Lifting Latino youth
Program helps stem violence, steer focus toward success
When Marcos Martinez walked into the Martin de Porres Center a few years ago, he found a place where he could truly be himself, open up to others and find a career for which he has a passion.
Martinez was 17 when he was introduced to the center’s Rising Youth program, which supports Latino youths ages 8 to 18 with homework help, mentoring and mental health support in an effort to reduce violence.
Today, the 21-year-old is a photographer, videographer and graphic designer, something he found a passion for after hearing a graphic designer speak to the group.
“This program will be the program for you to come and join and explore who you want to become in college or choose a career path,” said Martinez, who volunteers with the group. “It’s an open space, everybody’s welcome. It’s a more positive impact.”
The center, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Peace located on Airport Drive near Ohio Dominican University, did a survey of the community surrounding its Near East Side neighborhood in 2014.
The survey found that there is a large Latino population within a 10-mile radius of the center and that among those families that are struggling economically, violence was a big problem.
The violence is varied, and includes domestic violence, bullying, retaliation and people threatening to report families to immigration officials.
Based on the study’s findings, the center and the Dominican Sisters set out to find solutions. Among the programs they came up with were Rising Youth; food and personal care assistance for area families; and English as a Second Language, citizenship and financial planning classes.
The idea behind Rising Youth is to give young people a safe place to go and a social group, an alternative to violence and hanging out with peers who might get into trouble.
“It’s helped the youth, themselves, to feel more comfortable with themselves,” said Sister Roberta Miller, non-violence grant coordinator.
During the early days of the pandemic, when much of Ohio was shut down, the center provided weekly food and personal care packages.
Rising Youth met twice a month before the pandemic, offering participants homework help, down time and snacks. Mayra Betances, youth coordinator, also works with their schools to make sure they are doing well academically and are on track to move forward in school and graduate.
Since the pandemic, the center has been checking in often with families and children to see what they need and to offer fun challenges and activities for the youths.
The center sent out monthly boxes with games and snacks for kids and also had a video series with local professionals talking about their careers and teaching the kids how to change a flat tire or bake.
“The majority of kids are immigrants or descended from immigrants,” Betances said. “They come in at a disadvantage.”
Dr. Anahi Ortiz, Franklin County Coroner, wrote a letter to the editor in The Dispatch in early August about how organizations should work together to prevent the violence that has been rising in the city among youths recently, said she thinks the Rising Youth program can be part of the solution to stem the violence.
“Anything that gets youth coming together in a positive influence is a preventative measure against violence because they have a structure,” said Ortiz, a Rising Youth mentor. “They have mentors, they have adults that they see care about them. They have people to talk to ... They have something to look forward to, and at that age, that’s what they need.”
The program can be a bridge for youths between a challenge and a solution, said Yahaira Rose, director of the Martin de Porres Center.
“With all the racism talk and antagonism that arises in the general community, we found some were starting to take it personally,” Miller said. “I think it has helped in helping them to cope, keep a balance in this time.”
The center also helps youths value their Latino culture and local Latino leaders serve as mentors.
“That’s really, really a huge support for them,” Betances said. “Kids just need someone to listen to them ...
It does something to a child to realize there is something designed for them.”
Ortiz said the program is important for Latino youths because many have immigrant parents and are in the United States for a better life. If parents don’t speak English, it’s hard for them to help with school.
Rising Youth helped Martinez focus on school work. The staff helped him learn things that teachers in school couldn’t explain well to him, especially math, he said.
Cristal Vaz, 18, joined Rising Youth as a high school junior and has introduced her younger sister and a friend to it.
Now a senior at Whitehall Yearling High School, Vaz said it’s her favorite place.
“They’re almost like family,” she said of the people at the center. “You can talk to whoever you want about your problems.”
When Vaz introduced her sister to the program, she told her it’s a safe place.
“She can be herself, she can express herself,” Vaz said. Rising Youth has helped her sister get her grades up and get away from friends who were a bad influence, she said.
Vaz discovered she could translate her love of doing makeup into a career and maybe her own salon one day through Rising Youth.
“They can see people of Latina heritage can be successful so they have something to look forward to,” Ortiz said. “They can see, ’Yes, they did it, so I can do it, too.’” dking@dispatch.com @Danaeking