Press Coverage of CAC-Main Street Project Partnership

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on October 10, 2007

Today’s Northfield News had an article on the CAC-Main Street Project partnership that I blogged recently. Below is the whole article, new information on the origin of the funds was provided by Jim Blaha which Jaci Smith, Managing Editor at the NN’s included in the final article.

Than you Jaci for such a wonderful support of this important work in our community.

Community Action Center’s Newcomer Project gives aid

By JACI SMITH
Managing Editor

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

NORTHFIELD – Two local programs with common goals have joined forces to help newcomers to Northfield find work and get involved in the community.

The Northfield Community Action Center and the Latino Enterprise Center have formed a partnership to develop new community leaders and create jobs for Latinos and other new residents.

The CAC’s Newcomer Project had been focused for the last year on employment and housing. Joining up with the LEC, which has been developing ways to connect Latinos with the greater Northfield community, fills a need, said CAC Executive Director Jim Blaha.

The CAC will use part of a bequest it received from the Davis Taylor-Ana Ortiz de Montellano family to fund part of LEC director Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin’s salary. The family had requested that the money be used to create the kind of unconditional hospitality that Davis Taylor said he experienced while he was with his future wife de Montellano’s family in Mexico.

Haslett-Marroquin was splitting his time between the LEC, which was unpaid, and his work statewide for the League of Rural Voters. With the new full-time position, Haslett-Marroquin will be able to devote twice as much time specifically to Northfield.

“His ability to meet with the newcomer community and find ways to make bridges to them is a significant expertise,” said Blaha. “His belief in entrepreneurial development will bring us new community leaders. Entrepreneurs are the ones who work to get things done and that will lead to bigger and better things for Northfield.”

Haslett-Marroquin said in recent months, he had begun to wonder whether the LEC would find a serious, committed partner so that the fledgling program would continue to grow. The LEC, which began in February of this year, has undertaken projects to introduce Latino farmers to growing alternative crops such as hazelnuts and black beans, to broker a partnership between a local Latino businessman and ARTech to repair used computers, and to dispel myths about the immigrant community in Northfield.

Haslett-Marroquin said the LEC wants to ensure that the Latino community can tap into its leadership ability by connecting with those resources available to them that Latinos may not always know about.

“There is a lot we haven’t discovered yet,” Haslett-Marroquin said. “In the geography of CAC, Rice County, there is a lot more potential within the Latino community. The projects we have now are just samples of what is to come.”

- Jaci Smith can be reached at jsmith@northfieldnews.com or 645-1116.