It may be the height of summer, but school is back in session for adults who want better access to healthcare and legal services.
The Escuela de la Vida — School of Life — is a new Enumclaw library program that aims to make community resources more accessible for the Plateau’s Latinx community, and bring the white and Latinx communities closer through cultural events.
Formed after the Enumclaw library hosted the Community Creator contest earlier this year, the Escuela is hosting the min-resource fair Saturday, Aug. 17, hosting Sea Mar and Colectiva Legal del Pueblo (People’s Legal Collective) as they present what resources they can bring to the area.
Sebastian Rodriguez, an Escuela organizer, said many people in the Plateau community could benefit from additional health and legal education.
“We have noticed that many families do not have access to health education, and are unaware of health services accessible or at a low cost,” he said. “According to Legal Collective, the [legal] situation is similar… when arriving from different places of origin, they do not know basic rights and regulations of the different laws of each country.”
The Colectiva Legal del Pueblo is a nonprofit based in Burien, formed “for and by undocumented immigrants working to build community leadership and power for migrant justice through legal advocacy and education,” its website reads. Formed in 2012, the organization helps with myriad immigration services like asylum applications, naturalization and citizenship processes, establishing temporary protection status, Violence Against Women Act petitions, and more at low to no cost. Staff are fluent in Spanish and English.
Sea Mar, formed in 1978, has clinics in several cities in western Washington, the closest to Enumclaw being in Puyallup. The nonprofit aims to bring myriad health services, like medial, dental, behavioral health, preventive health, and more to communities, and its website says it specializes in serving Latinx populations.
The presentations and question and answer periods are slated to go from 2 to 4:30 p.m. The SeaMar presentation, Rodriguez said, is geared for the Plateau community as a whole, whereas the Colectiva Legal del Pueblo presentation will be focused more on the local immigrant and Hispanic communities.
The Escuela is also in the middle of organizing a larger resource fair for the whole community in the fall, he continued.
PARA HISPANOHABLANTES
Les invitamos a las presentaciones de SeaMar y Colectiva Legal del Pueblo sobre sus recursos, servicios y oportunidades de trabajo. A continuación, tendrán la oportunidad de reunirse con sus representantes para hacer preguntas y obtener más información sobre cómo estas organizaciones pueden ayudarle.
Este evento se realiza en colaboración con los creadores comunitarios de la biblioteca de Enumclaw, La Escuela de la Vida: Nayeli Ayde Miramontes, Carlos Becerril, Citlalli Sarai Chávez, David Quezada, Claudia Avila, Martín Ávila, Moisés Jiménez, Norma Aracely Canett, Adriana Sáenz, Rosa Salinas, Juan Torres, Cecy Izar, Paco Ramos, Yheida Botello, and Sebastian Rodríguez.
Editor’s note: The term “Latinx” is being used in lieu of Latino/a to refer to the community as a whole without a gendered ending.
