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The big 3

Evolving to meet the community’s needs, a trio of agencies has risen to the top

The names Chicanos Por La Causa, Valle del Sol and Friendly House are virtually synonymous with the Latino community. The organizations’ mottos also hint at their roles:

“Strengthening the economic and social vitality of Arizona,”
“Inspiring positive change,” and
“Building success and independence since 1920.”

But ask anyone what the organizations do and the likely reply would be, “They help people.”

As the Hispanic population in Arizona has grown to nearly a third of the state’s population, so have these three organizations adapted to meet the Latino community’s needs. People in need still can count on the nonprofits’ services, but there is so much more each organization offers. Families – parents, children, seniors – remain the focus, but there are many levels of service, ranging from housing to immigration.

“There’s enough difference, there’s not really a head-to-head competition for the same client,” says Edmundo Hidalgo, Chicanos Por La Causa’s chief operating officer.

Adds Luis Ibarra, Friendly House’s president and chief executive officer: “Even if you doubled the funding that all three agencies get, it couldn’t meet the needs of everyone.”

Over time, the client list has expanded to aid even those who are not Hispanic.

“We are a Latino-focused organization, but we serve everyone,” says Carlos Galindo-Elvira, Valle del Sol’s director of leadership and community relations.

Hidalgo cites some non-Hispanics in the mix of CPLC's clients, while immigrants from as far away as former Eastern Bloc countries have been helped by Friendly House, Ibarra says. “Struggles are not about the color of their skin,” Hidalgo adds.

There definitely is nothing routine about what the groups provide. Whether you are familiar – or thought you were – with all three organizations or are a newcomer, Latino Perspectives offers this primer on the three nonprofits:


1 CHICANOS POR LA CAUSA

 

With a reach that COO Edmundo Hidalgo says serves more than 100,000 Arizona families annually, one might think CPLC is the oldest service agency of the three. The state’s largest community development corporation, he says, is actually the youngest at 38 years.

Originally CPLC was created in the 1960s to draw attention to what its organizers felt was unfair treatment of Chicano students in Phoenix schools. Organizers successfully boycotted the city’s public school system until officials agreed to hire more Latino teachers and counselors.

Since those early days, CPLC has gone on to provide services for adults, youths and seniors, including affordable housing and economic development. The assistance helps families get back on track. “We want our families to control their lives,” Hidalgo says.

A staff of nearly 700 employees decides how to best provide assistance based on a budget of more than $52 million. But he emphasizes, “We’re not about handouts. We’re looking to help families who want to help themselves.”

Besides providing 2,000 units of rental housing to the state’s working poor and 1,000 units to seniors, CPLC builds more than 100 homes annually, making it one of Arizona’s largest developers of affordable housing, Hidalgo says. “Housing provides a level of stability for families,” he says of the organization’s roles as landlord and builder.

To keep families in their homes, the organization offers classes on getting and keeping mortgages, with the need for sessions on the latter growing fivefold in this era of spiking adjustable rate mortgages. Up to 30 families walk into CPLC daily, “looking for some level of direction on how to save their home,” he says.

Clients also have gained the knowledge, assistance and coaching they need to create businesses. Services include business lending and leadership development. Add to that commercial development in addition to subsidiaries that operate a construction company and day labor center.

Of the three, only CPLC operates far beyond the Phoenix metropolitan area, with programs in every county but Mohave. “This allows us to try to bring resources to a lot of rural communities that lack infrastructure level of services needed,” Hidalgo explains.
And those educational resources often target the at-risk and financially challenged: Head Start classes; a charter high school for the Pascua Yaqui tribe; and Pima Community College scholarships for eighth-graders to encourage them to graduate from high school. Even CEO Pete Garcia “is very much about teaching,” Hidalgo says, referring to the leader’s sharing of expertise nationally and overseas with groups and communities that face the same challenges as CPLC.

But there is more work to do, Hidalgo says, noting that strategic planning is under way to chart CPLC’s future course. And there is plenty to do for CPLC and other groups like it. “At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how big we are. We can’t do it by ourselves,” he says.


2 FRIENDLY HOUSE

 

When it opened its doors in 1920, Friendly House simply wanted to help immigrants find someone who cared. The era was early statehood. Today, as both Arizona and the social service agency approach their respective centennials, “we’re doing things that were not the original mission of the organization,” says CEO Luis Ibarra.

With an annual budget that has grown to $8 million, the 170 full-time and 60 part-time staff members help more than 40,000 families, youths and children annually with services such as first-time home buying, child protection, landlord issues – the list goes on.

While still serving predominantly Mexican emigrants, their clients also have come from South America and Western Europe. Following the turmoil in Southeast Asia and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, others have joined them.

Despite the expansion of client profiles, primary needs stem from immigration issues. “There’s a lot of misinformation about immigration,” says Ibarra, which results in some people falling for such swindlers as notarios, or conmen who make false promises about clients gaining legal status.

With one attorney and two paralegals on staff, Friendly House offers professional assistance. “We lose money doing immigration services,” he says, as clients often only pay what they can. Despite the irregularity of payment, those clients who do pay “helps us help others,” Ibarra adds.

To enable clients to become self-sufficient, Friendly House is active in workforce development. Through relationships with more than 100 employers, Friendly House not only helps clients get jobs, but works to keep them there.

That is one reason its child development center accepts children as young as six weeks old. “Our families have to go to work right away,” Ibarra says of women who have cut maternity leave short to return to their jobs. “Our people work, but they work in jobs with no vacations, no 401(k)s.”


3 VALLE DEL SOL

Touching the lives of 21,000 people annually, Valle del Sol may not seem to affect as many people as the two larger agencies. But through its Hispanic Leadership Institute, one of the nonprofit’s 23 programs, its lessons can go even farther. “We have a special niche in Latino leadership in Arizona,” Carlos Galindo-Elvira says.

More than 500 people have graduated from the leadership program, which marks its 20th anniversary this year. In addition to the original version, there are now separate programs serving the West Valley and Pinal County. “This is how we can provide a continuum of leadership,” Galindo-Elvira says.

In addition to leadership, there are prevention services for families and seniors and a mortgage education program provided by Valle del Sol, which has served the community since 1970. There is even a volunteer acquisition and relocation service to aid residents in the noise-impacted neighborhoods surrounding Sky Harbor International Airport. In developing Valle’s programs, “we look at the needs of the consumer,” Galindo-Elvira says.

With a $13 million annual budget and staff of 200, Valle del Sol shares the same goal of the other two agencies. “Our hope is to never turn anyone away,” he says. “Reality is we have a limited set of funds.”

That’s why a large part of the job also is referrals to other agencies that can help, Galindo-Elvira says. Add to that the assistance of private and corporate donations and “we are changing Arizona for good,” he says.

The three organizations have much to be proud of, and judging by their achievements, will be working to improve the lives of the Latino community for many years to come.