Elba Armstrong-Rivera Part 2

Elba Armstrong-Rivera Part 2

2020-10-29

video

Julia Rohde

Elba Rosario Armstrong

5.4 Elba Rosario Armstrong Part 2 Latino Lorain Oberlin College Library Elba Rosario Armstrong Julia Rohde 0 https://youtu.be/FtsM8XcQmjQ YouTube video 0 Introduction My name is Julia Rohde. I am a fourth year student at Oberlin College interviewing Elba Rosario Armstrong for the Latino Lorain Oral History Project. Latino Lorain Oral History Project 47 Advocacy committee of the Coalition for Hispanic Issues and Progress (C.H.I.P.) So to get started, Elba, I would love to hear more about the early years of C.H.I.P.. Elba discusses the role of the advocacy committee of C.H.I.P.. advocacy committee ; C.H.I.P ; Coalition for Hispanic Issues and Progress ; hispanic community ; Lorain, Ohio 142 C.H.I.P.'s involvement with the desegregation lawsuit against the Lorain City Schools and the English-only legislation by the Lorain City Council The biggest issue was, I think, a combination of two issues: the desegregation lawsuit against the Lorain City Schools and the English-only legislation by the Lorain City Council. Elba discusses how C.H.I.P.'s advocacy committee was involved in the lawsuit regarding the desegregation of the Lorain City Schools and the English-only legislation passed by the Lorain City Council. African American ; African American teachers ; bilingual program ; busing ; C.H.I.P. ; Coalition for Hispanic Issues and Progress ; desegregation ; desegregation consent decree ; Education committee ; English-only ; English-only legislation ; foreign languages ; Hispanic teachers ; Hispanics ; lawsuit ; legal ; Lorain City Council ; Lorain City Schools ; magnet schools ; N.A.A.C.P. ; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ; school choice ; Spanish ; teacher recruitment 739 C.H.I.P's work against language discrimination towards Hispanic staff at the Cleveland Clinic Another issue that we dealt with was with the Cleveland Clinic. And I don't know if I mentioned it in the first interview... Elba describes how C.H.I.P. got involved with discrimination at Cleveland Clinic, where Hispanic staff were told they were no longer allowed to speak Spanish during their breaks and were asked to provide translation services without additional pay. advocacy committee ; C.H.I.P. ; Cleveland ; Cleveland Clinic ; Coalition for Hispanic Issues and Progress ; discrimination ; English-only ; Hispanic Month ; language discrimination ; Lorain County ; Lorain, Ohio ; Spanish ; translation services ; workplace discrimination 918 C.H.I.P.'s advocacy work at Lorain County Community College (L.C.C.C.) Another issue that we dealt with was with Lorain County Community College and it was in reference to an employee that had been denied promotion due to his ethnicity and also the lack of representation in the workforce, specifically the faculty and administration... Elba discusses C.H.I.P.'s advocacy work at L.C.C.C., where a Hispanic man was denied promotion due to his ethnicity. This case revealed a larger trend of lack of minority representation in the L.C.C.C. staff. C.H.I.P. ; Coalition for Hispanic Issues and Progress ; Hispanic community ; L.C.C.C. ; Lorain County ; Lorain County Community College ; Lorain, Ohio ; minority representation ; promotion ; representation ; workplace discrimination 1194 C.H.I.P.'s advocacy work at Lorain County Board of Mental Health to hire bilingual therapists Then we had another...because there were quite a few, if that is okay, there were quite a few that we dealt with. Another one was with the Lorain County Board of Mental Health and therapy actually was being provided through interpreters because of the lack of bilingual counselors and therapists, and so actually we just went in and talked with them. You know, they were very understanding... Elba discusses C.H.I.P.'s success asking the Lorain County Board of Health to hire bilingual therapists and counselors. bilingual ; bilingual services ; C.H.I.P. ; Coalition of Hispanic Issues and Progress ; Lorain County ; Lorain County Board of Mental Health ; medical ; mental health 1278 C.H.I.P.'s advocacy work at Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Board And then we had an issue with Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Board. And basically what had been happening was that El Centro had been providing services for persons who needed counseling as out-patients and for residential services which including 30 days or more stay. They didn't have those capabilities to do it, so they went to Cleveland... Elba discusses C.H.I.P.'s advocacy work at Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Board, where there were issues with funding addiction services for the citizens of Lorain. A.D.A.S. Board ; addiction services ; bilingual ; bilingual staff ; C.H.I.P. ; Cleveland ; Coalition of Hispanic Issues and Progress ; Cuyahoga ; Cuyahoga County ; El Centro ; health services ; Lorain County ; Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Board ; Lorain, Ohio ; public health ; Sacred Heart Chapel 1572 C.H.I.P.'s work against racial harassment in Lorain city government office Then also we had a situation with the city of Lorain--the government. We had a Black Puerto Rican male employee who said that he was being racially harassed. Elba describes how C.H.I.P. got involved with the Lorain city government when a Black Puerto Rican employee was being racially harassed in the workplace. Black Puerto Rican ; C.H.I.P. ; Coalition of Hispanic Issues and Progress ; Lorain City Government ; Lorain, OH ; racial harassment ; workplace harassment 1710 C.H.I.P.'s work against harassment of Hispanic family reunion in Lorain County Metroparks We had an issue with the Lorain County Metroparks and I don't know if I mentioned this one or not, but a Hispanic family had their family reunion in one of the Metroparks. and they had quite a few of their family members there, and one of the park rangers had been walking around, walking around, and he noticed that a motorcycle was parked near the pavilion area... Elba describes an incident in the Lorain County Metroparks, where a park ranger harassed a Hispanic family who was celebrating a reunion. C.H.I.P. ultimately got involved, as one member of those celebrating was given a citation. C.H.I.P. ; Coalition of Hispanic Issues and Progress ; harassment ; Lorain County ; Lorain County Metroparks ; Lorain, Ohio 2015 C.H.I.P.'s advocacy for Hispanic single mother evicted by Lorain Metropolitan Housing Board Then we had, another issue occurred. It was with the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Board. This was regarding a Hispanic mom, a single mom, who had nowhere to go and no family here in Lorain and was being evicted from the apartment in February, one of our coldest months. Elba describes a situation with the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Board where a Hispanic single mother was going to be evicted until C.H.I.P. was able to step in and assist with her rent. C.H.I.P. ; Coalition of Hispanic Issues and Progress ; eviction ; Hispanic single mother ; housing discrimination ; Lorain County ; Lorain Metropolitan Housing Board ; Lorain, OH 2207 C.H.I.P.'s strategies for community-building and reason for its establishment So those were the type of issues that we had dealt with as an advocate organization. And then what we did also was C.H.I.P. reached out with all institutions and we spoke with them to develop relationships with them and let them know who we were, what we were all about so that they understood, and we initiated some dialogue about mutual interest we would have... Elba details how C.H.I.P. established relationships with Lorain institutions in order to be successful in their advocacy work. C.H.I.P. ; Coalition of Hispanic Issues and Progress ; community-building ; Hispanic issues ; Lorain City Schools ; Lorain County Police Department ; Lorain mayor's office ; Lorain, OH 2375 The Revival of C.H.I.P. And in the last interview you had mentioned there was a brief time where C.H.I.P. died down a little bit and then you revitalized and served as President, and I'm wondering why you think there was that time where it wasn't as active? Elba describes how the same people were involved in different Hispanic organizations in Lorain, leading to people getting tired of being involved. She believes that this led to a period of decline for C.H.I.P., where it was recommended that the organization be disbanded. C.H.I.P. ; Coalition of Hispanic Issues and Progress ; community-buidling ; Lorain, OH 2606 Origins of the Hispanic Fund And you had also mentioned wanting to talk more about the origins of the Hispanic Fund... Elba explains that there had been a fund of $300 through the Lorain Community Foundation to honor Dr. Jose Rivera. When the Community Foundation decided to start a Hispanic Fund and an African American Fund, Elba and other members of C.H.I.P. were invited to become a part of the philanthropy process. Community Foundation ; Hispanic Fund ; Lorain Community Foundation ; Lorain County ; Lorain, OH ; philanthropy 2970 Establishment of the Lincoln Center in South Lorain I also wanted, because I know I talked a little bit about the Coalition for South Lorain, the Lincoln Center. This was formed, well actually the Coalition was the police, the Metropolitan Housing, the Lorain City Schools, El Centro, and Sacred Heart... Elba describes how Lincoln Elementary School--during school rebuilding--was temporarily leased to the Coalition for South Lorain to house the Lincoln Center, a community center where institutions in Lorain held offices, ESL classes were held, and other services were provided to the community of South Lorain. Boy's and Girl's club ; Coalition for South Lorain ; community center ; computer classes ; El Centro ; ESL classes ; food pantry ; Lincoln Center ; Lincoln Elementary School ; Lorain City Schools ; Lorain Police Department ; Lorain, OH ; Metropolitan Housing Board ; Sacred Heart Chapel ; school rebuilding ; South Lorain ; youth coordinaters 3304 C.H.I.P.'s work to place Hispanics on institutional boards And then one other thing that C.H.I.P. did that I wanted to talk about was that we, we wanted to--as I had talked about we would meet with institutions to tell them what we were about--we also wanted to get as many people involved, Hispanics, on boards for these organizations... Elba explains that C.H.I.P. also worked with institutional boards in Lorain to increase representation and place Hispanic people on the boards. C.H.I.P. ; Coalition for Hispanic Issues and Progress ; Hispanic board members ; Hispanic representation ; Hispanics ; Lorain County ; Lorain, OH Oral history interview of Elba Rosario Armstrong for the Latino Lorain Oral History Project. video 0 https://oberlincollegelibrary.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=LL_Rosario-Armstrong_Elba_2.xml LL_Rosario-Armstrong_Elba_2.xml

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