Nonprofit supporting young latina students hosts gathering at Woman’s Club

WESTFIELD — A new Latina-led nonprofit that supports Latina youth in Westfield hosted a community gathering and information session on its mission and work at the Westfield Woman's Club on Saturday.

The public was invited to join members of the nonprofit at the Woman's Club on Saturday to discover Mis Fuertes Raíces at a gathering designed to connect families and youth with local resources, celebrate culture and introduce the empowerment program for Latina high school girls in Westfield.

Mis Fuertes Raíces is a Latina-led nonprofit founded earlier this year that will support and empower high school Latina girls in embracing their cultural roots while growing into confident leaders through mentorship, education and community engagement. Founded by two Latina women, Daisy Rivera and Maria Reyes, who personally experienced the power of mentorship, Mis Fuertes Raíces is committed to creating safe spaces where girls can learn, grow and thrive while honoring their cultural identity.

Rivera and Reyes met and quickly became friends at a vendor event they were both working at. As their friendship grew, the two began brainstorming what their goals and aspirations were and soon aligned in a new way of bringing support for teenage girls sharing the Latina heritage.

Rivera, president of Mis Fuertes Raíces, had told Reyes that since she was a student and eventually a counselor with the Girls Inc. Holyoke program, she could see herself running a youth center of some sort as she was still passionate for the connective work. Reyes, a school counselor for over two decades and already running after school groups with her students, felt she had the background experience to add to Rivera's initial idea and soon after the wheels were in motion for Mis Fuertes Raices.

"We ran with it. That's how it started. We talked about our vision, exactly what we wanted to do, and we also automatically knew what city we wanted to work in," said Reyes. "I'm a Westfield State University alum. There were not many Latino students living on campus then [in the late 90's] and in Westfield there's a small community of Latino families so it's important for a program like ours because representation matters."

Having met members of the Westfield Woman's Club in the past as a craft vendor for one of the club's craft markets, Rivera reached out to the club in an effort gauge interest as partners and was able to find the perfect match.

Woman's Club Rental Chair Trishadee Newlin told the Westfield News that Mis Fuertes Raíces is a great program for the Woman's Club to throw its support toward as it stays in line with the club's mission to support of the women of Westfield.

"It's about supplementing their school education with the things that they may or may not be taught at home," said Newlin. "Our mission statement is to support the woman of Westfield and their families within the community. While the membership of the Woman's Club once upon a time was historically upper class — you couldn't even hold a job and be a member — obviously that's evolved over time but our mission regardless of what membership looks like has always remained the same: to uplift the woman in the community. There's a lot of us with backgrounds in education and so kids have always remained front and center in our focus for outreach."

With the partnership established, Reyes explained that this summer she and Rivera spent their time knocking on doors in the community to try and recruit kids to get involved with the program this fall. For its first year, Mis Fuertes Raíces has been able to secure 15 student participants out of Westfield High School, and plans are to soon meet with Westfield Technical Academy administrators to see if the school would open up the program to its Latina-student population.

The program currently meets once a month after school for a two-hour session and so far the first couple of sessions are laying the foundation for the future of the program, according to Reyes.

"Our first session, we talked about cultural pride and heritage. We wanted to hear from the girls on what it meant for them to be Latinas. A lot of the girls may not necessarily speak Spanish or know a lot about their culture and heritage so that's where we come in. We want to talk about those things. We want to bring in history and information. We want to bring in other Latina women to come in and talk to the girls about their experiences as well," Reyes said.

She continued, "Our second session we talked about friendship. Good friendships, what are red flags, and the girls enjoyed it. They were really into everything and every month we will have different subjects we're going to talk about. Eventually we'll talk about college and careers. We're going to talk about community service, and we're going to get them set up to do volunteer work in the community."

Through its partnership with and support from the Woman's Club, each month Mis Fuertes Raíces will have clubhouse space to run workshops for its students where Latina women in the community stop in and talk to students about their careers.

"Police officers, firefighters, teachers, welders. And we want these women to be Latina, look like them, talk to them about their experience and have someone the girls can kind of relate to so they're proud of who they are, their proud of their heritage and they bring all of that out to their community and to their high schools," added Reyes.

Reyes said if the program grows successfully, they plan to try and expand to the middle schools but first and foremost they will be focused on establishing the program in this first year.

"We want to make sure that we are successful in our first year in Westfield and that we know exactly what the needs are and that we're able to provide those supports before we move on to the younger kids," said Reyes. "We're very lucky that the Westfield community has really welcomed us. We have been so grateful because I did not know we were going to receive this much love from Westfield so quickly."

Reyes said support from the city and from the Woman's Club specifically has been top notch and that she is looking forward to growing the program in Westfield. Newlin reiterated the club was excited to support this program and also looks forward to seeing its growth.

"Once you realize that there's a place for you at the Woman's Club then it kind of just sticks with you. The hurdle is always getting people in the door," said Newlin. "This program itself is — regardless of what community it's serving — is just extremely vital for that generational knowledge to be passed from one another, and especially taking care of ourselves and looking out for each other. It kind of helps strengthen the whole community."

To learn more about or support Mis Fuertes Raíces, visit www.givebutter.com/mis-fuertes-raices .

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