Labor of Love (My New Job)

It's Labor Day, luckily I finally get a day off, and I guess I can spend some of that time telling you about my future labor...

It went public in my local newspaper (Tribune Article) this week on Monday (8/26/13). Interestingly I was not in town, I was traveling to the University Kentucky to host a retreat for their Pan-Hellenic Greek Council. I knew it would be in the paper, so I snagged a copy for Novali to read on our roadtrip... she got a kick out of my photo in the paper (blog and pictures of that trip coming soon).

With the timing, and the busy time of the year I haven't been able to write much and give information about my new gig, my new employer and this next phase of my career.

I accepted the position of Executive Director of La Casa de Amistad, Inc. in South Bend, IN.  It is a small non-profit that was founded by Fr. John Phalen, CSC (Notre Dame) 40 years ago.  In business terms it makes me the CEO, and I am responsible for the day to day operations of the center. We own our own building and we have a handful of amazing full time and part time staff that run our amazing programs.

La Casa works mostly in the educational environment with Pre-K programs all the way through adult education. We also run a food pantry, have immigration and translation services and host citizenship classes. Our name is very well recognized in our community, we have over 1200 families that we serve annually, and over 90% of those we serve are at the 100% poverty level ($23k for family of 4).

I started working for La Casa part time already... which has been stressful to say the least. I will start my full time position on September 16th. Most of our school based programs are kicking off between now and then so I have been busy helping get our Pre-K classroom ready, make sure we have staff in place for programs and some last minute re-organizing at the center to be ready for the returning flock of students.

It has already been a busy and productive time in my new role. I lead our presentation on a major community grant. We did not win it, BUT, we did get a special recognition from the granting agency and $10,000 prize. Not too shabby... and then we made the paper again in an article on the Leighton Award (Tribune twice in one week!). We not only made one news agency, but TWO (WNDU Coverage). Then in October we will be hosting our 40th Anniversary Dinner and I am going to lead the drive for our silent auction (if you have something to donate let me know).

This past week I also spoke to the Hispanic Leadership Coalition who came to see the new mural painted by our students in the Graffiti Art Project.  We have done several murals around town, and finally have one on our building done by our students!

I am sad to be leaving higher education as my full time gig... but I won't be far away. One goal for La Casa's educational programs is to help graduate students from high school... I want to extend that to getting them into college. I also want to do more speaking and consulting to keep me connected. I have booked gigs for the fall so far with Rutgers Newark, University of Kentucky, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and working on a symposium I will help host at a conference this fall. I also am revamping my business website to help drum up a little more business.... OutSight Consulting.

Well there is my news... I am leaving a business I have loved for over 10 years, and starting a new Labor of Love in the Latino Community here in South Bend. I appreciate everyone's support and please Like and Follow La Casa's pages below...

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Enjoy your Labor Day everyone!