my blog understand our thinking.

Op-Ed Columnist

The Green-Collar Solution

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: October 17, 2007

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Viking Terrace is a neighborhood on the Northeast side of the city of Northfield.  It is a diverse community in general but it is the heaviest Latino/a inhabited neighborhood.  In 2006, Greenvale Park Elementary School, located just over the creek behind Viking Terrace had a total of 14% Latino/a families.  From 87 registered Latino/a students 67 had Viking Terrace addresses.  This numbers are in high contrast to 5% and 3% for Bridgewater and Sibley elementary schools on the other side of town.  The Greenvale Park School numbers are also in contrast with the official 5% reported Latino/a population in Northfield, and with the 4+% for Rice County, but right in line with the 14.4% Hispanic/Latino population of the nation according to 2000 census data.

The fire last Monday that destroyed the home of Selene and Miguel Rojas was caused by electrical wiring issues according to the fire department’s declarations to the Northfield News yesterday.  Whatever the cause, the fact is that the home was destroyed and the family needs support.

On Monday night, I went out to the site and found many neighbors standing outside, then Ray Andrade, the president of St. Dominic Catholic Church’s Hispanic council came out and we organized a short community meeting to look into what needed to be done.

First we checked the status of the family, we learned that they were staying with Selene’s mother at The Woods II apartment building, that they were o.k. physically, and their short-term housing was arranged.  Debbie Haan, the owner of Viking Terrace had also provided factual information about the family’s whereabouts and was working already on temporary housing options together with taking calls of people wanting to donate common home items.  Father Dennis Dempsey of St. Dominic’s Catholic Church had also instructed the release of emergency funds from the church for immediate support for the family.

We then moved on to the physical aspects of the property, clean-up, disposal and replacement of the home either with a used one or new.

Debbie had already taken on the task of working with the family and the city to look into the small but very important financial support that they offer.  Today, the family was to hear from the city on their approval.  If approved, the grant would also pay for the clean-up, an estimated cost of $2,000 according to Debbie.

The next step discussed was getting the word out to the Latino and to the wider community to gather financial support to supplement any city support for a down-payment on a used home that could get the family back on track.  Though both Miguel and Selene have jobs, their income won’t cover the full monthly payments of a new home.

As part of getting the local Latino/a leadership involved, I spoke to Angelica Koch from Health Finders, Marco Flores, Ivan Ortiz, Jose Javier, about 4 neighbors and 5 potential volunteers so that we start preparing a crew to dismantle the burnt home and dispose of it in case the city objects to providing support.  All of us in the current Latino Leadership Network took roles according to our possibilities.  Last night, I heard that the family was getting a good response from the community, some of it organized and some spontaneous.  The immediate goal is to make them feel that we are all concerned about their well being, that we care and that we will be there to support them.  Building confidence and trust in a new community where one has recently arrived is probably the hardest part of being a recent immigrant.  Making this process as easy as possible all the time is of key importance, but putting extra effort during times of crisis is imperative. What we do for one person or family in times of crisis reflects the overall community’s attitudes, and level of caring and compassion, which directly translates into how welcome or not one feels and how newcomers incorporate themselves into the wider community.  This is of more importance as congress just defeated the "Dream Act" which would have cleared the way people to pursue a better education.

On the wider-community response front, I spoke to Theresa Friest, at First National Bank on Monday and she got to work very fast to create a bank account to collect community donations to support a down-payment for a new home for the family and other immediate expenses that they may have incurred as a result of this tragedy. The Northfield News published yesterday an article about the incident indicating that the donations were tax deductible.  This was a misunderstanding, neither the CAC nor the bank can take donations destined to a specific individual or family as a tax deductible donation.  However, the CAC has been engaged in supporting many families in crisis and general tax deductible donations can be made directly through the CAC website (see link below).

To directly contribute to the Rojas family at the First National Bank Account, go to the bank and make a deposit or mail a check with the following information:

Name: Rojas Donation Fund
Account #: 223079
The First National Bank of Northfield
P.O. Box 59
Northfield, MN 55057-0059

To make a general tax deductible donation to the CAC follow this link.

If you want to donate to the Latino Enterprise Center to support work that we do specifically for Latino Families in Northfield follow this link.  One of our work areas targets home ownership and part of it is ensuring that families are insured.  Though this is ongoing work, we hope to do more education in the community about the importance of insuring our homes.

This tragedy has had a galvanizing effect at least in a small part of the Latino community and has increased the awareness by the wider community of the economic conditions under which many of these families live.  As we continue our struggle to improve economic conditions, we invite everyone to become more aware and informed about our city’s diversity, struggles and incredible sense of community.

In a conversation last night with the Rojas family, they told me that they are overwhelmed with the compassion and support that they have received from families all around.  Northfield is absolutely a great place to live, though we are all exposed to disasters like this, the assurance that the community cares and the actual response of a community makes a huge difference in making our city family and children friendly.  On the flip side, many uninsured homeowners know the risks they are taking, but for too many, it is a choice of buying home insurance or food, and we all know the natural choice.

To close today’s entry, let’s look at this tragedy also from the perspective of how it can benefit our community in general by bringing us together, by creating an opportunity to discuss issues of poverty among us, issues of family support systems and family cohesiveness the two key aspects that are currently sustaining the Rojas family morally and physically.

Let’s also not forget that much of the work we need to do to support this family is tied to issues of financial planning and decent home ownership options for the working poor in Northfield.  This issue affects many families independently of their racial background.  There are many other pressing social/economic, political issues that we must keep in mind as we watch our city leaders’ daily struggle and hard work toward addressing these important long term issues for our city.

Weather has had its swings this growing season in Minnesota, from an above average rainfall in June to an apparently never ending drought, to a never ending wet fall.  Nobody has probably been affected hardest than farmers who did not get their crops out of the fields before this rainy spell started.

Our grounds at the community garden behind Benjamin bus are still unprepared for the winter.  We need some dry weather to get out there, mow, spread lime and manure and lay the ground to rest for the winter.

Half of our black turtle beans are still out in the field, and if the farmer’s article in the Wednesday 17th Northfield News makes you think about soybeans rotting, think about black beans, which once mature don’t stand half of the rain that soybeans do.

Meanwhile, on another agricultural front, we have been busy processing our experimental crop of meat chickens and making plans to grow many more next year.  A group of four of us have built most of the infrastructure so that next spring we can grow free range chickens by rotating them between paddocks, which we have also planted with hazelnuts or filberts to establish a permanent root system to protect the soil, absorb the fertilizer from the chickens and produce an alternative crop of nuts in the future.

As for the black beans, I guess we will get to it when we get to it as the saying goes, I went out this morning and found even the pods high up are moldy.  The black spots you see in the picture, are from already rotting pods.  At least we got enough out of the fields to fill the orders we have already received.

Back to the chickens, we decided to grow free range broilers for many reasons, here are some of them:

- Building fences is cheaper than buildings. 
- Because we are growing these chickens to fill a market niche for healthy locally produced meat.
- Because we want them to feed on weeds, insects, and cover crops, while getting some exercise and improving the taste of the end product.
-Because we also want to grow a buckwheat crop ahead of the chickens rotating into the paddocks, and have them harvest and process it straight into meat and fertilizer.

Come spring, we will start taking orders from people interested in having their chicken locally grown, if current interest in this project is a sign of future performance, we will be filling the paddocks to capacity, so stay in touch.

All of us who have purchased a home, know that it is a lot of work, requires a lot of knowledge and more than anything it requires access to resources and good financial planning. Without these and other key considerations, many people end-up in foreclosures.

In recent months, as part of the Newcomer Project that we undertook in partnership with the Northfield CAC, I have been putting together a plan with projects that deliver key elements of this program. The “green homes” project that I blogged about recently is one of them.

Another key project to deliver on the path to integration of the local Latino community in Northfield is related to home ownership, minorities still lag behind in this aspect of economic integration though it is recognized as a key aspect of healthy communities.

So where would one start to address the many complex and important issues associatd with learning the process, understanding the challenges and finding homes that fit the economic profile of many of the local Latino families.?

One key step I know applies for all cases weather we are experts or new to an issue, is to ask for help. So, last Friday, I went to Saint Paul to meet with folks who know this work and have done it well for a long time.

The story is more complex, I was looking for help but help came to me through an e-mail from Susan Jackson, of American Dream Services, she lives in Northfield but works in St. Paul and was interested in offering this kind of training here in our area. I had information that Maritza Mariani was an Associate director of the Neighborhood Development Alliance in St. Paul and that their reputation in this area is among the best, but Susan was already talking with Maritza about this issue, so when her e-mail came, I was ready to move on the issue.

We met last Friday at American Dreams office in St. Paul and are now moving forward to put together a series of home ownership education trainings in Northfield. I will be posting new blogs on this project as there are many issues to cover, from predatory lending to what comes after the workshops, for now I feel that having these top notch team behind us is a solid start.

Today’s Northfield News had an article on the CAC-Main Street Project partnership that I blogged recently. Below is the whole article, new information on the origin of the funds was provided by Jim Blaha which Jaci Smith, Managing Editor at the NN’s included in the final article.

Than you Jaci for such a wonderful support of this important work in our community.

Community Action Center’s Newcomer Project gives aid

By JACI SMITH
Managing Editor

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

NORTHFIELD - Two local programs with common goals have joined forces to help newcomers to Northfield find work and get involved in the community.

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Here is a posting of the press release earlier this week by the Community Action Center of Northfield.

LEC is the implementation mechanism for this program. The focus of this partnership is to develop ways to facilitate the integration of the growing Latino population in Northfield. In future posting, the strategy and the different components of this integration plan will be shared, but if you want to support this work and can’t wait, just send a message through our contact form and we will meet with you individually.

Here is the whole press release

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This Morning, I met with Jim Blaha, director of the Community Action Center (CAC), Bruce Anderson of Sustainable Community Solutions and Jenny Larson, Community Development Director of the Three Rivers Community Action, Inc. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the specific steps needed in order to bring the concept of “Modeling Green”, to Northfield. In other words, modeling green technologies in as many aspects of community development as possible.

Today’s meeting was focused on housing development, especially the aspect of workforce housing, taking initiative and leadership to contribute to the housing needs of our teachers, police officers, and other sectors of the population that even with the housing slump at its lowest point in a long time, still does not provide housing that is affordable to those who sustain our community.

But our goal is not just to promote building more houses, we are thinking according to our times and the opportunities emerging for the future, this means thinking in terms of ecologically friendly systems, you can learn more about this through the Minnesota Green Communities and through Bruce’s link above.

As the director of the Latino Enterprise Center, the growing Latino population of Northfield and the region are enough of a reason for me to be part of this leadership team. Within the context of enterprise development and creating jobs, training people to be able to deliver and sustain this new “green” technologies is key for the long term success of our enterprise ideas in the pipeline.

As a city, it is important that we showcase these new technologies and improve the ability of citizens to make more informed and sustainable choices when deciding where their next home will come from and who will build it. This is just as important as thinking about where our food, electricity and other supplies for our daily needs come from. Others are already dealing with river clean-up and correcting other environmental damages already committed. Besides the corrective measures, we need to ensure that we avoid the continuation of such damages by adopting already available options. At least for now, home building with the ecology and affordability in mind is our focus, organic gardening, sustainable farming systems and alternative energy sources are other areas moving forward with leadership from other sectors of Northfield.