It’s an exciting time for Nueva Esperanza, Inc. and their board of directors are eager to move the organization into its next phase – strategic visioning and reorganization process. This comes after a long five years in which the board had focused its efforts to achieve financial sustainability so they can effectively rebuild the agency to be the vibrant community development organization the inner-city neighborhoods deserve. It’s been a long battle within those 5 years and as a team, the board has achieved a great deal which includes: self-sustaining and maintaining existing assets with no dependency on grants; stabilized the organization by generating new revenue and greatly reduced its liabilities; more than tripled its reserves in the organizations existing residential properties which they own free and clear; and advocated for resident interest on issues impacting their community – just to name a few.
Although these are certainly some worthy achievements to celebrate, there are some challenges that still lie ahead and opportunities in which to leverage – all will be part of Nueva Esperanza’s greater strategic reorganization and visioning process for a new mission and vision in its future for community development. Whatever that will be, the focus will be on community empowerment, maintaining cultural identity, and entrepreneurship support for untapped creativity that exists in the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. These ideas are largely thanks to all who participated at the May 31st World Café community engagement event and people who have reached out the board personally to engage on one-on-one discussions. Thank you to Holyoke’s Ward 2 City Councilor Nelson Roman who facilitated the event and also helped with other members from the community to go door-to-door and distribute over 500 fliers throughout the inner-city neighborhoods! The World Cafe model is only the beginning of a series of community engagement efforts Nueva Esperanza, Inc. hopes to facilitate. The result of these efforts will contribute toward the organization’s visioning process.
Moving forward, the board hopes to bring on at least five new committed board members to the existing four by July. The board is currently soliciting letters of interest of those who are interested in joining the board and being part of this movement. If that is you, please submit your letter of interest to the board chairman, Joshua A. Garcia, at garcia.joshua@hotmail.com. Current and new board members will engage in a board retreat in August and the organization looks to achieve new collaborative opportunities with existing non-profit organizations to do more outreach in the community as part of the process.
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Adelante!