GAFHA’s New Officers Start the New Year off with The New Beginning Center
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Garland Association for Hispanic Affairs held its monthly meeting featuring guest speakers from The New Beginning Center and Catholic Charities of Dallas, Inc. GAFHA’s 2008 President Javier Solis introduced the newly elected Officers: Joe Olivares, Executive V.P.; Sylvia Valle, Communications V.P.; Luz Villegas Finance V.P.; Joe Garcia, Community Outreach V.P.; and Tony Torres Development V.P. – Jaime Ornelas is The Immediate Past President Emeritus.
“Our goal of education and awareness has been consistent since 1991” – says Mr. Solis“We have such a great need to grow our membership and our outreach since our Hispanic community continues to increase so rapidly. Our schools have so many students who have little or no knowledge of getting into colleges and universities simply because of their cultural differences and lack of parent participation in our schools” Formed in 1991 as a charitable, educational and benevolent organization in order to promote education for provision of scholarships, developing the awareness of education and the awareness of available programs, to promote increased opportunity in the educational arena for all, including dropouts, and to mobilize the private sector and private citizens to improve the education and educational opportunities of youth.
Becky George, Community Education Coordinator at The New Beginning Center in Garland, spoke to the GAFHA group about the need to educate all teenagers in the Garland I.S.D. high schools. There is a growing abuse challenge with teen girls in their dating. Many of the students are not reporting their situations and often face teen pregnancy, physical abuse and both girls and boys even drop out of school all together. “We want to educate all our young people about respecting themselves and not giving in to abusive situations” says Ms.George “We offer a 3-Day seminar that we take to each of the high schools called ‘Expect Respect’. This program helps open the doors to those girls who are possibly in an abusive situation and educates them to be open and honest about these issues” Ms.George is a graduate of The University of North Texas and holds a degree in English and Women’s Studies.
Javier introduced Ms. Krysten Carrera who came to visit and share information that The Catholic Charities of Dallas offers the Hispanic community. Ms. Carrera shared their opportunities of becoming a legal U.S. citizen through proper channels and also plans a seminar on this legal process April 24th. This seminar will be held at the Iglesia Buen Pastor, 1224 Main St.,Garland at 7:00p.m.
President Solis closed the meeting with the announcement of planning their first annual Hispanic Awards and Recognition Banquet this coming October 2008.
For more information about GAFHA contact Javier Solis at 972-487-3262.
