Posted by student ALEJANDRO AVILES – With an economic downturn that is quickly becoming worse and foreign affairs at an incredibly sensitive state, our country faces unprecedented times in where our elected officials will face many decisions which require information and advice from experts, productive discussion amongst their colleagues seeking potential solutions and input from the constituents they represent.
I was privileged to attend National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) Issue Briefing and Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C. last week. I, along two other representatives from Arkansas, joined more than 400 participants from 35 states.
One of the many great required readings for our curriculum is a book called “Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits,” which describes NCLR as an organization that “has earned its stripes by conducting unparalleled policy advocacy efforts at the federal level, while also building and serving a national network of 300 affiliated community-based organizations.” Having served as president of the board for the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas (HWOA), the only NCLR affiliate in Arkansas, and partnered with NCLR for many years, I know this prestigious distinction to be well-deserved.
After attending the Tuesday evening Capital Awards Gala where Republican Senator Mel Martinez and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy were honored by our nation’s business and community leaders for their efforts in Congress, our Arkansas group received policy briefings on Wednesday from experts at NCLR on foreclosure prevention, health care reform, juvenile justice, education, workforce development and immigration reform.
In conversation with other participants, we confirmed that we all experienced the same problems in our backyards all across the country, and issues facing the Latino community were not surprisingly different than what our entire country faced. However, we did realize the role special vulnerabilities such as language proficiency, immigration status and culture, among many others, play in exacerbating these problems which merit special attention in finding alternative, workable solutions.
On Thursday, we were unleashed on Capitol Hill. After running around from the various buildings on the hill, we completed our mission and had an especially great visit with Congressman John Boozman. Our agreements on policies may not be numerous, but his eagerness to engage in open and honest dialogue over the years has always been far from adversarial as some would expect or seek out.
Our conversation regarding the drastic decrease of domestic violence reports to local law enforcement due to the implementation of the 287(g) program (enforcement by local law enforcement of federal immigration law) in Northwest Arkansas presented an opportunity to engage in a fact-finding mission to confirm this through statistical evaluation instead of mere speculation with support from our personal encounters with victims themselves.
I left Washington knowing the importance of the work we had accomplished, but realized our duty was far from relieved. The call to action from the circumstance of the present day demands civil and constant flow of communication to policy makers about the situation we face in our neighborhoods. Everyone may not be an expert on certain policies being proposed, but everyone is an expert of their own lives.
In photo (from left): Aaron Randall, IDA Administrator, Economic Opportunity Agency of Washington County; United States Congressman John Boozman, Arkansas; Margarita Solorzano, Executive Director, Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas; Alejandro Aviles
Alejandro Aviles is a first-year Clinton School student from Fayetteville, Ark.
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