BakerRipley: Holistic solutions empowering the narrative of American opportunity
Like millions of people throughout the U.S., I celebrate our nation's birthday every July 4th. This year, in addition to cookouts, picnics, and displays of flags and fireworks, it was notable to me that more than 9,400 new U.S. citizens took the oath of allegiance administered by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). Our immigration system isn’t perfect, but naturalization ceremonies turn the American dream into a reality for immigrant individuals, families, and communities.
This is a matter that resonates with my personal experience. When I was 12, an economic downturn in Mexico cost my father his job as an executive at a large bank. He made the difficult decision to bring our family to the U.S., settling in El Paso, Texas, where my father found work as a bank teller. We all worked hard over the years, and that hard work paid off when his daughter became the first Latina CEO in the history of BakerRipley, an organization that ranks among the top one percent of nonprofits in the U.S.?
I meet people like my father every day at BakerRipley – people who contribute to the life in our communities in so many ways by teaching our children, cooking the food we eat, providing care for the sick, building our homes, and operating entrepreneurial mom-and-pop businesses. As we enjoy all that our immigrant communities provide for us, they deserve to be included in the narrative of American opportunity.?
BakerRipley’s roots originated more than 100 years ago as part of the settlement house movement in which middle-class volunteers provided services to help poor people in urban areas throughout the nation. Alice Graham Baker created our organization specifically to address the issues new immigrants were facing in Houston. She wanted to make sure they were integrated into our city and they that they had the tools necessary to be supported, educated, and welcomed.
Collaboration is at the core; instead of focusing on what’s not working or telling people how to solve their problems, we’re listening to their stories and asking what they are going to do about their challenges. That’s the key to quality pre-school programs, English classes that enable immigrant parents to help their children do homework, guidance on start-up business plans for aspiring entrepreneurs, strategies to help neighborhoods advocate for improvements, and many more collective, holistic solutions that harness BakerRipley’s resources for sustainable community results.
More than 100 years after Alice Graham Baker’s initiative in Houston, BakerRipley remains committed to the belief that, regardless of how you got here – whether you cross an ocean, a river, or railroad tracks -- if you’re here and you work hard, you’re welcome and you belong. Our community centers, elementary schools, head start locations, tax centers, workforce centers, and senior centers are places providing holistic services for more than 600,000 neighbors every year. These places play a role in maintaining the integrity of families and achieving the unique aspirations of communities. Overall, they are welcoming places that help people become part of the narrative of American opportunity.?
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