Latinos in Rhode Island bring a vital, young population to the labor force and contribute to the economy with a growing number of businesses, but they also face high poverty rates and live in impoverished neighborhoods with low-performing schools.
These were among the "promises and challenges" for the Latino population in Rhode Island outlined by Brown University Prof. Cynthia Garcia Coll during the Fourth Annual Breakfast of the Center for Hispanic Policy and Advocacy yesterday at the Crown Plaza hotel in Warwick. Garcia Coll, a professor of education, psychology and pediatrics, was the speaker.
Nearly 400 people attended the fundraiser, including a plethora of state and local candidates for public office. The agency gave community awards to Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, Judge George Healy, chief judge of the Rhode Island Workers Compensation Court, and Jaime Benavides, a loan officer. This year's event had a slicker look and order to it. The nonprofit social agency hired consultants Urban Strategies of Cranston to organize the event.
Two years ago, the agency began working with the Rhode Island Foundation on a new strategic plan as the agency began to adjust to the changing needs of the community and the financial burden that comes with it. The agency hired Miguel E. Sanchez-Hartwein as executive director and started to implement its strategic plan and to stabilize its finances, Sanchez-Hartwein said after the breakfast.
The agency provides disease-prevention education and client services. It collaborates with the Providence School Department to run the Bridge School for students who have been suspended and or those who are transitioning out of the state Training School.
During the breakfast, Sanchez-Hartwein said the agency plans to hold a Latino workforce development conference Oct. 11-14. The agency will work with companies and employees from the service and manufacturing sectors on how to recruit, retain, train and develop the Latino workforce in a culturally responsive and cost-effective way. The agency will invite political candidates to the conference so the public can hear their views on issues.
According to Garcia Coll, the state's Latino population has grown from 19,707 in 1980 to 90,820 in 2000. The median age of the Latino population is 23. Thirty percent of the Latinos in Rhode Island have come to the state since 1990.
With the number of Latino children increasing from 16,000 in 1990 to 35,000 in 2000, poverty and barriers to education must be addressed.
"This is an urgent call," Garcia Coll said. "If you don't think it relates to you, remember when you are in a nursing home who is going to turn the knob."
The answer, she said, is "education, education, education," which includes increasing the availability courses in English as a Second Language, adult-education programs and dual-language instruction, among other programs.
To put a human face on the statistics, Sanchez-Hartwein invited five people to talk about the challenges and successes they faced when they came to the United States.
Darly Chavez said she received a degree in biology and attended three years of medical school when she came to Rhode Island from Bolivia. In Rhode Island, things did not go so well. Her plans to work as an ecobiologist were crushed because she could not speak English. She was not able to get an equivalent of the degree she already had. But while she had been hitting dead ends, Chavez said she has hope now. She has been attending English classes at the agency, which is helping her achieve an equivalency for her degrees.
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