Latino Partnership Program extends to the North Coast

Published 6:00 am Monday, January 13, 2025

The Clatsop Community Action office on Ninth Street in Astoria.

Two Astoria nonprofits will receive $60,000 as part of a $1.2 million statewide investment into organizations that serve the Latino community.

The Latino Partnership Program of the Oregon Community Foundation distributed the record amount through 86 different grants that prioritize education, leadership development and wealth building. Two of those grants went to Consejo Hispano and Clatsop Community Action.

Mirna Loreli Cibrian, who manages the Latino Partnership Program, said it grew from small, local beginnings in the northern Willamette Valley over 20 years ago. This is the first year that the grants have been distributed statewide, and the first time they have reached the Oregon Coast.

“I think one of the things that has helped is honestly just seeing the need in public education, hearing directly from grantees, from nonprofits, about their needs and how the needs have shifted from COVID to wildfires to everything in between,” she said. “Being responsive to those needs has been really important for us.”

Consejo Hispano, a local nonprofit that serves the Latino community through a variety of programs focused on economic empowerment and cultural enrichment, received $50,000 that will be utilized to support their Mujeres Empoderando Mujeres (Women Empowering Women) program.

Jenny Pool Radway, the executive director of Consejo Hispano, said the program is designed to assist women in various ways, including helping them become better advocates for their children’s education.

“Through resources, training, and a supportive network, we aim to empower these women to take active roles in their communities and contribute to the educational success of their families,” she told The Astorian in an email.

Pool Radway said that grants like the one provided by the Latino Partnership Program are vital for local nonprofits, and enable them to expand programming, reach more people and create meaningful impacts in the community.

“Without such support, our ability to deliver essential services and foster positive change would be significantly limited,” she said. “Grants provide the financial resources needed to sustain and grow our initiatives, ensuring that we can continue to serve and uplift the Latino community effectively.”

Clatsop Community Action, a local nonprofit specializing in housing assistance and food security, was awarded $10,000 to support an on-site Spanish-speaking Latino case manager.

Though Clatsop Community Action doesn’t neatly fall into one of the program’s prioritized categories of education, leadership development or wealth building, Loreli Cibrian emphasized that it provides an essential service meant to ensure that people have the stability to access those pathways.

“One of the things we are learning is that in order for folks to have access to quality education, I think, mental health has been a key access to basic needs,” she said. “So we do consider organizations that are providing basic needs in order for our kids, our children to be successful in public education.

“The Clatsop Community Action grant is focused, for example, on hiring a Latino case manager to ensure that the Latino communities are being served in this part of the county, and so acknowledging that culturally specific and linguistically responsible support is important.”

As funding from the Latino Partnership Program permeates local organizations and communities, Loreli Cibrian highlighted the importance of following up with grantees and hearing about where and how the grants are making their impacts in an effort to gauge successes and areas for improvement.

Last year, she and others met with recipients of the Latino Student Success grants in central Oregon.

“One of the things that they said is that if it wasn’t for some of the resources that they’re receiving, like these that are so focused on student success for the community, they wouldn’t have the resources to be the advocates and to have the extra staff and support that could further their missions in that space,” Loreli Cibrian said. “And so I think we leverage the resources … it’s been clear through our engagement on the ground that these grants are vital for the future.

“Our program is beyond a grant-making program. I’d say partnership is our middle name, and we really try to show up in different communities with that in mind. We don’t want to be as prescriptive, and we want to be true partners to the community in meeting their needs.”

Marketplace