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Year One: Steady As She Grows…

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(From Left to right) Abel Valladares, Dalila Ortiz, Laura Isiordia (Exec. Dir.), Maricela Andrade, Jaime Arredondo, and Ranfis Villatoro

One year ago, today, the CAPACES Leadership Institute was “born” as an independent entity.

Since we gathered on July 13, 2011 in PCUN’s Risberg Hall to sign the articles of non-profit incorporation, the Institute’s staff has taken shape.  Laura Isiordia became Executive Director in August and by February, the staff numbered five, two full-time and three part-time

On July 1st, a Jaime Arredondo joined the CLI staff as the third full-timer.  He brings to the Institute his seven years of community organizing and fundraising experience at Farmworker Housing Development Corporation (a CAPACES network organization), as well as his deep commitment to the farmworker struggle.  Jaime came to Oregon from Michoacan, Mexico when he was eight.  He worked in the fields with his parents and siblings where he first encountered PCUN.  His parents are long-time PCUN members and, today, Jaime serves on PCUN’s board.

Jaime will co-lead the Institute’s “Foro de Liderazgo” or “Leadership Forum,” a sort of test kitchen for leadership recipes.  He’ll also be front and center at the Institute’s upcoming supporter gathering in Oakland, August 12th at the East Side Arts Alliance.  If you live in the Bay Area and would like more information—or know someone there who might take interest in the Institute, please email Abel Valladares (abel@capacesleadership.org).

Jaime, Abel and PCUN Vice President Brenda Mendoza will be in the Bay Area then to present at the “GIFT” conference, organized by the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training.  The conference brings together hundreds nationwide to explore the intersections of fundraising and grassroots social change.  Our team will share lessons learned from the successful CLI capital campaign and from PCUN’s quarter century of membership dues and services which have generated over $2,000,000 from farmworkers to support their union.

Have you RSVPed yet for the CLI Grand Opening at 5:00 PM on August 25th?  If not, decide today that you’ll join us, and email Dalila Ortiz at dalilao@capacesleadership.org.

Jaime—and the rest of us—promise that the Grand Opening will be a celebration you won’t want to miss!

A Sprint to the Finish Line

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On Saturday, August 25th—just under two months from today—we’ll welcome folks from near and far as we formally open the CAPACES Leadership Institute’s permanent home.  We hope you plan to join us, so please mark your calendar (“5:00 PM”) and RSVP to Dalila Ortiz, dalilao@capacesleadership.org.

The building’s exterior is pretty much finished.  Plants are growing on the living roof.

The “sprint” is the final stage of the construction marathon.  For a few weeks in May, we were stuck in “leak sealing”, pressurizing the interior space to find those elusive spots where air seeped out (and therefore, could seep in when the pressure in normal).  We’re happy to report that, thanks to extraordinary efforts of Greenhammer Construction and our construction crew, we’re on track to meet the “Passivhaus” standard called for in the building design.

With sealing finally done, the interior is rapidly taking final form and finish.  By July 13th—the first anniversary of the Institute’s birth as an independent non-profit—the inside walls will be painted, the concrete floor scrubbed and sealed, bathroom tile done, and the doors and transoms installed.  The door casing and baseboard will be in place ready for painting.  That will leave only light and plumbing fixtures and HVAC system.  Grounds work, including parking lot and side-walks, will be done before the end of July.

It’s taken villages—1,300 volunteers so far, with more still stepping forward as we press to the finish. Meanwhile, we’re planning the Grand Opening festivities.  We’ll have exciting announcements about that in the weeks ahead.

 

CAPACES Leadership Institute in One Page

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A union of Mexican immigrant farmworkers called “PCUN”

…in Woodburn, Oregon,
…constructing a unique building…
… the first “Passive House” commercial or office structure in the United States,
…with no debt, thanks to volunteer labor, donated or discounted supplies and services,
…sourcing innovative, unconventional and salvaged materials,
…to house a grassroots leadership institution,
…dedicated to engaging community leaders—current and future,
…about the values and big ideas that guide the farmworker movement and
…equipping those leaders with the skills to put the big ideas to use,
…leading and growing the CAPACES network of nine sister organizations with 60 staff,
…organizing for workplace justice, building housing, operating an FM radio station,
…providing services, pressing for immigrants’ rights and public education reform:

That’s the CAPACES Leadership Institute.

 The CAPACES Leadership Institute builds on three decades of community organizing led by Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), Oregon’s farmworker union.  PCUN has created and united a network of nine community-based organizations that we call the “CAPACES” network.  Among the CAPACES organizations’ accomplishments are:

  • Building and managing 188 units of farmworker housing,
  • Building and operating Radio Movimiento (a low-power FM radio station),
  • Assisting 6,000 immigrants to gain legal immigration status,
  • Defeating dozens of anti-immigrant legislative proposals,
  • Training 1,000 immigrant parents for school involvement, and
  • Registering 3,000 Latino voters.

80% of our 100 key leaders are Latino immigrants or from immigrant families, 60% are women, and 50% are under 35 years of age.  Most had no prior leadership experience and no formal leadership training.

Now open, the Institute will prepare leaders to add to these accomplishments:

  • Building or acquiring 88 more units of low-income housing in three communities, a nearly 50% increase by 2013, and Expanding resident leadership training;
  • Collaborating with the new Center for Popular Democracy, based in New York, taking out leadership methods to a national level;
  • Deepening the “CAPACES de Verde” dialogues:  “green” developers and immigrant workers, answering questions like “where do ‘green cards’ fit in the ‘green’ world?”

 

You’re Invited…

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The Grand Opening Celebration for the CAPACES Leadership Institute’s new building is on Saturday, August 25th.  We hope you’ll put it on your calendar right now (if it’s not already there) and make plans to join us.

Planning for the Celebration is well underway.  We expect to have exhibits about the construction process, tours, information about the Institute’s programs (a number are already underway), plus an exciting and unique mix of hundreds of folks from around the country and around the corner.

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes expect to join in headlining the program.  We’ve invited U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and she’s hoping that her schedule permits a trip across the country to be with us.  This list of luminaries who’ve expressed interest is growing.

We expect activities of the day will begin mid-afternoon and that the program and ceremony will commence around 5:00 PM.  A formal invitation will go out soon and we’ll ask that folks notify us if they plan to attend.

If you have questions, please contact the Institute’s Executive Director, Laura Isiordia, at lauraisiordia@capacesleadership.org

We’re counting on seeing you in August!

 

The Spirit Was With Us

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Last Sunday April 22nd, incense glowed inside the CLI building.  More precisely, “Earth Scent” and “Full Moon”, and candles were burning as well.

Was it a spiritual ceremony?  Actually, that occurred the previous day before when the Huitzilopochtli dance group performed an indigenous ritual blessing for the sedums.  An hour later, volunteers nestled them into the soil up on the living roof.  Beginning last fall, volunteers had painstakingly propagated the plant-starts in the back yard of the radio house, next door.  Plant types include “Sedum Oreganum”, “Sedum Album Murale”, “Sedum Hispanicum” (we’re not making this up!).

The incense, however, had nothing to do with religion, cultural or ceremony.  Its smoke curls wafted entirely in service to the science of “Passivhaus” design.  Volunteers held smoldering sticks near the frames of the triple-pane windows and exterior doors.  They’d just been installed and we were testing for air leaks around the frames and thesholds.

At the heart of “Passivhaus” design and building is achieving air tightness.  Our lead construction consultant, Gene Wixson, set up a “blower-door” test, moderately pressurizing the building’s interior air (though not enough to make your ears pop).  The lower pressure outside pulls interior air (and incense smoke) toward even the smallest holes; we promptly re-taped those spots or filled them with sealant.

Sunday’s test took us about half way to a passing grade for building envelope tightness.  Right after pressurizing, Gene took a reading of 600 cubic feet of air exchange per minute.  After the incense-wanding around the doors and a third of the windows, he got it down to about 450.  We need to reach 300 to receive Passivhaus certification.  At that level, the CLI building will maintain an air leakage level of less than 10% of the average commercial buildings.

This past weekend’s volunteers, including a group from Staples corporate headquarters and a group of Jewish high school students from Havurah Shalom and Tivnu in Portland, made a valuable contribution to the construction and took away some lasting memories.  They join the CLI’s volunteer corps that’s surpassed 1,000 (and counting!), part of what we call the “10,000 fingerprints” campaign.

The building is now about 80% complete and the pace is quickening.  The next few weeks will see completion of interior insulation, drywall, plus install of interior doors, trim and cabinets.

And we’re gearing up for the Grand Opening on August 25th, exactly four months from today!  The smell of incense will, by then, be long gone, but our spirits will be higher than ever.