District 14 Town Hall 10.6.2021

We had an excellent Town Hall last week celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month! Catalina Rodriguez Lima from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and Marjorie Nemes, Omar Vazquez and Walda Yon from Latino Economic Development Corporation joined us. They are doing fantastic work, and I'm honored they took the time to be with us. Here is the Facebook Live link to the video, here is the You Tube link.

Catalina reported that the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs are currently working on translations of city documents and access in five main languages - Spanish, French, Manderine, Japanese, and Arabic. There are so many languages represented now in Baltimore - way more than 5. MIMA also works with specific nonprofit organizations to address major issues in the community including COVID 19 vaccines. Catalina also works with City agencies to ensure they are thinking about the immigrant community when doing their work and front facing agencies.

Marjorie, Omar and Walda talked about their work with Latino Economic Development Corporation. While they have traditionally been in DC and Montgomery/Prince George’s County. They came to Baltimore in 2014 at the request of MIMA. They have a small business entrepreneur program including credit, lending, and business development. They also have homebuyer classes and foreclosure prevention. They added rental assistance and also PPP Lending during the COVID crisis. They can be nimble and strategic, and serve both Black and Latino/Hispanic communities, and have special programs for women entrepreneurs. To find out more here is their website.