Lupe Garcia |
Dawn Goetzel |
Lupe Garcia, the head of the Residence Council at Santa Rita, was one of our most influential contacts. As one of the residents at Santa Rita, she offered a very important and informed perspective on the issues surrounding government housing. With first hand experience in the government housing system, Lupe told us about the main issues the women in government housing faced; harmful stereotypes, depression, motivation, fitness, etc. With Lupe's advice and leadership we were able to decide on a women's conference to address some of the issues. Lupe had put on a women's conference the year before, which gave us the idea for our Women's Mind at Ease Conference for our take action. Lupe tries to put on events for the families at Santa Rita Courts as often as possible. Even with the donations she is able to get her hands on, putting on events such as these can be very taxing, leading to the decision that we would help her put on her next women's conference.
"I have a lot of ladies here that don't get to go anywhere, they don't get to do anything, ... like going out to eat; no because they can't do this, or they have a child, or they have grandchildren that they're raising. And it's really hard, the only events that they can make are the ones we have right here that are free. And then they can come."
-Lupe on why it's important to have events like these. |
Dawn Goetzel was the person who not only introduced us to Ms. Lupe, but also, gave us the idea to work with government housing. As a social worker specializing in family counseling, Dawn has spent much of her free time volunteering and working with he families at Santa Rita. Her influence and work in the community opened up many opportunities and connections for us that helped us get involved with the people at Santa Rita. Dawn helped us understand the complex living situations of the women at Santa Rita and also helped us learn about key struggles they faced and how we could help them.
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