through march 2nd. the golden gate theater tickets on sale now at broadway sf.com. the forge, the forge door morgan hill would like to thank you for makg us the number one retail volume ford dealer in the entire bay area for another year. we're also celebrating our 20th year in business and being the number one ford dealer for 13 of those 20 years. customers choose the ford store, morgan hill because of our transparent, low, bottom line sale prices and knowledgeable staff. come experience what has made us the number one ford dealer for 13 years only at the ford store, morgan hill at round table pizza. our delicious new shareables are proving something to fight over. fiery japeno poppers, cheesy mozzarella sticks, and savory parmesan idaho potato wedges. damian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle," i'm damian trujillo, and today on the show, prosperity lab on your "comunidad del valle."

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ damian: we begin with a community collaboration for a bay area phone bank in regards to immigration. several groups are getting together for this important phone bank. with me today are christopher martinez with the spanish speaking citizens foundation and also maciel jacques, deputy director of, la raza, centro legal de la raza here on comunidad del valle welcome to the show. maciel jacques: thank you for having us. damian: thank you, i should also mention that the unity council is an important part of this as well, along with, telemundo 48 and nbc bay area. so all in collaboration, maciel, we'll start with you. how much is something like this needed a phone bank or we can answer a lot of questions.

maciel: i think right now it's especially important to have something like a phone bank given everything that's going on politically there's a lot of fear and we wanna be there and make sure that we're able to clarify a lot of the rumors that are out there and provide the community with all of the information--the correct information that they should know. damian: tell us, how busy the centro legal has been over the last month. maciel: yeah, so we're always very busy, but definitely in the last month the volume of calls has probably tripled or quadrupled. there are a lot of community members that wanna know about their rights, know about services or what, you know, i can or cannot do at this time. so we've definitely seen a huge increase in volume of calls. damian: yeah, and christopher, you're with the spanish speaking citizens foundation. tell us about your group. christopher martinez: yes, thank you. so the spanish speaking citizens foundation has been around since 1965, and we also provide immigration services, plus, english as a second language classes, citizenship class and

programs for youth, and our role in the rapid response hotline is going to be to provide additional legal services to really support the community in preventing becoming detained or becoming--or being deported through the use of preemptive legal services and so we're really happy to partner with centro legal on this because this is really a key area of a community need. there are not a lot of resources out there and the more resources that can come forward to help the community is really important at this time. damian: and how much, christopher, is your head on the swivel these days because things seem to be flashing before our eyes and changing from one minute to the next. christopher : oh, it's a constant thing. i mean, i think we all have to, excuse me, we all have to periodically just take a moment and, you know, take a breath and really take care of ourselves, but it is a constant just

fountains of information coming in and trying to assess all of the different orders and their impacts. and so, yeah, it's definitely a constant thing, but i think it's really important for us as community advocates to care of ourselves so that we can better take care of the people that we serve. damian: and same with you, right, maciel, because just this past week the president announced that those children receiving legal advice from some nonprofits that are funded by the federal government are supposed to be--that service is supposed to stop. and so same with you. i mean, things are changing from one day to the next. maciel: yeah, you know that that's what we've been saying from the last administration or trump administration he learned a lot and this is trump 2.0 and so now he's acting faster and has learned a lot of lessons to do more damage very quickly. so, yeah, there's a lot of things that are changing every day. damian: your best advice for folks at this point, and then at the next segment, we'll talk about the phone bank, but at

this point, what is your best advice for even those who might be in this country legally, but might have family members who are not? maciel: yeah, i think, well, one, you know, there's the bay area has a lot of legal services organizations around and one just know what your constitutional rights are. the constitution isn't only for citizens, it's for everyone in the united states, understanding what your rights are and making sure that you have all of your, you know, you have proof of your status or copy of proof of your status if needed. if you're out, understanding what your, you know, if you have a plan for your family for family preparedness in case anything happens, but just i would ultimately say is just understanding what your rights are and making sure that you and your family are prepared and know what they are just in case you do come in contact with ice. damian: and you are christopher like a counseling service as well, right? because, you know, these families might come in with the

legal questions that but then in the end, you're having to counsel them because of the trauma that they're going through. christopher : correct, and i think i wanted to just add to what maciel said is that it's also important for people to try to find out what legal remedies they might have, so not wait until, you know, unfortunately they may be facing with a possible enforcement action, but actually try to get a consultation from a licensed immigration attorney or an accredited representative beforehand so that they could see if they actually have a pathway to a lawful status. very important. but i think what's also important is what you just said to be here to listen to people because the trauma is very real and they are going through things that none of us, i think, can imagine. and so, to be able to provide them that support, but also to rely on our community partners. we have a lot of community partners that provide mental health support, organizations like la familia and the unity council, street level health project, and so many others that

we partner with that have really stepped up to help us really serve the community in a more holistic and coordinated way. damian: all right, well, this phone bank is taking place. it's gonna be big. it's in collaboration again with so many agencies including telemundo and nbc bay area. let's show you it's happening on march 5 from 5 to 6:30 pm. there are some of the many collaborators there that number you can probably get it from all of the websites from these organizations. we're not gonna put it up because it's not active right now. we don't want people calling and get nowhere, but we'll be back and wrap this up about this community phone bank when we continue here on "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

damian: and we're back here on "comunidad del valle" talking about the important phone bank that's gonna be taking place regarding all the immigration issues.

with us are christopher martinez, with the spanish speaking citizens foundation and maciel jaques, with the deputy director of centro legal de la raza. well, tell us about this phone bank, maciel. you will be there, your agency will be there along with all of these other agencies to answer as many calls as possible. maciel: yeah, we'll have representatives there from centro lega de la raza along with, you know, like christopher mentioned other legal services partners including spanish speaking citizens foundation and the purpose of the call or of the phone bank is like we mentioned earlier, make sure people understand their rights, you know, give referrals to different communities. cbos in their areas so that they're able to go somewhere to obtain a legal consultation and understand what their rights are. damian: and it needs to be big, right christopher, because the calls will be many, the questions will be a lot, and so the effort by your agencies and ours needs to be big. christopher: absolutely, i think we often forget that all

of the different issues that our community faces such as housing, education, health care, child care, mental health, all of these are connected to what we're experiencing right now. so it's not just immigration, it is really about all of the different resources that are available in the community. so we want everybody to know and we want everybody to access them and not be afraid. i think right now there's a lot of fear about accessing resources and we just want people to know that we're here and these are the places of welcoming and safety and really just feel free to reach out because i think that's the important thing where, you know, as it always says it takes a village and i think this is right now an opportunity for us to come together as a community. damian: and it seems like we've been getting two messages, maciel. we heard first during a campaign that there were going to be mass deportations and then at the end it changed to, well, we're gonna go after those who have criminal records.

but it seems like those who don't have criminarecords are being looped in right now with these apprehensions as well. is that what you're seeing? maciel: well, i think the fear is across the entire community and, you know, what we've been seeing is that ice is still doing their targeted enforcement in the community. as far as raids we in oakland we haven't seen any raids or anything like that, but there is still the ice activity that is under targeted enforcement and as far as priorities, you know, they've made a lot of statements. two weeks ago they removed the sensitive location policy that they had which was hospitals, schools and churches. so, you know, saying ice does have, you know, can go in there now and conduct business, which is a change, you know, a departure from what's been going on in the last 20 years i would say over 20 years. so i would just encourage everyone, you know, just to

everyone across the board, like, you know, like we mentioned earlier, make sure that you understand what your legal situation is. you can do that by getting a consultation, making sure that you have right cards on hand and that you understand what your rights are as--what your constitutional rights are as a resident. damian: and talk about the centro legal again. your involvement with this phone bank and the fact that you were able to come together so quickly and efficiently, less than a month into the administration with the collaboration with the unity council with telemundo and also with the spanish speaking citizens foundation to make su that this becomes a reality. maciel: yeah, well, we are all lucky enough to partner together all the time anyway. so, this was very organic coming together and making sure that we are doing what we can to help protect our communities. we all serve the same community and so it was no question that we should all get together and bring our resources together so that we're able to provide some important information to

the community. damien: and christopher, the importance of speaking with one voice, how important is it? i mean, you're here representing your agency, maciel is representing hers, but you're speaking as one voice right now. christopher: yes, i think that's what's missing right now and it's oftentimes feels can feel very overwhelming and, you know, a sense of despair and panic. and so we're here to say, as, you know, as one, that the community has rights, people have rights based, you know, constitutional rights that we all share and that people should really seek out help and that we're here to help them. and if people feel that they can't trust local organizations or they can't trust their government, the panic and fear is just gonna continue. i think, you know, one of the things that we've also seen is that campaigns of fear and panic, it's very easy to see some activity and automatically think that it is ice.

and so part of the hotline that is the role of the hotline is to help stop that misinformation, stop that t panic ancreate more power than panic. damian: all right, maciel, any final thoughts? maciel: yeah, just to, i encourage people to participate in the phone bank to please call and we'll, you know, we'll be able to provide them with really important information, especially now with everything that's going on, it really does make a difference when you understand what your rights are. damian: well, thank you both for your work on the front lines and you truly are on the front lines of this very important battle with so many people who are living in fear at this time. thank you so much. and again, this phone bank is taking place on march 5. we're going to share the information on who will be participating. it's on march 5 from 5 to 6:30 pm. and again, we can't share the number with you right now because it's not active at this point, but we will show it to you in the coming days. you can log on to those websites for those, agencies.

they will have it there as well. up next here on comunidad" del valle," prosperity lab. stay with us.

damian: prosperity labs is changing lives all across the bay area. mimi hernandez is the director of prosperity labs. she joins us now here on "comunidad del valle." welcome to the show, mimi. mimi hernandez: good morning, damian. damian: hi, how are you? welcome, and tell us about prosperity lab because you've been hping a lot of people become successful. mimi: yeah, we've been helping people that have a goal and the guts to go for it. so what we do is that we pathfind economic empowerment approaches, we provide mentoring, business skills training, digital training and we also operate a commercial kitchen to help folks in santa clara county, coastal san mateo, and northern san benito and salinas counties to make their business journey more pleasant and full of mortals. damian: the misconception might be, mimi, that you're helping

people open up their taquerias or their daycare center and that might be true in some cases, but you're high tech, you're helping folks in ai and computerization. mimi: so, you know, we're what you call it non-tech we use typically work with non-tech companies and bring them into bridging that digital divide. there's a lot of small businesses who are lacking the tools, in terms of cybersecurity, how to utilize the ai tools for their businesses. ai can be very, can be a very good tool and it can allow you to maximize the skill set that your team has. so we wanna make sure that people pick up those tools and we don't really emphasize one industry versus the other. but, you know, besides personal care, we work with a lot of construction with manufacturing. there's a wide gamut of businesses that not only latinos, but everyone in silicon valley is coming in and opening.

damian: and well, tell us, i know you can't be specific about some of the success stories, but there are a lot of success stories that you can bragag about. mimi: yeah, actually i feel very proud to have a team that can help people accomplish scaling food businesses. we have some businesses that have gone into a second location, others that have gone from pushing a little street food cart down our city streets into having a brick and mortar that employees, dozens of folks, local jobs. we have businesses that started a small machine shop and now bought two large warehouses in the central valley. so there's certainly--our goal is to help people get started and get into a position where they can scale and have a business that can be passed down from generation to generation, creating that prosperity that we all seek, especially here in silicon valley. damian: you mentioned that folks have to have, folks have the

guts to go for it, you said. you have to have ghanas, right? because if you're kind of half in it, you're not gonna be very successful. you have to go all in. mimi: yeah, you know, when you're an entrepreneur, there's a very unique situation that only you can understand and it is the pain of having to meet payroll and being responsible not just to the clients that you service, but to the families under your employment and the impacts that missteps can take in their lives. so i think yeah there's nothing like the pain of like, do you understand what it takes to make payroll to grow an organization to stabilize it, to innovate, to really be ready to be nimble and to pivot with market conditions and we saw that during covid. if you're a business during covid you have to learn to adapt and that's what we're hoping people can walk away from when they come and take part in our programs is that we're able to help them tap into being adaptable, market conditions

can change. we hope they can adapt to that and that they're able to really think big and grow their businesses. damian: well, let me go back to the taqueria concept. if i wanted to open one, how long would it take me before i walked in your doors and i'm walking out hopefully with the keys to my taqueria. mimi: well, depending how big you wanna make the taqueria and if you wanna sell, you know, in a mobile food. is it a truck, is it a custo type, like the ones you see in santa clara? is it a mezcal? so really i think if you have the capital ready for the size of project or business model that you wanna follow, i think most brick and mortar might vary, but i think within three months when you can walk away with a business after working with our team, having the ghanas and having a model that's identified. if you're still conceptualizing, of course it's gonna take longer, but if you have a very finite project that you think you can launch and with some help and some mentoring, i would

say three to six months. damian: and you mentioned the ghanas again and in ghanas, you have to keep the ghanas even when you do open up your brick and mortar store because it's gonna require six days a week, seven days a week, long hours at least initially to get it going. mimi: yeah, and i'll tell you most of the folks that we work with, they're not afraid of hard work, you know, but what we want them to work smart. so definitely the ghana's having that drive and that focus to stay because there's gonna be bumpy days when you're an entrepreneur. so we're hoping by being able to bridge that digital divide so they have the tools and the digital tools to help them that they have the business skills, the operational know-how, the access to the correct capital and having a marketing strategy, that they'll be able to survive market conditions, pandemics, construction disruption. you know, if you have a good plan when you are out sick, someone in your team should be able to run the business and

those are some of the things that we want people to walk away with. damian: all right, mimi hernandez is from prosperity lab. they're here in the heart of silicon valley. we're gonna show you their website for more information and up next we're gonna talk about the different, other programs that they might have there, but there is a website for more information, training g future entrepreneurs. we'll be back and wrap it up with prosperity lab here on "comunidad del valle," stay with us.

damian: and we're back here on "comunidad del valle" with mimi hernandez of prosperity lab. any other programs that you're offering there, mimi, you kind of touched on a lot of them in our last segment, but anything, any other programs that you have there at prosperity lab? mimi: well, you know, we're constantly developing new programs. right now we have a partnership with eso ventures and west valley college. we have a pre-encupadora and actually the incubation program after that. this is a program that starts on march 4, the first set is going to go in spanish and it's for folks who have an idea of a business and would like to be able to learn to conceptualize

it a little bit more. those are gonna be held on tuesdays and they'll be--you can call our office at 408-547-3190 and find out a little bit more. and then the following month the actual [speaking spanish] so people who have sales, who have their permits and would like to be able to pick up more business skills will be continuing the classes on tuesdays in collaboration with west valley college. after that class is concluded, you'll be able to access low interest loans and grants from the sco interest fund. damian: and you, i mean, you can't do it all without funders, right? and funders whether it be the city, the city also benefits because now they get new businesses, they get that tax, business tax revenue, but funders are a big part of the success of prosperity lab. mimi: correct, damian, you know, early on, we opened two weeks before the pandemic started. we had to really quickly pivot our programs, but we do receive funding from the county for office of labor standards

and enforcement. the city of san jose supports us. the economic development department worked with us tirelessly. they fund some of our technical assistance that we're able to provide. the businesses in san jose, they empower us through mee. the county of santa clara has invested early on in the incubation program and, you know, we do receive some private funding from, you know, private foundations. i don't have the permission to name them, but i think we do have a diversity of funding coming in. i believe people have early on invested in our vision to create multi-generational wealth that can be passed on and, yoyou kno, economic mobility is definitely one of the best vehicles. that we can use to just uplift the communities overall. we're also always looking for companies that wanna come in and

support if they are interested in learning about how do i invest in local programs that are successful that help folks that are trying to get a leg up. so if you are interested in helping the sources, so if you have a volunteer time for a digital [speaking spanish] we would love to have you contact our office as well. damian: do you have in your office a bell and you ring that bell whenever a new business opens after graduating from prosperity lab or they open a second and a third business, you ring the bell and everyone celebrates. mimi: actually, we do a cheerleader kick, but more than anything, i think, you know, sometimes we're busy doing the work and when we do get those, we do record progress because, you know, i believe data is king and we're able to see whether the work that we're doing is it impactful, what are we accomplishing not just beyond just facilitating some classes and helping folks once in a while, we do wanna make sure that we are doing is impactful, that it makes a difference so we do measure.

at this point we are about to release our impacts 2024, report. so you can look for that next week, but you know it's gonna be able to recocord the nber of jobs created, the jobs that were saved through working with us, how much funding was able to be raised, and then also how much money wainvested into businesses as well as about the 71 businesses that we were able to help start last year. damian: all right, well ring that bell. any final thoughts, mimi, before i let you go? mimi: no, just i definitely wanna make sure i thank my mom and my dad 'cause they are my life, and then just kudos to my team and their families who put up with their crazy hours and are really dedicated to changing lives and helping people with ghanas. damian: all right, well, in the middle of all this chaos that we're going through in life, right now, it's great to get some great news and thank you, mimi, for providing that for our viewers here on "comunidad del valle." thank you.

all right, mimi hernandez again with prosperity lab. they're here in the heart of silicon valley. their website is there on the screen, training the future entrepreneurs all across the bay area. well, if you want to get a hold of us around "comunidad del valle," you can follow me on instagram. my handle is @newsdamiantrujillo. there on the screen is also my email address. either way, we'll get your thoughts and ideas on to the next show. we thank you for being a part of our sunday once again and here on "comunidad del valle." we'll see you back here once again next week with some more important topics, [speaking spanish]