Today we’d like to introduce you to Mirjana Rodriguez.
Hi Mirjana, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My story with Escondido Education COMPACT began as a sophomore in High School. I stumbled upon them when I was looking to complete some community service hours, and what I found was a group of caring individuals who wanted to be really invested in my success and really sought to be my community – and that’s what they became.
When I needed advice or support, especially as I got closer to thinking about higher education, they were there to give me all the support and knowledge that my parents would have wanted to give me but couldn’t because they didn’t have knowledge of all the minutia revolving the higher education system in this country.
When I sought employment, they were there with their Workforce Programs to open the doors to my chosen industry sector. When I left for college, I was filled with a conviction that whatever my path, whatever my experience – I would aim to position myself in situations where I could be that support for other youth and families in need.
That path took me to Hawaii and Oakland and Missouri and Florida, and New York, and finally, it brought me back home to the city where I grew up and the agency that took me in. Some of the staff might have changed, but their heart and their faithfulness has remained consistent. I am especially honored to be the Program Director over Community Wellness and Safety Programs and Workforce Development and to be serving the families of this community because those were the programs that first assisted me and my family.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nothing in the World of Nonprofits is ever smooth – thankfully, it’s always rewarding … otherwise finding people to work with you would be much harder.
There are, of course, the hardships you would expect. Nonprofits are generally sustained through grants which always have an expiration date and are hard won through a competitive grant writing and interview process. As we are smaller – that writing is done by a small administrative team, who also has to continue performing their contractual obligations, supervising staff, making sure the work is being completed while also trying to secure the employment and livelihoods of those who have chosen to do this work with us. We have won some, and we have lost some, and through it all, even when we lost our biggest Workforce contract that we had for over 20 years, a contract that paid for, at that time, half of our staff, a contract that we had excelled in – our team and specifically our Executive Director, Patricia Huerta made sure that we were able to retain not only the staff but similar services in this community.
We have definitely seen some hard, hard days, but none worse that the times we have be present at the funerals of our youth. Over the last 35 years of service that our agency has dedicated to serving At-Promise youth and their hard-working families, we have seen 7 youth pass, which is 7 too many. Too many lives have been taken from us through pointless violence, too many youth full of life and love and promise whose stories came to an abrupt and tragic end. Their memory is what motivates us to work and work the harder to share our message that our youth and families can only be as healthy as the communities they belong to. That is why we seek to be that community liaison. And I am proud to say that in Escondido, that we have a community that has helped us take up the mantle. We were created in 1989 from a deep, shared love and concern for our community by the City of Escondido, our two school districts, EUSD and EUHSD, and the Chamber of Commerce, and together with them, we aim to continue to be the expression of that love and concern for every family we work with.
So, the struggles are real, and they are daily, but so is the commitment by our agency and community to overcome.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Program Director of Workforce Development and Community Wellness and Safety Programs. Which means that any contract and program that falls under that category is under my supervision and oversight, meaning our Workforce Programs our Active Transportation Programs, our School to Career Services, and our Drug-Free Communities Programming. It also means that if there are areas in the community where they may be gaps in these services that I advocate for and pursue future funding opportunities to bring those services to our community. I am lucky that I have a team of both talented and passionate leaders committed to doing this work alongside us, and that is what (or, more correctly, who) I am most proud of. The individuals who come every day and go above and beyond to help our families and youth. The Case Managers who do home visits, school visits and who help transport, while also helping them navigate services. The Program Manager who will sub in and work the line of direct care staff in an after-school setting at our Achievement Center. The group facilitators who set aside their own feelings to help youth with theirs. Because we believe that our families and youth deserve high-quality programs.
As far as distinction, in my estimation, it has been centralized services. We have long held a “no wrong door” policy that we have instilled in our team. Meaning that if we don’t have a program or service to meet your needs, we can at least make sure to guide you to who that may be and that is because we believe that we need to reduce the barriers surrounding families getting actual care and support.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
It’s long been our belief that we will not change with the industry pace, instead we will hear from our community what services and needs they have and advocate from there. A huge example of that was our youth homeless services, which is a fairly new component to us that arose from our everyday interactions with youth and finding that a lot of them lacked secure housing resources, and once we saw the uptick, we started to design and craft what our response would be and we have been lucky enough to find partners in this work to sustain those efforts.
What I can say is that as an agency, we are looking to centralize our services in one main location, and we are looking to expand our Workforce Development, Drug Prevention, and Clinical Services departments specifically to help mitigate the community needs we are seeing at the moment.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.educationcompact.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eecompact?igsh=MzY1NDJmNzMyNQ==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educationcompact/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/escondido-education-compact/
- Twitter: @EECOMPACT
