Grantee Spotlight: Mi Casa Resource Center
2022 was a year of reorganizing, restructuring, and rebuilding at Mi Casa Resource Center as the world changed around us. We are so grateful for support from Impact100 Metro Denver, which helped us try new things to meet the new environment. You helped us serve business owners, job seekers, and staff in new ways!
With support from Impact100, Mi Casa installed hybrid learning technology in our largest training rooms. We have new cameras that track the room and the instructors, microphones that pick up the conversation in the room and virtually, and training for our staff to facilitate hybrid training effectively.
Within the past few months, Mi Casa has hosted events and classes in this new hybrid environment. Our first Women’s Leadership Program graduated in November 2022 using the new technology. The training supports women leaders of color as they navigate the challenges of imposter syndrome, leadership vs. management, and growth. Participants who would otherwise not be able to celebrate with the rest of the class were able to join and share their success with friends and family.
We also had the chance to celebrate staff with this technology. Just this last month, we celebrated one of our staff members for her 20th anniversary at Mi Casa. Former supervisors of hers who lived out of state were able to join and support her accomplishment, and the event was seamless and smooth.
Other highlights from 2022 showed new beginnings across the agency. We had accomplishments on a national scale: Mi Casa was the only Colorado organization to receive the 2022 Good Jobs Challenge under the Economic Development Administration. With UnidosUS, we will grow our Career Pathways and Stackable Credential Model into new industries and offer even more pathways for participants to grow in career and education.
In Business Pathways, we grew partnerships to offer support in the East Colfax corridor, home to hundreds of diverse businesses. And across the agency, we expanded programming to meet the needs of our participants: we brought back English as a Second Language classes with support from individual volunteers, tested workshops for financial wellness with bank partners, and connected individuals to new professional certificates through Google to support their growth.
In 2022, Mi Casa served 1,247 participants across Career, Business, and Economic Advancement programs. They went on to find new jobs, launch businesses, and learn new skills to set them up for long-term success. We couldn’t make that impact without your support. Thank you for your investment, your time, and your commitment. Our vision is of Prosperidad Latina, or Thriving Latinos, for Denver and all of Colorado. We are grateful for all you’ve done to make that vision possible in 2022, and we can’t wait to carry it forward with you in 2023.
