The Family Leadership Training Institute

ALAMOSA — After completing an intensive leadership program facilitated by Shooting Stars Cultural and Leadership Center, a cohort of nine young, inspired women from across the San Luis Valley are ready to take on the challenges they see in the communities where they live.

The group, comprised of Hispanic, Latina and Indigenous women, attended the Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI), an intensive five-hours-per-week, 20-week-long course held at Shooting Stars. Their completion was marked with a festive graduation ceremony on April 8.

All the women work full-time jobs, and many have children. Yet, when given the opportunity to attend, no one hesitated to commit to a rigorous course that meets more frequently and lasts longer than a typical college semester. That drive is exactly what Cristalray and Jamie Dominguez were hoping for in participants.

"FLTI is geared toward building family leaders within a community," says Cristalray Dominguez, who co-founded Shooting Stars with her husband, Jamie, and facilitated the course. She and Dominguez first became familiar with FLTI after being invited to attend the institute in 2018.

"After seeing our own personal growth and the growth of our peers, we thought it would be an amazing program to bring to our community," she says. And with the help of the Colorado Health Foundation, the Early Childhood Center, and CSU Extension Office, they did.

To graduate from the course, each student must create a project that addresses a need they see in their community. The recent graduating class is the third cohort she has facilitated, which means "there are multiple projects going into these communities.”

The course is divided into two ten-week segments. The first ten weeks focus on "working through personal emotions and leading with intuition while maneuvering in the community."

Controlling emotions equals better communication

Working through personal emotions, speaking with others about something that holds significant personal meaning, and describing the sometimes-painful experiences that sparked the desire to bring about change can be intensely emotional.

"(The students) are really focused on learning how to lead with intellect versus emotion," Dominguez says. "How to have a purpose with passion and understand your community's needs. Those weeks are the most important part because, to be an effective leader, you must learn how to regulate your emotions. You have to learn how to communicate with others.”

That deep emotion was something FLTI student Irene Gonzalez did not expect. A pragmatic, diligent, 47-year-old mother of four adult children who works as an intake specialist at the Energy Resource Center Weatherization Program, Gonzalez has known profound loss in her life, from the murder of her former husband two years ago to her brother's suicide in 2013.

Gonzalez's brother's death was devastating, and the isolation she experienced after prompted her to focus on creating "Story Unfinished," a project to create a support group for others whose loved ones have taken their own lives. But she needed to work through her feelings before Gonzales could effectively talk about her project.

FLTI created a safe space to do that.

"A lot of emotional stuff came out," Gonzalez says. "I knew people I could talk to but being in that class where I was, I felt more comfortable. I think it was a connection with the others because we all had experienced something. I cried quite a bit."

When Gonzalez's brother took his own life, she discovered there was an absence of support groups to help people deal with the tragedy, especially people who came from the same or similar culture. That was confirmed when, after speaking about her experience in class, people — one who was another class member and five or six others who were strangers — approached her and told her of their experience.

She knew helping others was something she wanted to do. “I didn't want people to go through life thinking, ‘nobody knows what I'm going through’."

Her project, "Story Unfinished," was created to meet that need.

Maricela Lucas, a trilingual, 27-year-old college graduate raising her 3-year-old daughter while working as an immigrant advocate at the Immigration Resource Center, also had feelings of frustration that FLTI helped her to articulate.

Shortly after buying a home on Alamosa's south side, Lucas had property stolen from a dark area behind her house, and she believes not enough streetlights aided the theft. Her project — "Light up the South Side" — was created to address what she views as an inequitable situation.

"The lack of lighting contributes to the high level of crime. People take advantage of that. It's not right that we have fewer streetlights on the south side than in other parts of Alamosa. I think it's because people on the south side are lower income and people of color, but I'm a taxpayer. We're taxpayers. We contribute to the economy just like everyone else." 

Darker streets also pose a risk to others, she says. "I live close to Ross Avenue, and there are a lot of random people walking at all times. Whenever I drive at night, I have to drive extra slowly because there are people you can't see until they're right in front of your car. I don't want to hit someone. It's dangerous."

Dominguez views the emotional process as both cathartic and instructive.

"The beauty of FLTI is that each participant brings their lived experience and knowledge to the conversation," she says. "That's how we all learn from each other."

Turning pain into progress

The second ten weeks of the course — which Gonzalez says were "just as intense as the first" — concentrate on how systems work. Financial systems and making a budget for their project, the school system, the media, the state legislature, public policy - all part of learning how to create change at the municipal, state, and federal level. It also included a trip to the state legislature while in session.

"Going to the capitol was really impactful," says Lucas. "Seeing Representative Martinez made me realize that, even if you're from a rural area, you can still have an impact. It made me really evaluate my career and want to make a change."

Gonzalez agrees.  "(The capitol) was inspiring. I always thought the whole political scene was a white world, but it's not. Our representative is Hispanic, and others are either Hispanic or black. I saw people saying things and doing things, and I thought…I could do something like that."

"I saw many changes in these young ladies," Dominguez says, "from finding their voice to regulating their emotion while being effective speakers, from having no interest in being part of the school board meeting to now wanting to run for a seat on the board."

When Jamie Dominguez speaks of Shooting Stars Cultural and Learning Center, he says the programs — FLTI is just one of many — "come from the community for the community." The projects created by the women and presented at the graduation ceremony exemplify his words.

"Cristalray said they want to invest in people in the community who are kind of invisible leaders and need that extra push to take on leadership roles and make a change," Maricela Lucas says. "A lot of Hispanic and Latino people don't see what skills we have that we can bring to the table.

“Because of FTLI, I believe I can do this. I don't have to be somebody who's well-known. But no matter what kind of change a person is going to make, it's not one person who does it. It's a whole community."

Cristalray and Jamie Dominguez of the South Side Cultural and Leadership Center agree and have pledged their continued support to make that change a reality.

Shooting Stars Cultural and Leadership Center is located at 807 Ross Ave. in Alamosa.

BREAK-OUT BOX:

Projects of the FLTI 2023 cohort

• Irene Gonzalez's "Story Unfinished" will start a support group for people who have lost someone to suicide and will be hosted at the center.
• As part of "Light up the South Side," Maricela Lucas is teaming up with the city manager to create a community outreach program.
• Dafne Ayala's "Little Chefs" project teaches cooking classes to youth. She's already held her first class at the center.
• Gabriela Bucio's "A Last Hope to a Safer Place to Learn" will bring awareness to safety in school, promote ways parents can collaborate with schools to make children safer, and provide titanium shields to all kids to protect themselves in the event of an incident.
• With "We Care, I Care," Cassandra Ayala will purchase and distribute hygiene products monthly to residents in need.
• With "Todas Unidas," Yoselin Villalba, who was a victim of assault, will start a self-empowerment group for women who have been abused, including classes in self-defense.
• "World Interpretation," started by Eulalia Pablo, will provide more interpreters in the community, especially in school.
• Cynthia Dominguez's "Bolsas de Emergencia or Blessing Bags" will be full of essential items for those in need.
• Samantha Gonzalez's "Levantalo or Pick-it-up" promotes cleaning up neighborhoods.