About

About ENCLAVE

ENCLAVE's Background

ENCLAVE began January 2018 with as a group of individuals gathered together to discuss issues impacting the Spanish-speaking community. The conversations the group had were around existing non-profits, which were either closing or not fully meeting the needs of the community.

Furthermore, the group began a conversation with others about starting a new organization. They all gathered at a public library and created a set of questions that the group with members of the community at large answered together. All the ideas came from volunteers who wanted their input in what they want ENCLAVE to be and to do.

ENCLAVE's Mission

To empower the Spanish-speaking community, through the development and growth of their leadership, to help meet their basic needs in the physical, emotional and spiritual areas, through an understanding of Jesus’ teachings.

How ENCLAVE defines the 3 areas:

Physical

Liquidity in an individual’s income, or the flow of money a household has access to.

Internal search, to connect with an inner being. Not through rituals, but in thoughts…to understand and have a connection with a deity or the spiritual world.

Emotional

Having a healthy self-esteem and living with less stress and depression

Spiritual

ENCLAVE's Vision and Research

ENCLAVE's vision is that by focusing on the three areas mentioned above they can help the meet the unmet needs and equip the Hispanic and Latino community with the necessary tools to change their mentality in order to succeed and live meaningfully.

ENCLAVE understands that Hispanic and Latino communities are some of the most vulnerable communities in the US. They attribute this to many things including, the language barrier, lack of opportunities and little access to education that these communities have and have had historically.

Tefera & Griego (2012) conducted a report in southwest Albuquerque and explain that according to the 2010 U.S. Census (the most recent), statistics show that approximately 41,000 individuals lived in the southwest of Albuquerque. Out of those individuals, almost 80% were Hispanic and almost 22% were living below the federal poverty level, which was less than $23,050, for a family of four. Almost 53% of those individuals spoke a language other than English at home. The authors also add that comparatively, in 2010, Albuquerque’s population was 46.7% Hispanic,16% lived below the federal poverty level and 30% spoke a language other than English (p.5).

Arial view of southwest Albuquerque

In 2018 ENCLAVE conducted a needs assessment among the Hispanic and Latino community in the southwest Albuquerque in order to identify where the gaps in services are and what they can offer in the future. Below is a summary of their results. For the full report you may contact us at enclavenm@gmail.com.

Needs Assessment Questionnaire and Focus Group with six volunteers

ENCLAVE administered a needs assessment questionnaire during their First Annual Picnic event. The event took place in a park located in the southwest of Albuquerque, where close to l 100 individuals (including children) attended the event. ENCLAVE also conducted an Interactive Focus Group with 6 individuals who are either familiar with ENCLAVE or are currently attending their events. The participants were all Spanish speaking women whose ages varied from 35-70 years. The individuals were invited through a small announcement, made during one of ENCLAVE’s bi-weekly meetings and by word of mouth.

Spirituality services

Overall, ENCLAVE found that spirituality is important to individuals. The information collected makes it clear that some individuals are already going to agencies which provide services for spiritual guidance. However, they also found that many individuals are not satisfied with the spiritual services they are receiving and therefore are seeking more services in this area.

In the questionnaire one of the questions asked was: “how important is it for you to trust God?” Out of 33 responses 100% of individuals believe it to be important. When asked, what type

of services they are in need of, 18 individuals answered spiritual guidance and help with conflict resolution, followed by parenting classes and help with their self-esteem.

During the interactive focus group participants were also asked about spirituality. This question was answered in pairs “Do you believe that offering services related to the spiritual well-being of a person is important? Why or why not?” The six participants made it clear that offering these services is important to their community. These were some of their responses:

Participant 1

“Si porque todos necesitamos de un ser superior que nos guía en la vida.”

Yes, because we all need a superior being that guides us in life.

Participant 2

“Si, por que todo ser humano busca su identidad dentro de sí mismo y al buscarlo en el lugar incorrecto hay confusión y crea problemas en la Sociedad como violencia, drogas y se pierden los valores”Yes, because every human being looks for their identity within themselves and when they look for it in the wrong place there is confusion, and this creates problems in the society such as violence, drugs and values are lost.

Participant 3

“Si porque somos ser espirituales y tenemos que alimentar esa área de nuestras vidas.”

Yes, because we are spiritual beings, and must nourish that area of our lives.

Physical services

As mentioned above, ENCLAVE refers to a physical service as any service related to the liquidity of monetary gains for individuals. The organization asserts that this ultimately influences the body aspect (mind and health) of individuals.

Based on the results they found that most individuals believe they are doing well in this area already, but are seeking services related to finances, investments and starting businesses. Even though many individuals believe this area to be important to their community not many are receiving services at existing organizations which offer the physical services they are seeking.

“What services would you like ENCLAVE to offer the community?”

The number one answer was services related to finances: investment guidance, finance classes and starting their own business.

A similar questioned was asked about job-related assistance:

“Would you like help with these job-related activities?

35 individuals responded they want help “starting (their) own business and career/job training,” followed by 5, who said “looking for a job”.

Emotional services

ENCLAVE defines emotional well-being as helping an individual have as a healthy self-esteem and live with less stress and depression. Based on the results, I found that almost all individuals believe this aspect to be important. Some individuals are already receiving these types of services at other organizations, but most of them are not going anywhere to receive these services.

In the questionnaire respondents were asked about the importance of their emotional well-being. Out of 32 respondents, 91% answered that having a healthy self-esteem is important, while the 9% did not believe it was neither important or unimportant, no one answered unimportant.

Also, the respondents were asked about which types of services they need. Out of 29 respondents, 24% said they are currently going to an organization to receive services for emotional well-being.

The participants in the focus group were also asked a similar question about their opinions on the importance of offering emotional well-being services to their community. The question asked was

“Do you believe that our communities need help improving their self-esteem, living with less stress and depression, why or why not?”

Overall, all the participants believe it is important and the most common themes, which came up were: better family health, less lonely people, influence other areas of life and less suicide among youth.