El Rescate Redefines Its Mission : Director’s Departure Puts Central American Assistance Agency at a Crossroads

Just months after his group emerged from one of the worst financial crises in its history, the executive director of El Rescate announced his departure, setting off a months-long search for new leadership and a new image.

Last November, Oscar Andrade, 34, announced he was leaving the social service agency to return to his native El Salvador, which he fled in 1980 because of a brutal civil war.

His planned departure in September to study international relations comes nearly three years after he took over as executive director of the 13-year-old agency based in Pico-Union. El Rescate provides social and legal services to many of the 400,000 Salvadorans and other Central Americans in Los Angeles.

Although Andrade’s plans came as no surprise--he had said he would serve for only two years when he took over as executive director in 1991--the resignation has sparked a debate over the direction the organization must take.

“We are dealing with a transition from serving a refugee community to an immigrant community,” said the Rev. Don Smith of the Presbyterian Synod of California and Hawaii and a member of El Rescate’s board of directors.

Andrade and the agency’s supporters have said public interest in helping political and economic refugees who fled El Salvador’s bloody 12-year civil war dimmed after peace accords were signed in December, 1992. A drop in donations and serious financial problems followed for the agency, which resulted in layoffs and scaling down programs.

“We are going to have to diversify after the crisis last year,” said Andrade, adding that promised grants fell through. “What happened was (donors) said, ‘The war is over and El Salvador is no longer a priority.’ ”

Although the agency’s budget went up from $900,000 in 1992 to about $1.2 million last year, it has since plummeted to $600,000 for 1994. Fund raising is among the key issues Andrade’s successor must tackle.

“There is no question that financial stability is going to be a priority. We’ve had the Academy Award parties that have been helpful in the past and some people have suggested that we’ve underutilized the people associated with that,” Smith said, referring to annual parties that the agency throws during the Oscars. This spring’s party raised nearly $25,000.

Andrade said the agency should also look toward raising money within the Central American community, citing a direct-mail campaign last year that garnered about $70,000.

But equally important in promoting El Rescate’s image as a community-based group will be its role in providing long-term help to residents. Other organizations, such as the Central American Resource Center, have changed their names and mission purposes to reflect what they say is a move away from dealing with the community as refugees to a permanent presence in the city.

“Any agency working with the Central American community needs to understand where they are coming from and look at the major transition that has occurred,” said Roberto Lovato, executive director of the Central American Resource Center, a social service and legal agency that has worked with El Rescate. “That transition includes understanding that we (Salvadorans) are here to stay.”

Andrade agreed, adding that the current focus on immigration and initiatives barring undocumented immigrants from receiving public services is unlikely to change.

“Obviously, the hottest issue is and will continue to be immigration because until the economy improves they (immigrants) will continue to be blamed. But the other issue will be how do you allocate resources in the community,” he said.

The creation of a community credit union, naturalization workshops and additional vocational training programs are some of the ways El Rescate plans to serve the Central American community, Andrade said.

The announcement of a new director to fill the $35,000-a-year job is expected to coincide with the release of a new mission statement for the agency next month. The plan will outline specific goals for the next three to five years.

Andrade’s successor will need to be a bilingual administrator who can be a fund-raiser and activist while adeptly building links to other agencies.

“Our role here, particularly given the climate we face in California, needs to be concerned with a greater degree of challenges that we’ll face and an emphasis on long-range planning that will help (Central Americans) determine their future here in California,” Smith said.