Chicanos Por La Causa Looks Ahead
The downtown-based organization sees its role in Rio Nuevo.
by D.A. Barber
ith the expected influx of new housing from the Rio Nuevo project into downtown’s core, a local Hispanic organization is gearing up to continue to provide a range of services. Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC), currently headquartered at 200 N. Stone Ave. where they also operate a charter school, is a non-profit agency dedicated to providing greater opportunity, dignity, and self-sufficiency through the development of social service, cultural, and economic programs designed to impact the causes of poverty within the community it serves.
CPLC’s programs provide housing and community development, economic development, education, employment and training services, and fundraising and special event programs.
And they are looking forward to the Rio Nuevo development.
“I think our role is the fact that we are downtown, so definitely we are a part of it,” says Tillie Arvizu, Assistant Vice President of CPLC and a member of the Rio Nuevo Citizens Advisory Committee.
During the 1960’s, several Mexican-American Arizona State University students from South Phoenix led a movement to build Chicano pride and take action on problems that plagued their own community, including racial discrimination, ethnic tension and poverty.
In 1969, the group officially incorporated under the name Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. Its first major campaign was aimed at bringing attention to the unfair treatment of Chicano students in Phoenix’s public school system. The committee announced that Chicano students would not attend classes until the Phoenix school system hired more Latino teachers and counselors and permitted Mexican-American parents to have a voice in matters that affected their children. Forty days after the boycott was launched, school officials agreed to meet the demands.
CPLC expanded its activities and in 1975, became a Community Development Corporation, providing a variety of community services. Since then, CPLC transformed itself into one of the largest community development corporations in the nation, recognized nationally and internationally for its model programs.
In 1980, CPLC opened its Tucson office to serve the southeastern region of Arizona.
Economic development is a big part of what the group does for the Hispanic community, and it may open doors for small business owners in Downtown.
The Business Loan Program provides working capital, through low interest, short-term loans to local and minority-owned businesses, to assist them with financing investments which either create or maintain employment opportunities for low-to-moderate income individuals and/or families. Through the Micro-Loan Fund, CPLC aims to assist small business owners with financing from $3,000 to $35,000 to existing and start-up businesses and the Tucson Revolving Loan Fund, in co-operation with the City of Tucson, provides long-term loan capital ranging from $5,000 to $40,000 to small local businesses for investments that create, maintain, or enhance employment opportunities for low-income people.
While no Hispanic businesses have used the program for Downtown projects yet, Arvizu feels as Rio Nuevo proceeds and new Downtown business locations are created, CPLC’s services will be sought out.
With education a big part of workforce development for the Hispanic community, some of the education programs currently offered in and around Downtown include programs and services designed to lead to careers.
One popular program was The New Media Program, a 13-week work/study program that introduced students to the basics of film and video production through hands-on training at Access Tucson. The goal of the program was to introduce students to educational opportunities that may lead them to careers.
“That was part of a Youth Opportunities grant program that we received from Pima County, but that money ran out last year,” says Arvizu. “If we could get funding for it again it would be great, but there really isn’t anything out there at this point.”
Calli Ollin Academy (House of Knowledge) Inc. is CPLC’s charter school at 200 N. Stone that offers high school students an alternative learning environment with a curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking skills, cultural and heritage enrichment, ethnic history, and leadership skills, and encourages them to continue their education past high school. But even with the inevitable influx of new families moving into future Rio Nuevo housing, Calli Ollin probably won’t expand.
“There are other charter schools besides our own Downtown and charter schools have a maximum that they can support depending on their charter,” says Arvizu.
Other education programs offered include:
• The Office Technology Program helps to facilitate the employment and upward mobility of at-risk, unemployed, and working-poor populations through personalized, basic computer training.
• Querer Es Poder (Desire Is Power), an eighth grade scholarship program in which students submit a written essay on a selected topic. Winning essays receive a $1,000 college scholarship, which is kept in a Pima Community College Endowment Fund until high school graduation.
• The Youth Drop-In Center offers inner-city youth a resource facility where they can receive academic assistance and tutoring. Computers are made available to youth on-site for completing school classwork and projects. The facility is also used to develop and provide various activities that emphasize cultural and intergenerational awareness.
• El Centro Kalpulli (Community Center) is an after-school program available to Calli Ollin students and students from other charter schools. After receiving formal classroom training in life and employment skills, students are employed by El Centro Kalpulli as student aids, interns, computer instructors, interpreters, tutors and mentors depending on their individual levels of ability.
Besides the Calli Ollin Academy on the 3rd floor of 200 N. Stone Ave., CPLC also operates Toltecalli Academy at 251 W. Irvington Rd. and Itzcalli Academy in Green Valley.But housing seems to be the best fit for CPLC and future Rio Nuevo projects.
Definitely, we’d like to be a participant in building housing there within any of those projects,” says Arvizu.
Under Housing & Community Development, CPLC provides rental & mortgage assistance, utility assistance eligibility determinations, move-in assistance, debt and housing counseling, information and referrals, and case management services.
”I think the most popular program is our housing program, for first-time buyers,” says Arvizu. “And our emergency assistance programs. We have a lot of folks that line-up in the morning to receive assistance and many of them come from the downtown area.”
The Home Purchasing Program is designed to assist low-to-moderate income families become first-time homeowners. Program participants receive comprehensive homebuyer education, individualized counseling, assistance in obtaining affordable home loans and financial assistance for down payments and closing costs.
“We help folks obtain financing through regular, traditional financial institutions, depending on the type of housing that goes up,” says Arvizu. “It could be market-rate housing or it could be affordable housing depending on the project.”
La Causa Construction is a subsidiary of CPLC Tucson, which develops and builds affordable, single-family housing units for low-income families in economically distressed neighborhoods, and rehabilitates homes under federally-funded programs. But whether they will actually be building anything within the Rio Nuevo district is up in the air.
“We’d like to participate in the building but we’re a small company and there are some larger projects on the Rio Nuevo board, so it may take several companies to do one project,” says Arvizu. “But we need to make sure that there is affordable housing and not just market-rate housing.”
Keeping Downtown housing affordable is a real concern that CPLC has, as Rio Nuevo unfolds.
“We’re going to keep an eye on it. What’s going up and what the projects are looking like,” says Arvizu. “And making sure they’re not displacing folks and making sure history is not repeating itself much like what happened with the convention center.”
Few feel the City will make that displacement blunder again.
In the meantime, CPLC is gearing up for its annual golf tournament at La Paloma Country Club on November 6.
“All the revenues go to our youth programs,” notes Arvizu.
Later, on December 11, CPLC will host a free Christmas party at Pueblo Neighborhood Center.
n August, Tucson Yoga moved from The Orts Art Space to a permanent studio at South 4th Avenue and 12th Street. In what was once Mr. Gibb’s printing, Tucson Yoga is nestled amidst the blood bank and a dilapidated laundromat. “We love our little corner here. The blood bank and the laundromat really spice things up!”