El Reflejo August 2015

Volume Volume11 Issue 55

RODOLFO “RUDY” RAMIREZ Executive Director

August 2015

Summer Youth Camp program comes to an end

BOARD OF COMISSIONERS 2015 EDUARDO GONZALEZ CHAIRMAN

ARMANDO BARRERA VICE-CHAIRMAN

JOE RODRIGUEZ COMMISSIONER

CRIS TORRES COMMISSIONER

JUAN GUZMAN

RESIDENT COMMISSIONER

Main Office Ciro Treviño Administration Building

910 S. Sugar Rd. Edinburg, Texas, 78539 REGULAR HOURS Mon.—Thurs.

8 a.m.—5:30 p.m.

Friday 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

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SUMMER YOUTH CAMP FIELD TRIP - About 16 students who participated in this year’s program got to experience traveling in a party bus and enjoy lunch at Red Lobster.

As a way to close our fourth annual Summer Activities Program, students held a special musical performance and a robotics presentation on Aug. 6.

Parents attended the event along with EHA staff and Board Members.

During the event, students who attended the fine

arts class performed the musical “Making the Band” which featured songs by the Go Go’s and The Beatles. Following the musical, kids in the robotics class did a presentation of their work.

Additionally, an Art Exhibit featuring the students’ artwork was displayed in

the Ciro Trevino Administration Building.

Our agency is thankful for the success of this year’s program and would like to thank parents and kids for participating. We hope to see more students take advantage of these opportunities next summer.

El Jardin resident makes family, EHA proud

This summer our resident Gladys Sanchez was one of 70 students selected to participate in this year’s Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Ready to Lead NextGen Program (CHCI R2L) held July 2631 in Washington, D.C. The CHCI R2L program provides Latino high school students with the opportunity to spend a week exploring our na-

tion’s capital with all expenses paid.

Sanchez, who is now a senior at the IDEA Quest College Preparatory and has been a resident of EHA since 2007, shared about some of her experiences during the trip.

“I was able to meet young leaders who had different backgrounds, but...

Continued on Page 2 --->

Gladys Sanchez, ReadytoLead Participant

This month’s highlights * SOLE-Search Shoe Drive, Page 2 * Student shares about Washington, Page 2 * Serving our elderly, Page 3 * Back to School Health Fair, Page 3

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who wanted to strengthen this nation,” she said.

According to the 17-year-old, she also learned from other students during the trip.

“We discussed issues that have been affecting our nation for centuries like immigration and education,” Sanchez said.

“The discussions were in-

sightful due to the experiences my peers had seen.”

Having experienced a personal and intellectual growth, Sanchez said that she hopes to use what she learned to help others.

“What I’ve learned from CHCI R2L NextGen I will use to share it with my community,” she said. “I want to encourage others

to educate themselves on the importance of voting and understand how laws are made and how they impact our lives.”

Although applications for CHCI’s R2L program are currently closed, our agency plans to encourage students to apply next year. With Sanchez experiences in mind, the Ed-

inburg Housing Authority hopes to have many more students participate in the future. Any resident interested for more information on the program can visit CHCI’s website at www.chci.org/readytolead or follow us on Facebook to stay updated.

STUDENT TRAVELS TO D.C.- Gladys Sanchez traveled to Washington D.C. and met many influential Latino leaders, visited historical and learned from significant monumental sites.

Participating in The White House’s day of action A book a day keeps the typos away. This summer our students participated in The White House and U.S. Department of Education’s Read Where You Are day of action on Wednes-

day, July 29. The day was created to draw attention and awareness to the importance of reading over the summer.

SHOE GIVEAWAY- Residentsreceived free pairs of shoes at the Sole-Search Shoe Drive.

READY FOR SCHOOL- Children of RGV low-income communities received a free pair of shoes for the new school year.

SOLE-Search Shoe Drive gives to residents

About 164 kids ages 5 through 16 in our developments received a free pair of shoes at Valley Day & Night Clinic (VDN)’s first SOLE Search Shoe Drive in Mission, Texas on Thursday, Aug. 13.

The event raised and distributed 1,000 pairs of shoes for underprivileged children that were identified by the Mis-

sion and the Rio Grande City Crimestoppers and the Child Protective Services Rainbow Room.

Our agency would like to thank the Valley Day & Night Clinic for helping bring smiles to the faces of our residents and helping families in need in the Rio Grande Valley.

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Back to school health fair Thanks to the efforts of our dedicated UTPA Social Work interns, more than 32 local organizations took part in today’s Back to School Health Fair.

Besides providing services for residents, community organizations and individuals also donated school supplies for students. Our agency is very grateful for

all the help and support we received from the community.

We would like to give special thanks to the UTPA Social Work Student Association, UTPA ROTC, Edinburg Parks & Rec and Memorial Preneed for its generous donation of a television for a raffle.

HEALTH - About 32 organiza- VOLUNTEERS - UTPA ROTC tions provide services and infor- hands out free school supplies. mation to EHA residents.

BACK TO SCHOOL - Residents receive free haircuts.

INTERNS - Health Fair organized by UTPA interns.

Servicing our elderly residents Health fair at The Towers

About 15 health organizations at In an effort to do more for tended, including a mobile Valley our elderly residents, on Aug. 5 our Care Clinic that provided residents agency held a health fair at The Tow- with free health services like checkers development to provide them ups, wellness screenings, physicals with service and information on and immunizations. helpful resources.

Art therapy classes

Our agency also offered free art therapy classes for the elderly population at The Towers development. The efforts have been led by Jennifer Ledesma and Sulema Razo, two Social Work in-

terns from the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA). The art classes are taught by Ivonne Bollair every Monday at 3 p.m. at The Towers Community Center. About 15 to 20 residents attend the classes each week.

ART CLASS- The elderly at The Towers developments come together every week to express themselves through art as they listen to some soothing tunes by a guitarist.

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Coming Soon!

Our agency is excited to announce the continuation of our Tutoring Program. Flyers with dates and times will be handed out and posted to our EHA Facebook page in the following weeks. Stay Updated by following us online @EdinburgHousing or like us on Facebook. For more information, please contact your property manager.

EHA welcomes any housing students 13 to 19-years-old to join the Youth Leadership Association!

If you have a child that would like to be a part of the Youth Leadership Association or learn more, he/she can contact Diego Oros at doros@edinburgha.org or call 956-383-3839.

Do you know an Achiever?

Along with redesigning our website, we have created the EHA Achievers Blog to highlight the outstanding efforts of students pursuing a higher education, outstanding residents and interns that come gain valuable work experience at our agency. To view the EHA Achievers Blog please visit www.ehaachievers.blogspot.com.

If you know any EHA students that have or are currently attending college as well as any residents that have accomplished outstanding things, please contact us so that we can feature them in the blog. To let us know you may call Juan Garcia at 956383-3839.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS Rent deadline

Resident Council Meeting

Due monthly by the 1st, but EHA gives you until the 5th to pay in full. There is a $15 fee for late payments.

Interested in finding out what’s happening at EHA or your development? Come find out at our next Resident Council Meeting. Meetings are led by the Executive Director Rodolfo “Rudy” Ramirez and residents.

Our next meeting will be:

Community service

Sept. 10, 2015 @10 a.m at El Jardin

Residents 18+ years old who are not employed 30 hours or more a week or are not full-time students, must comply with the 8 hour HUD’s community service requirement.

Contact your property managers for the complete schedule of days and locations of our next meetings.

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Stay updated!

Visit us todayn