ED&I Hub | Diversity Fellow Project, Faviola Martinez de Estrada

Building Meaningful Community Connections (Martinez de Estrada)

Building Meaningful Community Connections (2222 K) Download

Project Narrative

1. Please describe your activities during your Fellowship experience. Describe your final capstone project(s).
The opportunity to become a Diversity Disability Fellow allowed me to receive funding to support my work as the co-founder in La Red Latina Educacion Temprana Minnesota, which serves close to 300 in-home child care providers and family members in the Latino community in the Twin Cities area. My project with the Diversity Disability Fellowship involved my La Red co-founder and partner, Ruth Evangelista, as well as public health graduate student, Carolina de la Rosa Mateo.

We worked together to survey our network to see what information they had about children with disabilities, and how much confidence they had in supporting families. Then we planned training sessions about those topics. Carolina and I worked with Jen Hall-Lande (MN LTSAE Ambassador) to create a day-long session on special education, especially on Shaken Baby Syndrome, SIDS, and about early signs for getting referrals and supports for children with disabilities. We have plans to make more sessions in fall after school starts and we continue to work together with MNLEND and LTSAE MN.

2. Who did your project inform, help, influence or impact? (UCEDD, individual, community, state) How?
I think my project helped the change minds of the community members in La Red to thinking more empathetic and helpful to children with disabilities and their families. They learned to understand and be more helpful for children who may behave different behavior or needs and not to get angry with kids who have disabilities. I think we could help them be better childcare providers and help more children grow up stronger. We also helped our university partners learn more about the Latino community and be respectful of our leadership style and mission for our organization.

3. Why did you choose to work on that project(s)?
Because I am the parent of a young adult man with an intellectual disability, I am passionate about people supporting him and people with similar disabilities and that they have a chance to belong and be supported in their communities. I want to change attitudes and help families like mine.

4. What did you gain from being a Diversity Fellow?
I gained the chance to be a leader in disability for my community and share my knowledge with them. I can also help families navigate services and supports and fight for them.

5. How will this experience impact your education or career decisions?
I will continue to partner with MNLEND and ICI (LTSAE/ADDM) for grant funding so we can continue to educate the community and teach the government to be more culturally competent as well. I also plan to continue to attend some LEND sessions and I am taking an online course for certification in psychology called Psychological First Aid for Migrants, Refugees, and Displaced Persons, so I can help our network around mental health and trauma. This is very important for our community and families right now, and I want to be a strong support for families, especially families from the migrant and refugee communities.

6. What are your future goals? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
I want to continue the study and learn and hope to gain my Associate degree here in the U.S., but I need support to navigate the education systems, so I will ask for support from the MNLEND family and LTSAE network through our community work together. I hope to have credentials to be a community systems navigator for families who speak Spanish. I am also excited to learn from other communities who share similar challenges and barriers to access supports and services.

7. What recommendations do you have for other fellows?
If they want to help, they really need to focus and be really friendly to other trainees because everyone is different with different values, cultures, languages, and beliefs. But we can support each other if we keep an open heart and mind.