Community Benefits : Latinos Get Leadership Training

When Lea Davila, the director of a prenatal program at the Chicano Community Health Center, was mailed a brochure from the Chicano Federation of San Diego about a new program called the Leadership Training Institute, she was so impressed that she had several brochures sent to her friends.

But it wasn’t until just before the deadline for applications that Davila realized that the program might be helpful to her as well.

Since that time--and 13 training weeks later--Davila has found that the program has opened new avenues for her in the community.

“A program like this is very important for the community,” Davila said. “Many of us have a tendency to allow others to lead. We don’t want to take an active role. This program shows us the areas of the community that need more attention and trains leaders in the community to address problems more effectively. I have been able to approach hospitals to advise them more effectively of the needs of our health program.”

The Leadership Training Institute is a 13-week program aimed at developing the leadership and organizational skills of San Diego County Latinos. The institute graduated its first batch of participants--18 people of diverse ages and backgrounds--at a ceremony Tuesday at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse restaurant.

The participants, meeting once a week, are taught by professionals about public speaking, government relations, effective use of the media and the dynamics of living in a border community. A major goal of the program is to place community leaders on local advisory boards and in positions at private, public and nonprofit agencies.

“Many agencies would ask us where they could find community people to put on their advisory boards,” said Alicia Martinez, special projects coordinator for the Chicano Federation. “This program sprang out of the need to develop people already active in the community into more effective community leaders.”

Remi Burmudez, an assistant to San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock and a member of the institute’s planning committee, said one important objective of the program is to open doors for future Chicano leaders.

“I was the first Chicana to be appointed to Mayor Hedgecock’s staff,” Burmudez said. “This is one inroad. We want to assure that these inroads are there for people coming up. Some of us have been given opportunities that we have worked very hard for, but not everyone who might be just as excellent has been given that opportunity.”

Davila, a 44-year-old grandmother of three, said that the program not only improved her communications skills, but built her confidence as well.

“Even my staff people have noticed it,” Davila said. “I have always been very involved in what I do, but I felt this program completed a lot for me. I am working on a grant proposal that I don’t think I would have tackled before, and I have been able to get other people enthused about what I am doing.”

For Hector Culver, a 35-year-old senior analyst at the space systems division of General Dynamics, the program was just what he was looking for.

“I had always wanted to get involved in community activities,” Culver said. “But before, I could never find a focal point. Now there is an avenue. I think it is astonishing for the community to have joined forces to say, ‘Let’s package our knowledge and offer it to people who can be potential leaders.’

“I want to get into city politics--I don’t know how far down the road that is--but this program has given me the confidence to recognize and articulate what needs to be done in the community.”