The Latina Initiative (LI), dedicated to cultivating, supporting and maintaining the civic involvement of Latinas across Colorado, has announced that Dusti Gurule, its Executive Director since 2004, will be leaving her position at the end of August 2010. During her tenure, Ms. Gurule has led LI to a national leadership position among non-profit organizations dedicated to Latino civic engagement. She has received national and local recognition for her work and was named one of ’50 for the Future’ by The Colorado Statesman in 2007, one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century by Womens ENews, and Mujer de Impacto by the Latina Chamber in 2009.
News
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New Projects at Latina Initiative
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Women's Appointment Project
Purpose
To increase the number of women in high-level appointed positions in Colorado’s state government
Rational
Nearly 100 years after their right to vote was finally acknowledged, women are 52 percent of our population but only 17 percent of Congress. We’re still waiting for our first female president, vice president, or Senate majority leader. It’s not just that a healthy democracy needs to be truly representative. Solving the complex problems of 21st century America requires political leadership, experience, and wisdom that draws on all of our resources—not just 50 percent of them.
To begin to resolve this inequity, the Colorado Women’s Appointments Project is set to launch on Friday, June 25, 2010. This project will identify qualified women for high-level appointed positions within new governors’ administrations. The project will also provide governors and their transition teams with the names and résumés of these qualified female candidates for consideration after the election.
In order to raise awareness about the need for gender parity in state administrations, the Colorado Women’s Appointments Project will be asking their Colorado’s gubernatorial candidates to sign a pledge promising that they will make their best effort to appoint women to 50 percent of the high-level positions in state government. Additionally, a high-level liaison from their administration will be identified to work with the Colorado Women’s Appointments Project on an ongoing basis after the election.
Currently, women represent approximately 26% of the high level gubernatorial appointments. Our goal is to bring that closer to 50% with our next administration, but we need your help!!
Coalition Partners
- Latina Chamber of Commerce
- Women’s College at DU
- Women’s Foundation of Colorado
- Colorado Latino Forum
- 9to5 National Association of Women
- The White House Project
- Mi Casa Resource Center for Women
- Denver Women’s Bureau
- Colorado Hispanic Bar Association
- Colorado Women’s Bar Association
- CWEE, Center for Work Education and Employment
- Alliance of Professional Women
Steering Committee
Dolores S. Atencio: Garcia Calderon Ruiz, LLP
Gale Berry
Jody Camp: Women’s Foundation of Colorado
Juanita Chacon: Latina Initiative
Ledy Garcia Eckstein
Katie Groke Ellis: The White House Project
Laurie Harvey: Center for Work Education and Employment, CWEE
Christine Marquez Hudson: Mi Casa Resource Center for Women
Vicki Lovato: Colorado Women’s Bar Assoc.
Linda Meric: 9to5 National Association of Working Women
Rep. Karen Middleton: Colorado State Legislator
Rosemary Rodriguez: State Director US Senator Michael F. Bennet
Pamela Scharf: Towers Watson
Theresa Solano: Latina Chamber & The Women’s College of DU
Megan Van Ens: Colorado Civic Engagement Roundtable
Stephanie Villafuerte: Rocky Mntn Children's Law Center
Faith Winter: Colorado Women in Government
DPS adjusts for $42 million cut in funding, The Denver Post
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Anticipating at least $42 million in state funding cuts for the next school year, Denver Public Schools administrators are calling for salary freezes, a reduction of 3.5 percent in every school budget and less money for special education.
No widespread teacher layoffs are expected for 2010-11, but targeted layoffs are likely, said David Suppes, DPS chief operating officer, in a presentation to the school board Wednesday.
"It's impossible to think at this level of cuts there won't be jobs lost," Suppes said.
Throughout the state, school districts are beginning difficult discussions about their budgets as Colorado faces its worst revenue downturn since the Great Depression.
Advocates push change in working conditions for isolated immigrant sheepherders, LAtimes.com
Thursday, January 14, 2010
WAMSUTTER, Wyo. (AP) — Alone and thousands of miles from home, the immigrant sheepherder roams some of the West's most desolate and frigid landscapes, tending a flock for as little as $600 a month without a day off on the horizon.
"You take it or leave it. You take it because the economy is worse at home," Pepe Cruz, a 40-year-old Peruvian, said in Spanish.
Cruz is one of hundreds of immigrants from South America, Mexico and Nepal who work as sheepherders in states like Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and California, and their brutal work conditions are getting increased attention these days.
Poor treatment of immigrant sheep herders alleged, The Denver Post
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Immigrant sheepherders from South America working in western Colorado routinely are paid low wages and live in small campers without electricity or toilet facilities, according to a report to be released today.
However, officials with the sheep industry vehemently dispute the report's findings, calling them anecdotal and unsubstantiated.
The report by Colorado Legal Services was based on interviews over two years with 93 of the estimated 300 immigrant sheepherders working in the state under H-2A visas.
The workers, mostly from Peru, are brought in to work for up to three years herding sheep.
But there are few safeguards for the workers, the report said.
"A lot of the actual shocking stuff is allowed under current law," said Jennifer Lee, a Colorado Legal Services attorney who oversaw the report.
A 35-year-old replay on school suspensions - The Denver Post, Tina Griego
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
A quiz.
In what years were the following written:
A) "Racial gaps in suspensions — Black public-school students in Colorado are nearly three times as likely to face serious discipline as their white peers, a disparity that is persistently growing despite efforts to curb it. . . . Expressed as a rate, 18 of every 100 black students and 11 of 100 Latino students faced serious discipline, compared with 6.5 out of 100 white students."
B) "Minority school suspensions a shocker — Suspensions last year of more than 47,000 students, including disproportionate numbers of black and Hispanic males, have prompted educators and policymakers to ask why. Nearly half of all black males in Colorado's middle and high schools were suspended last year, along with nearly a third of Hispanic males and one in every six white males."
C) "Suspensions impact some children more than others. While the largest numbers of suspended children are white, proportionately suspensions hurt more children who are black, poor, older and male. Most striking is the disparate suspension of black schoolchildren. They are suspended at twice the rate of any other group."
Legislature opens 2010 session with dueling over budget, The Denver Post
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The 2010 Colorado legislative session opened today with speeches from leaders of both parties that presaged the showdown over the state budget expected to dominate the next four and a half months.
And there were glimpses of other potential hot-button issues to come, ranging from stricter regulations on payday loans to placing tougher limits on initiative referendums.
Three new DPS boardmembers talk charters, Westword
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The future of charter schools in Denver looked bright in 2009. Despite voting to close P.S. 1 and Skyland Community High School charter schools because of sub-par academics, the seven-member Denver Public Schools board approved six new ones. They include the expansion of two existing, high-performing charters, as well as a host of new schools, including a language-immersion school and an all-girls' school focused on athletics.
But what will happen with charters in 2010 is less clear. The board has three new members whose stated opinions on charter schools have yet to be tested, and their votes could throw off the balance of the board that approved so many charters last year.
Tancredo proposes law that would require immigration-status checks of new hires, The Denver Post
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo wants every Colorado business to verify that new hires are U.S. citizens, a proposal that prompted cries of racism from critics.
Tancredo filed a ballot proposal Friday that would force the 2011 Colorado legislature to pass a law requiring businesses to use a federal program to check the immigration status of all newly hired workers.
The proposal is aimed for the 2010 ballot.
Report: Household-supporting jobs few in Colorado, Greeley Tribune
Friday, December 04, 2009
A new report released today shows that good paying jobs are in small supply throughout the West.
In Colorado, for every 15 people looking for jobs, there is only one job opening that will pay the $29.71 needed to support single parent with two children, according to the report released by the Northwest Federation of Community Organization.
Of all job openings in the state, less than a third offer a wage that could support a family, the reported noted. The report, The 2009 Job Gap: Searching for Work that Pays, also found that in 2009, job-seekers in Colorado have spiked by more than 50 percent.
“This report puts the struggles of job-seekers into clear focus, and points to the growing need for lawmakers in Denver and D.C. to take action to ensure that all Coloradans can find work that pays,” says Ben Hanna from the Colorado Progressive Coalition in a prepared release..
