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Mr. Ignacio Salazar,
President & CEO |
Friends and honored guests, it is indeed a pleasure to welcome you to the closing event of our 43rd Annual Conference.
The theme of our conference “No Worker Left Behind" is consistent with our stated mission to prepare our constituency, "to successfully meet the needs of today’s labor market and to compete for and attain gainful employment."
As I look out there tonight, I see a gold mine …the experience, expertise, knowledge and other resources in this room alone…spans hundreds of years producing extraordinary results!
Last year, SER touched approximately one million individuals in 19 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The network had a total operating budget exceeding 200 million dollars. As you know, SER prepares qualified workers for the job market; prepares young people for the future and helps countless families move towards fulfilling careers and self sufficiency.
SER is great because its people are great and tonight we recognize that. To our affiliate directors throughout the country Thank You!
To our affiliate directors recognized during the conference; Linda Rivas of San Antonio, our host, Becky Mendibles of Fresno, California and Rachel McDonald Romo of Chicago. We extend a very special and very sincere thank you for outstanding achievement this past year…. They make such a huge difference!
Let us always remember that... If we work marble, it will perish…if we work upon brass, time will efface it…if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust…but if we work upon immortal minds and instill into them just principles, we are then engraving upon tablets which no time will efface, but will brighten and brighten to all eternity.
This is what SER does!
Today we hear and see so much about the economic crisis. Everyone talks about the middle class crisis and the upper class excess. Missing totally in any debate is a discussion about the working poor and the disenfranchised.
Everyone in this room probably knows about the poor because we care about all of god’s children... Not just the rich or fortunate. It seems like no one speaks on behalf of the poor, the less educated and those
less fortunate. In today’s world it matters little if you happen to be born poor and didn’t have all the opportunity to make it in the global economy.
We see the results everywhere. Our prisons are overcrowded; the number of unemployment claimants is epidemic. The number of out of wedlock births is skyrocketing while the dropout rate reaches a new high every year. Clearly we can do better as a nation. Clearly we can do better as people who care.
When everyone turns their back to the problems of the poor...SER does not. When everyone shuns dropouts and the educationally unprepared SER does not. We are the safety-net that keeps so many from giving up.
SER cares!
Because racism is perpetuated by and through an un-informed media… In remarks by ill-informed public figures….in commentaries by shallow political pundits, or in just routine conversations by ordinary people influenced by such people, a greater disservice would be hard to find because the characterization is false. Yet the media, politicians and pundits collectively shape the general public’s perception of today’s Latino and minority community.
Tonight we publicly thank our sponsoring organizations ... Lulac, and
The American GI Forum, for their leadership in making sure everyone remembers that we perform valuable service to the country every day and we do this with pride and professionalism.
The new census figures show Hispanics as the largest minority in the country and a population that is growing rapidly. It is generally known that Hispanics are hard working people; a population that has sustained itself through a strong work ethic, a spirit of self-responsibility, self- improvement and self-pride. A collective of hard working individuals that indeed, makes up the American fabric and the success of this country.
A report entitled “Characteristics of the Employed” provides an excellent representation of the key role that Hispanics have played in the building of our nation, Hispanic immigrants in particular, have in many respects, been the working hands of America. We have been masons, bricklayers, tilers, and glazers...maids, care givers, farmworkers, and cooks.
Hispanics poured the concrete and laid the bricks used to build homes,
office buildings and skyscrapers. This group of hard working people layed the railroad, worked in the steel mills, put down the carpet, plastered the walls, built the roofs, and operated the machines that drive America.
They mowed the grass, trimmed the trees, picked up the trash, washed the dishes, and made the beds. Latinos have planted and picked the crops, as well as prepared the food that feeds this nation. We have cleaned and scrubbed private homes, nursing homes, schools, and office buildings, Hispanics care for the children, the elderly, the indigent… and on and on and on.
Following Hispanic heritage month and looking forward, it is important to remember that...
● The number of Latino college graduates has tripled during the last 20 years.
● Latino astronauts in the NASA program have explored outer space.
● Latinos lead the nation in three of four major socio-economic categories.
● Rate of population growth...business development...and political empowerment.
Today we are growing six times faster than general population...
2010 = 50 million
2040 = 100 million
● Latinos are creating businesses 3 times faster than the general population.
● In the U.S. today, one out of every four children under the age of five is Hispanic Latino.
● Births among Hispanic women living in the U.S. today exceed one million per year.
As we look to the future, we need to address critical areas of importance. We have proclaimed our faith in education as a means of equalizing the conditions of men and women. However, there is grave danger that our present policy will make it an instrument for creating the very inequalities it was designed to prevent.
If the ladder of educational opportunity rises high at the doors of some youth and scarcely rises at all at the doors of others; while at the same time formal education is made a prerequisite to occupational and social advancement, then education may become the means, not of eliminating race and class distinctions, but of deepening and solidifying them.
More and more our world is evolving into a place where the wealth of nations will be determined not by what they find beneath their feet, but what they find between their ears. Developing our human capital will be our single most effective strategic weapon for improving our competitive edge. The rate of change has reached epic proportions. We cannot always foresee what knowledge we will need in later years to meet life’s challenges and problems. We can, however, develop attitudes and abilities that will help us to meet future situations creatively.
Remember, we can’t have a world-class economy without a world-class workforce, and you can’t have a world-class workforce without world-class schools. Demographers tell us that our American workforce is shrinking every year. Every year it is harder and harder to find appropriately trained people to fill new and existing positions.
Knowing that mature workers are a relatively untapped portion of the workforce, SER has committed to going above and beyond the usual community service preparation by providing our participants with powerful, life-changing training that gives them a full “toolkit” of strategies to use on the job.
Across the nation this year, SER enrolled over 3,000 participants in SCSEP. We are ensuring that our corporate partners are well-informed about the many benefits of employing older workers through our generational diversity awareness training. We are doing everything possible to give our participants the best employment training possible, so that they can participate in and contribute to the national economy and so that they can retain their dignity and self-esteem. We are so proud of the SCSEP program and the valuable contributions they continue to make in society.
This past year SER made Financial Literacy a priority. This topic is certainly one that individuals from throughout the country and at the highest levels of government are taking seriously. Everyday we see and hear reminders that this economic fallout, we are currently experiencing, is touching all levels of society.
The current crisis is far from over, but one thing remains clear that the need for changes in our products and disclosures needs to be revamped and the delivery of financial literacy training at all levels needs to be greatly enhanced. Today Hispanics pay more for credit than the general population, educated or not, higher income or not.
This must change to keep our communities strong and our nation strong. Hispanics continue to be the most unbanked and a unique market that requires unique responses. Traditional and non-traditional methods of reaching this market are necessary if we are to be successful.
We’ve come a long way in building both workforce competitiveness in our community as well as the mechanisms for increasing personal wealth. It is our close tie to communities like the ones that you all come from that helped us to see that building employment skills and helping community members to find jobs they could be successful in was not enough.
It helped us to see that having money in one’s pocket did not necessarily translate to knowing how to navigate what is becoming an ever more complex financial world. It is a sad paradox that the underserved in our community, those people who by definition are not the ones engaging fully if at all in the financial mainstream, are also the ones facing the highest barriers to understanding that complexity. It is for that reason that SER launched a financial literacy program last year in partnership with several representatives of the financial industry. We implemented a dual-language curriculum that covered topics ranging from homeownership, money management, planning for a child’s education and so on.
This year we have refined that program and expanded our partnerships to include federal agencies like the SBA and to initiate delivery-methods that incorporate more sophisticated e-learning tools so that participants get their share of financial knowledge even as they build key technology skills that will earn them a spot in the workforce of the future. Let’s remember that the goal of financial literacy should not be a party issue… but a people issue.
As I begin to close, remember that, the greatest asset of a person, a business or a nation is faith. The men and women who built this country and those who made it prosper during its darkest days were people whose faith in its future was unshakable. Persons of courage, they dared to go forward despite all hazards; people of vision, they always looked forward never backward. It is the constructive spirit of faith as opposed to the destructive forces of doubt that will preserve our way of life.
At SER, No Worker Left Behind means that we do not let our youth fend for themselves in environments too often overcome by illiteracy, joblessness, poverty, drugs and violence.
No Worker Left Behind means that as long as the high school drop out rate is too high and too many of our future workers are at risk of permanent unemployment or underemployment our work is not done.
No Worker Left Behind means that as long as a great nation like ours has a disproportionate skills shortage that we must do more to provide hard skills such as computer training and soft skills such as professional development and proper interviewing techniques so that they will have a chance to succeed.
No Worker Left Behind reaffirms our strong conviction that as long as women especially minority women encounter the glass ceiling our work is not done.
No Worker Left Behind means that we will work harder to ensure that the faces of all Americans are represented in upper management and in corporate board rooms.
Latinos will change the way we as a country move towards greater good as a nation and as people. The first Hispanic/Latino president of the United States has been born. And she… or he… will lead in the time of greatest need for this country.
The tasks before us are vast...the problems difficult....the challenges unparalleled, but we carry with us the vision of a new and better world and the unlimited power of free men and women guided by free governments and I believe that our ultimate success will make us proud to have lived and worked at this historic moment.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of the challenges ahead for African Americans and for all people of color in effecting change. One of the biggest challenges, he said, is organizing our strength in terms of economic and political power. Today, African Americans and Hispanics together comprise about 30 percent of the total U.S. population.
Our purchasing power collectively, exceeds one point five trillion dollars. Today, we have the political and voting power to determine elections …and to build a new America.
Dr. King said …
“Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem, but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity.”
We have not only the strength, but we have the obligation, to create a better America….a stronger America for our children…an America that is built on the beauty, the richness, and the strength of diversity.
We have come a long way. We have advanced from magic and ritual to reason and logic…from superstitious awe to technological confidence…from localized ignorance to generalized knowledge…from uncertainty to science…from subsistence to comfort…from disease to health. We live in the best of all possible worlds, at this latest state in the ascent of the human race.
Each of us has more power at a fingertip than a roman emperor. It seems that barring mishaps and temporary setbacks the way ahead lies inevitably onward and upward towards even further discovery and innovation. To make a nation truly great a handful of heroes capable of great deeds at supreme moments is not enough. Heroes are not always available and one can often do without them, but it is essential to have thousands of reliable people – honest citizens – who steadfastly place the public interest before their own.
Like the people of SER do.
Everywhere I go throughout the country I meet people who were touched by SER because you said no worker would be left behind. They all thank me on your behalf because you did not give up on them. They have proven to be people of worth making valuable contributions in society because you love what you do! Because you do what you love. You help people see the future with promise, optimism and hope.
John f. Kennedy once said …“it is the task of every generation to make it better for the next” …that is our challenge.
We can pave the way for an exciting prosperous future for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. Together we can move from thought to action…
Let us tell our young people that the best books are yet to be written the best paintings have yet to be painted; the best governments are yet to be formed; the best is yet to be done – by them!
Finally, let us remember that tonight is no time for a commitment... But a time for a covenant… reaching for a higher level because that’s what SER does…So that No Worker is Left Behind.
Muchisimas gracias y un fuerte abrazo a todos! |
