ANDARES Celebrates its Second Anniversary
This May, ANDARES celebrated its second anniversary. As we look back at our short history, our hearts fill with emotion, pride, and hope for all we have accomplished and for an even brighter future. In March 2024, finding themselves between jobs, Ricardo Contreras and Gabriela Orellana, both former colleagues at another community-based organization, started to think about creating an organization that would serve the Latino community from a perspective that would first and foremost value and build upon the rich history and culture of the people who immigrated from Latin America and settled in Linn, Benton, and Lincoln Counties. Encouraged by colleagues from the nonprofit world who firmly believed in our capacity to carry on such an endeavor, ideas slowly took shape. The literature on community development illuminated our thinking, particularly the work around asset-based community development, and the research and practice on the subject from institutions such as the Asset-based Community Development Center at DePaul University and the Canadian Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement.
As ideas evolved, sometime in April Ricardo reached out to Elizabeth Zepeda and Keiri Lopez-Rosel, both also former colleagues and invited them to join in the journey. With her experience as a board member of nonprofits, Liz was the right person to lead the board of directors of the nascent organization and Keiri, having led leadership building projects in the past, was the right person to implement projects following the asset-based community development framework at the center of our new organization. Next, we had to come up with a name, not an easy task. Different names came to mind, but we settled with ANDARES, because that word from the Spanish language denotes the movement across geographic and metaphorical borders and boundaries that characterizes the Latino community with which we work.
On May 23rd 2024, Ricardo walked into the Oregon Secretary of State office in Salem to register ANDARES. The articles of incorporation listed Ricardo as the registered agent, Liz as the Board President, Keiri as the Board Secretary, and Gabriela as the Board Treasurer. We opened a bank account and the four of us deposited our first donations, adding to about 100 dollars. The first, and easy part of our history was already behind us. Now the hard work began. The Board offered Ricardo the ad honorem job of Executive Director, with the task of establishing the organization’s organizational infrastructure, partnering with an organization that would serve as our fiscal sponsor, and establishing a financial basis that would make ANDARES sustainable for at least the next year. Through good fortune and hard work, we started our journey successfully: The Linn Benton Lincoln Health Equity Alliance accepted to be our fiscal sponsors (papers were signed in September 2024). Moreover, we partnered with the Small Business Development Center at the Linn Benton Community College to help a group of Latino micro-entrepreneurs apply for a City of Corvallis grant to establish a food truck pod. The City of Corvallis grant application was successful, and our community impact started to be felt.
Motivated by this first success, we submitted grant applications to the Oregon Community Foundation, Benton Health Department, Linn County Public Health, the Benton Community Foundation, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), the InterCommunity Health Network CCO (IHN-CCO), and Northwest Oregon Works. With the funding obtained, we were ready to have our first paid staff. Ricardo received his first salary in November 2024 and hired Gabriela Orellana and Keiri Lopez to join the staff. The Board of Directors incorporated new members (Blanca Morgan, Iris Carrera, Carlos Zuleta, and Gustavo Esparza, respectively), and the staff grew by adding Lupita Flores, Marlin Perez, Damaris Hernandez, and finally Yolanda Cruz to the team. And, in October 2025, ANDARES received its 501c3 tax-exempt status from the IRS, rendering us independent.
The future of ANDARES is bright. This year we received the financial support of the Oregon Community Foundation, the Spirit Mountain Foundation, IHN-CCO, the Oregon Health Authority, the Collins Foundation, and signed sub-contractor agreements with the Linn Benton Community College, the Linn Benton Lincoln Health Equity Alliance and Conexion Fenix. This new (and renewed) funding has allowed us to continue our community building work in Harrisburg (Linn County), start working with the Mam community in Corvallis through a culturally-appropriate community mapping methodology, collaborate with other organizations in creating a youth council, provide socio-emotional well being support, expand our health and system navigation work, and continue offering English literacy, computer literacy, general skills trainings, and workshops on immigration.
Thank you to all of you for joining us in our journey!
