Encuentro – Albuquerque, NM
The Spanish word “Encuentro” has two definitions. The first, is “a coming together,” as in people coming together for a purpose. The second is a “discovery.” Latine immigrants living in Central New Mexico are coming together to rebuild communities and support one another to discover and create opportunities through adult education.
Encuentro’s mission is to transform New Mexico into a thriving community for all its residents by engaging with Latine immigrants in educational and career opportunities that build skills necessary for economic and social justice. Encuentro primarily serves English-language learning Latine immigrant adults, most of whom identify as women and a majority of whom do not have a high school diploma or digital literacy skills.
Encuentro’s Home Health Aide (HHA) Program was developed seven years ago in response to students’ concerns regarding the absence of Spanish-language training for home health workers. Since then, the leadership of HHA graduates has become central to ongoing program development. The focus of Encuentro’s Fund for Workforce Equity grant is to build upon the HHA program to create structures and systems that strengthen immigrant leadership, where workers and learners inform continued program design and implementation, build ownership over the program, and inform best practices for workforce policies that honor the experiences of Home Health Aides, particularly Latine, immigrant caregivers.
With support from the Fund for Workforce Equity grant, Encuentro designed and implemented leadership training for home health aides. A cohort of six home health aides, all Latina immigrant women, finished the training in the fall of 2022, and in the spring of 2023, these graduates formed two working groups: education and facilitation needs to support Home Health Aides; and domestic workers’ rights and local advocacy. These leaders are working to create training and engagement opportunities for Home Health Aide students and graduates.
Encuentro is now working on a proposal to create a Home Health Aide Leadership Graduate Group, the first members of which are slated to be the six graduates of the leadership training. Members of the group will receive compensation for their participation.
On the technical assistance opportunities provided by the Fund, Fiore Gorvetzian, Leadership Development Manager of Encuentro’s HHA program said, “We believe that peer-learning and learning communities are also a great tool to learn best practices and challenges from other organizations. The learning community sessions have been really helpful in connecting with peers across the country to learn from each other, and gain new tools and insights on centering the voices and rights of workers of color.”