By:
Kim Gronniger
Hispanics represent an increasing share of Topeka’s population, but that hasn’t translated into more Latinos taking on positions of influence in the community. A leadership program launched last year seeks to amplify the voice Hispanics have there.
Having graduated its inaugural class, the Latino Leadership Collaborative of Kansas has set its sights on having an ever-growing impact. The history of Hispanics helping shape Topeka goes back more than a century to when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway shops began drawing Mexican families to the community.
Many ended up settling in the Oakland area, just south of the Kansas River and north of present-day Interstate 70 in northeast Topeka. Unfamiliar with the English language and American customs and sometimes faced with discrimination, families found refuge in fellowship provided through the Our Lady of Guadalupe parish and in Spanish-speaking neighborhood establishments.
Proud of their part in influencing the city’s past, Hispanics also figure to play a profound role in forging its future. While the population of Topeka increased just 2 percent between 2000 and 2010, the number of Hispanics spiked by 57 percent to more than 17,000 (in a city of nearly 130,000).
Inspiring and training more Hispanics to take active roles in civic life is the purpose of the Latino Leadership Collaborative of Kansas, a community leadership program that graduated its inaugural class last year.
With the Hispanic population growing so quickly, we need to have more Latinos sharing their voices on boards and in businesses to make progress,” says Lalo Munoz, executive director of El Centro of Topeka, a nonprofit organization that provides interpretation and translation services, community referrals and mobile preventive health screenings.
Lalo Munoz, executive director of El Centro of Topeka, says that the Latino Leadership Collaborative could grow to become a program of statewide significance.
Although there are Hispanics serving the community in important roles at present, Munoz says that many more could fill positions of influence if they felt prepared to do so.
“A few of us get asked frequently to serve or provide names of Latinos who would be willing to serve on agency boards, but historically the same individuals have stepped forward,” Munoz says. “Most often the issue is not competency so much as confidence. We wanted to offer classes to reinforce for participants that anyone can lead.”
Many Topeka employers and organizations offer leadership training, but the collaborative focused on the Hispanic population. “We weren’t seeing in the numbers of leadership participants a lot of commonality for Hispanics,” says program co-facilitator Michelle Cuevas-Stubblefield, director of the Kansas League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
“We saw this program as an opportunity to bring them together to dramatically increase board preparedness and participation with the potential to serve as a model for other communities.”
To help formulate a plan for the collaborative, Munoz and Cuevas-Stubblefield enlisted Veronica Padilla, president of the Topeka LULAC Council; Tina Williams, president of MANA de Topeka; and Irene Caballero, grant coordinator/bilingual community mobilizer from Safe Streets and the Washburn Leadership Institute. The group identified opportunities and obstacles, meeting every two weeks for a year to devise a workable template before promoting the program to potential participants.
They wrestled with whether individuals would be able to afford the $595 tuition, so they worked with sponsors to reduce the cost and created payment plans. As facilitators, they worried about their abilities to teach effectively, but plunged in anyway – “terrified but determined,” Munoz says.
One particular struggle was whether to offer classes in Spanish or English, knowing that either option would exclude individuals who could benefit. Ultimately, they conducted classes in English, but facilitators are still mulling how to involve those who primarily speak Spanish.
After a year of planning and consulting, the program launched last year with a $1,000 grant and support from El Centro of Topeka, MANA de Topeka and Topeka LULAC. Nine participants attended seven three-hour Saturday morning classes July through November. Each was encouraged to secure a board position, and a panel of agency representatives with open seats presented options at the last session. Vidal Campos, a collaborative graduate and Topeka police officer originally from Del Rio, Texas, volunteered to teach colleagues key phrases to diffuse tense encounters with non-English-speaking individuals. Although giving up Saturday morning activities with his two sons wasn’t easy, Campos appreciated the chance to further refine leadership skills he can use on the job. For Susana Prochaska, a first-generation college graduate, married school counselor and mother of three, the experience led her to accept a president-elect position with the Kansas School Counselor Association and kindled a desire to pursue a doctoral degree.
“We came into this program with different experiences and became inspired by one another,” Prochaska says. “I saw my professional and personal goals more vividly and gained the confidence to take steps to reach my full potential.”
“We came into this program with different experiences and became inspired by one another,” Prochaska says. “I saw my professional and personal goals more vividly and gained the confidence to take steps to reach my full potential.”
Organizers say they hope the collaborative’s impact and reach will grow with time.
“We have a great bunch of Latino talent, and as the collaborative continues, we’ll increase the number of leaders willing and capable of serving while bringing greater diversity to businesses and boards,” says Cuevas-Stubblefield.
The collaborative’s efforts could grow to be something of statewide interest. After all, Topeka isn’t the only city dealing with a growing Latino population. “We invite others to attend our training to see whether the collaborative curriculum could be a good fit for their community,” Munoz says.
This article was originally published in the Summer 2016 issue of The Journal, a publication of the Kansas Leadership Center. To learn more about KLC, visit http://kansasleadershipcenter.org. For a subscription to the printed edition of The Journal, visit klcjr.nl/amzsubscribe
