A new satellite office in Waukegan is slated to help the Mano a Mano Family Resource Center reach more Lake County residents.
Made possible through a partnership with Waukegan Township, the satellite office began to operate in August inside the Waukegan Township building at 149 South Genesee St., with social workers and case managers assisting immigrant families.
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A piece of a newly rolled out overall strategy that lines with the agency’s mission to empower immigrants to become full participants in their community, is a three-pronged approach called Project Puentes, according to Mano a Mano executive director Dulce Ortiz.
Puentes means bridges in Spanish.
The project is named after its objective to build bridges between the immigrant community and local, statewide and federal government entities.
Ortiz said the goal is to influence public policy and decision-making processes that affect the interests of the immigrant families living in Lake and McHenry counties.
Three ways to meet that goal are through civic engagement, advocacy and anti-racism workshops.
“It’s basically Civics 101,” Dulce said of the civic engagement and advocacy components of Project Puentes.
“We know there are many layers of government that can be very confusing to understand, even knowing the culture and the language,” Dulce said. “So, for our immigrant families it can be intimidating.”
Adding that elected officials work for all community members, Dulce said an example of a process the agency will introduce its clients to is how to navigate the public comment portion of city, town and school board meetings.
For the advocacy piece of the project, director of community building Celeste Flores said initially the agency will gauge what are the needs of its clients and what they know, in terms of programming available to meet those needs.
Through presentations in the targeted areas of Round Lake, Mundelein, North Chicago and Waukegan, Mano a Mano representatives will provide information, while also identifying people who want to develop leadership skills.
“We’re really excited to see what kind of change people are looking for,” Flores said.
The anti-racism workshops came about after the agency saw a need to provide perspective following the death of Minneapolis man Gorge Floyd in 2020, officials said.
“It feels sometimes that we are pitted against each other, so it’s examining that intersectionality,” Ortiz said.
While focusing on this new endeavor, Mano a Mano is continuing “full steam ahead” with its work in education for adults and children, and health.
On Tuesday, Mano a Mano joined the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant Refugee Rights in Grant Park to call for all 11 million people without status to be provided a pathway to citizenship and for an end to deportations. The groups marched through downtown Chicago.
The agency also continues to provide COVID-19 emergency assistance through an emergency community fund named Tanda, that is supported by donations from community members and foundations.
The first Mano a Mano civic presentation is slated for Sept. 18 at noon at Casa de Oracion at 929 W Hart Road, and again on Sept. 20 at 5:30 p.m.