Sisters hosts Latino leadership training

Sisters played host to a two-day community leadership building session held in Spanish at City Hall last weekend.

The session was geared toward empowering the Latino community members to be more proactive in organized involvement in the communities in which they live. Thirty people from both Latino and Anglo cultures attended the training which was sponsored by the Ford Family Foundation's Institute for Community Building and implemented by Rural Development Initiatives, Inc. (RDI)

This is part of a long-term strategic mission of the foundation to strengthen rural communities in Oregon and Siskiyou County, California.

The session was a special outreach as part of the Ford Family Foundation's five-year community building program which is already underway in Sisters; the Spanish language weekend is part of a strategy to strengthen the networking ties throughout normally disparate cultural groups.

RDI's Community Development Coordinator Sara Curiel Robles was this weekend's facilitator.

"There were three main goals in the seminar this weekend," Robles explained. "The top priority was helping Latinos become more comfortable with fact that they, too, can become leaders in their community and that this can mean the greater Sisters community, not just the Hispanic community. Identifying candidates that are interested in participating and committing to further leadership training and development that will be occurring in the Ford Family funded five-year program was another. Strengthening networking ties between the various Hispanic groups presently in existence was the third."

Pablo Castillo of El Caporal restaurant was one of the attendees and he felt the weekend was very beneficial.

"This training was very useful for demonstrating that we are all part of one community with a lot of diversity," he said. "We were able to discuss in depth what it will take to have Latinos be more comfortable with involvement in the 'mainstream' community. We are all Americans whether from the South or the North, but there are things that need to be learned about differences in cultures, laws and the way things are routinely done. It will take education to truly make this successful. Education in the language, in the rules of society, in political processes and cultural differences."

Robles could not agree more. As the child of a migrant worker who managed to see his three children all obtain Master's degrees at respected US universities, she truly understands the power of education and giving back to community.

"My brother graduated from Stanford with a degree in Computer Engineering," she said. "As he looked at his golden technology future he realized that the path he was on would not be one to give back to the community. He changed course and chose to teach math to elementary school children instead. It was so important to him to give back to community and help others."

Rossy Gomez-Pullig, a participant in the original Leadership Training group that started training in Sisters earlier this year, has been a leading Hispanic Advocate in Central Oregon for many years. She helped recruit attendees for the weekend.

"We hoped that we would have 20 people that might show interest," she said. "We had 30 people show up on Friday and everyone was so enthusiastic and asked so many questions that we never really completed our agenda. We are scheduling another day, February 22, where we will meet again to finish up and we will develop an actual project to put new leadership skills to work with. It was a big success."

Robles hopes that RDI will be able to expand this project in the future. She may be contacted at 503-545-2918