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ELLA hosted a community forum for Sunnyside residents on November 30th to inform them of the proposed biomethane plant supported and developed by the City of Sunnyside, Port of Sunnyside and Pacific Ag of Oregon. The city, port and Pacific Ag did little to communicate with residents about the project or any environmental impact as a result of the project. No effort was put forth to inform our Spanish-speaking community. This has us and residents very concerned. Residents have a right to understand all of the environmental and economic implications of living next to a biomethane plant. After canvassing the neighborhoods closest to the proposed biomethane plant, we asked residents who are concerned about the project to attend a community forum to address their concerns directly to representatives from the city, port and Pacific Ag. The city chose not to attend or respond to residents. The executive director, Jay Hester, attended but chose to listen only, not respond. Harrison Pettit of Pacific Ag provided an overview of the project. Residents had many questions for Mr.
JASPER KENZO SUNDEEN Yakima Herald-Republic * Oct 15, 202 [caption id="attachment_1724" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Sunnyside candidates for school board and city council and organizers from ELLA attend their weekly meeting to share information and resources on Oct.4, 2023. Photo by Jasper Kenzo Sundeen/Yakima Herald Republic[/caption] "Sunnyside candidates for school board and city council and organizers from ELLA attend their weekly meeting to share information and resources on Oct.4, 2023." Photo by Jasper Kenzo Sundeen/Yakima Herald Republic Almost 70 people gathered in the gym at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on a July evening in Sunnyside. Grandparents, parents and children sat on folding chairs in front of a panel of six candidates for school board and City Council in the second-largest city in Yakima County. It wasn’t the traditional fall election season, but with the primary looming in early August, candidates and get-out-the vote nonprofits had come together to connect with an oft-underrepresented group of Yakima Valley voters: Spanish-speaking residents. “Estamos aqui para escuchar a sus voces,” said Keren Vazquez, a candidate for Sunnyside City Council’s Position
MABTON — A line of cars snaked through Mabton, around corners and under the looming water towers near the city’s center, until it arrived at the Mabton Food Bank on the corner of Fern Street and Main Street. People in dozens and dozens of cars waited patiently Tuesday at a free water distribution event. Drivers shuffled forward, checking in with staff from nonprofit Empower Latina Leadership and Action, or ELLA, which donated the water. “Acá, acá,” a volunteer said in Spanish, pointing a few feet up the sidewalk. Pull up here. Volunteers swarmed around a pallet piled high with cases of water, moving the bottles into back seats, trunks and truck beds. They worked as the evening wore on, until the line of cars became a line of headlights in the gathering dark in the city of around 1,000. ELLA donated almost 700 cases of water. More than 230 families received water on Tuesday. Trouble at the taps Mabton residents have been frustrated by foul-smelling water for years and said this summer has been worse.
After a summer of foul-smelling water, frustration and packed city council meetings, state agencies and nonprofits are turning their attention to Mabton’s water problems. Dozens of residents attended a city council meeting and a separate listening session last week, demanding solutions. Officials noted the ongoing issue and shared their efforts to solve the problem. Organizers with nonprofit Empowering Latina Leadership and Action (ELLA) and the Mabton Food Bank are bringing in free water for residents. State and local engineers said they are conducting further tests to determine the exact cause of the water’s bad smell but hope that a new well will help. The city could then move away from a well supplying the worst-smelling water. Officials at the state Department of Health and Valley Water Services, the private contractor that oversees Mabton’s drinking water, said the water meets state safety regulations, but acknowledged the unpleasant conditions residents face in the city of roughly 1,000. “We understand tap water shouldn’t taste and smell bad,” said Barbara Morrissey, a DOH toxicologist, said in an interview. “When
Publicado 25 noviembre 202 La violencia doméstica no es nueva en el valle de Yakima, tampoco en la comunidad latina, y esto lo saben organizaciones locales que trabajan en el tema. “Desde que terminó la pandemia hemos tenido un aumento de 30 por ciento en las llamadas de personas que buscan nuestros servicios y piden protección. Cada mes tenemos 17 peticiones de órdenes de restricción emitidas por la corte y sabemos que estos números están subiendo”, mencionó Dani Aguilar, coordinadora de alcance comunitario de la Asociación de Mujeres Jóvenes Cristianas de Yakima (Young Women Christian Association, YWCA). Actualmente, la YWCA en Yakima administra un refugio de emergencia que tiene 14 habitaciones y 44 camas para las víctimas de la violencia doméstica y sus hijos, así como 16 unidades de vivienda de transición que van de una a tres habitaciones. “Nuestros refugios están al límite de su capacidad y mantenemos una lista de espera", mencionó Aguilar. La YWCA además cuenta con asesores legales y consejeros que guían a las víctimas para denunciar su situación ante las
Published March 15, 2023 On a Friday evening in downtown Sunnyside, 20 or so women, most of them mothers and grandmothers and all Hispanic, sat inside a narrow classroom. Notepads, binders and writing utensils rested on their desks. The women were discussing topics that are as taboo as they are a part of their daily life — sexism and machismo. Their heads turned toward the back of the room to Teodora Martinez, who is part of ELLA, a group that organized the class. “How many of you have been in an airplane,” she asked in Spanish, “when you’re sitting there about to take off and they start going through safety guidelines, whose mask do they tell you to put on first, especially when you have kids with you? Maria Magaña, one of the women in attendance, responded: “In our church, they taught us to put the mask on our husbands first. … We were told they’re our second half. We can have more kids, but we are bonded to our husbands, we are taught to
ELLA’s mission is to help increase Latina representation as key decision-makers across all sectors of our community. As it stands now, what we see in most businesses, organizations and institutions is Latinas as front-line service providers. We run storefronts and front offices. Upon entering most establishments, we are the first point of contact for customers or clients. But the higher up the chain of command or hierarchy, the less likely we are to be seen. Why? Because Latinas are rarely represented in management and executive roles. Without Latinas, most workplaces would not function properly. We are covering every minute detail to ensure customers and clients are served well, we guarantee businesses and organizations are managed efficiently, and we make sure that managers and executives have what they need to “lead”. Latinas are in the trenches, laboring from the belly of the beast, but rarely directing from the ivory towers. Most Latinas are quite capable of leading based on work experience alone, but we are also earning college degrees at a faster rate than many other
We don't have to wander too far from home before encountering tremendously talented Chicanas, whom are sharing their gift of voice and art with the rest of us. ELLA had the privilege of attending a Chola Vida poetry night several weeks ago and we were blown away with the level of artistry presented to us. Their honest and open portrayal of them as women, mothers, cholas, Chicanas, artists, and as activists was so moving that we had to connect with them to see how we could work together. Chola Vida, led by our community's own Madeline Alviso Ramirez, is a group of chingona cholas with the goal of educating the community about chola life and chola art. They are working against the grain in what the mainstream art community considers "art", challenging the notion that cholas aren't legitimate artists, poets and writers. In just one encounter with these dynamic, highly innovative, highly creative Chicanas, it's hard to believe that anyone would question their legitimacy, but these ladies do encounter pushback from those gatekeepers that insist
Most nonprofits have noble missions aiming to resolve any number of community issues such as homelessness, domestic violence, and unemployment, just to name a few. Their intent truly is to help those in need. Many of them successful in their recruitment of volunteers and employees that share their quest to help build a better community. But we also know of many nonprofits who’ve become complacent and ultimately cause some amount of harm to the people they once intended to humanely serve. In the many years I and the ELLA board of directors have worked with nonprofits, we’ve seen this firsthand. It is one of the reasons ELLA exists. We have seen humble people in need of help made to feel like a nuisance by the very staff paid to assist them. ELLA decided it was time to provide workshops to teach them how to navigate social services. More importantly, teach them how to advocate for themselves when they feel they aren’t even being heard. All too often, people will take the initial denial of services