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Rochester Forum - December 1, 2010

On Dec 01, 2010, CLAC representatives and several community leaders got together to review the current situation of the Latino community in Rochester at the Public Library Auditorium.

Chair Mario Vargas, Board member Rebeca Sedarski, Executive Director Hector Garcia and Community Relations Specialist Astrid Ollerenshaw were joined by IRS Lorena Merchan, LEDC Yolanda Cotterall, and a group of community leaders from Rochester to exchange ideas on the needs of the Latino community in the area.

Some of the ideas brought up were (the following are participants’ statements paraphrased):

• There is low participation of the Latino community even when it pertains to their social needs.  Latinos remain isolated and sometimes do not look for help.
• The Latino community has significant needs.
• There is a need for a Latino Community resource center. Latinos in need do not know where to go or who can help them with several issues like health, education or even jobs. There is nothing available in town like this, which can help our community.
• Lack of community outreach strategy. Rochester organizations do not know how to reach out to the Latino community. They still do not know about needs or have an assessment.
• Latinos inRochester do not know the different programs available to them. One reason is that they keep to themselves, and stay in their comfort zone; a second reason is that they do not want to put themselves at risk so they remain in isolation… it takes effort and time. Maybe if we had a resource center with a coordinator who knows how to reach, and contact our Latino community. We have wonderful volunteers in this town.
• A solution would be to have corporations, such as Mayo clinic and IBM, that are willing to look into developing some ideas. There are many opportunities to start partnerships with community groups to see if they can do something for the Latino community in Rochester.
• In the Rochester School District, 9% of the students are Latino and they represent about 25% of the disciplinary issues, suspensions and expulsions. Latino students are suffering out there. There is a lack of leadership and no representation of the Latino community in any decision making group such as administration or at cabinet level or as teachers. In order to be able to address the issue of economic development we need to strengthen the pipeline that will be feeding that economic development. Make sure our children are getting what they need to be able to compete for the jobs in the future. The Chamber of Commerce knows that we will be about 25 thousand students short by the year 2020. Looking at the ones that are graduating, they do not have the necessary skills. We do not have the students to fill those positions. So we need to stop the bleeding, plug the hole and make sure our students have a good education.

Proposed Future Actions

• Need to create an office or organization that will be in charge of coordinating and referring Latinos in need to all other service agencies.
• Develop outreach strategies to connect the Latino community to opportunities.
• Create partnerships with nonprofits and corporations to support strategies and plans to promote Latino education, trade training and business creation.
• Develop a strategy to give structure and organization to become a united group of agencies, leaders and volunteers, which serve Latino community.

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