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A helping hand

Friendly House proud to help immigrants

Luis Ibarra, Friendly House CEO for the past 13 years, is proud of his organization’s service to the community.

“I’m particularly proud of its history as an institution in the Latino community. In over 86 years of service, people from all over the Valley have come to us. When I ask, ‘Why did you come?’ they say, ‘Because I knew I could get help at Friendly House’,” he says.

“When people need help they’ve talked to family about it, they’ve thought about it, they’ve prayed about it and finally they seek help. We’re proud to be the place they come to,” he adds.

Foremost among Friendly House’s points of pride is its dedicated staff, Ibarra says.

“I’m proud of our talented staff. We don’t send people on a goose chase, even if we don’t provide the type of service they are seeking. We will help them find it. We’ll make the calls and point them in the direction they need to go. It’s a different way of doing business, but it’s just what we do.”

Friendly House has been doing things differently since it was established in 1920 as an outgrowth of the settlement house movement. From the onset, Friendly House was a place for the displaced and disenfranchised, a place to find help, a place to learn. Here, immigrants learned to become acculturated in the United States and were taught English. And it was a place for women to learn the housekeeping trade. Always, Friendly House has been a beacon of caring.

As society changed, client demographics and needs changed also, and the programs Friendly House offered grew to respond to community needs.

With an annual budget of $6 million and a staff of 159 full- and part-time employees, Friendly House now serves approximately 40,000 people per year, including low-income elderly, disabled people, families, youth and children, according to Friendly House spokesman Jesus Hernandez.

The organization provides a vast array of services, including English-language instruction, immigration law counseling, help with establishing legal residency and citizenship, assistance to first-time homebuyers, home health care, and child and family support services.

Years ago, immigrants were mostly Latino, Filipino and Asian, Ibarra says. Now “we see a lot of Mexicanos, people from Africa and Western Bloc countries,” he says.

“We’ve been very strategic in determining the most critical issues that face the community and how to respond to them. The services we provide are critical, ” Ibarra adds.

Immigration issues have come to the forefront and Friendly House has taken up the mantel of communicating about and advocating for immigration reform, Ibarra says.

Recently, Ibarra and other Friendly House representatives met with members of the U.S. Senate to discuss immigration reform.

“They mentioned the bracero program. I told them that was a form of forced labor and slavery. It wasn’t a good thing. It was good for (American) farmers, but not for the people who participated in the program,” Ibarra says.

In addition to its work on topics such as immigration, Friendly House also is immersed in family issues and offers domestic counseling and parenting classes in a comprehensive program geared toward families and children.

The organization also works closely with Child Protective Services in a number of areas, serving as an advocate for families and children and assisting with family unification efforts, Ibarra says.

Ibarra says Friendly House also runs a child development center that provides affordable care to children six weeks to five years old.

“Our families can’t afford to take time off to care for children and can’t leave children with a grandma who could be frail. We recognize it’s very important to provide this service.”

The organization also offers employment counseling and job placement in partnership with employers, especially those who need bilingual staff.

“We look to place our clients in positions with opportunities for advancement and promotion. We’re looking for quality jobs,” he says.

The group’s programs are paid for through private, grant and foundation funding, as well as through organizations such as the United Way. It fundraises to support its work.

In November Friendly House is launching a $2.6 million capital campaign with Bashas’ grocery store mogul Johnny Basha as the campaign chair, Ibarra says.

Funds raised will be used to renovate the buildings housing the organization’s comprehensive youth services area, which includes Academia del Pueblo, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school run by Friendly House, after-school projects, math camp, and a program which steers youth toward higher education, Ibarra says.

“We’re looking for corporate, individual and foundation support. We’re asking people to step up and make gifts,” he adds. Preliminary fundraising has already netted about $350,000.

“Even though it’s a modest campaign, there are challenges. The economy is weak, there is the war in Iraq, and the housing market is down. It’s just not as easy as simply asking who wants to help,” he points out.

The Friendly House board is doing its part to help, spearheading a $50,000 fundraising campaign of its own. “Everyone,” he says, “is rolling up their sleeves and pitching in."