For Immediate Release, January 2023

Danielle Luchtenburg | danielle.luchtenburg@mano-y-ola.com | (626) 818-9178

New Year’s Greetings from mano-Y-ola

A Look at Past Projects and Upcoming Endeavors

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

 

On behalf of the mano-Y-ola team, we hope your holiday season has been filled with happiness, peace, and good times. As we welcome the new year, we would like to take the opportunity to reflect on the past year and bring in 2023 with hope and enthusiasm. Reflecting on our company’s accomplishments in 2022, I am inspired by the diversity of our team's projects and the exciting directions we are heading.

 

On our Early Childhood Education side, we have completed another 15 Community Assessments, bringing our total count to 126. This year we have also spent time evaluating our processes and planning for future capabilities in providing Community Assessments (CAs). We are excited to announce our work in developing our CA database using the DOMO platform. According to our Co-President Maya McElrath, “Working with DOMO will allow us to create a more streamlined (and automated) way of collecting data, giving us the opportunity to go deeper into the analysis of the data and offer more targeted insights to our clients.” For the data nerds on our mYo team, this is very exciting news!

 

This past year, our company has also been working on transitioning our Cultivar Learning Network (CLN) into a new USDA/NRCS partnership entitled Hispanic Farmer Equity Outreach Program (HFEOP). The HFEOP is an educational and networking development program to empower and support rural and urban Latino communities nationwide. These communities are essential to the future of agriculture, food security, and protecting and conserving natural resources. Within this initiative, we are promoting the Talent Development of Hispanic/Latino youth through the Cultivar Learning Network, which helps to communicate information about agricultural business opportunities, USDA programs, services to protect the soil and our natural resources, and opportunities for increasing Latino participation in good-paying agriculture jobs and professions. Through the HFEOP grant, our team is excited to move into 2023 with plans to host several cohorts of virtual and in-person internships, hold our 5th Annual Hispanic Farmers and Agricultural Professionals Symposium, and partner with a diverse representation of Hispanic serving organizations to promote our CLN curriculum.

 

Additionally, mYo has sustained our partnership with the U.S. Forest Service’s Endowment for Forestry and Communities through continued grant funding for creating a Trusted Hub for Hispanic Forest Landowners (HFLOs). In 2022 we entered the second phase of this cooperative agreement, which is supported by mano-Y-ola’s previous work enumerating HFLOs nationally and beginning critical, on-the-ground work to understand the barriers to wealth creation and sustainable forestry implementation that exist within the Hispanic/Latino/a community. Currently, we are working to conduct an HFLO Needs Assessment, support the formation of an Advisory Collective, conduct outreach to identified communities, develop curricula, formalize partnerships, and increase the inclusion of HFLOs into the National Woodland Owner Survey.

 

Finally, on December 12th, 2022, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced the winners of the minority Climate Smart awards in Agriculture. mano-Y-ola’s partnership with VICTUS Puerto Rico was selected to implement Climate Smart outreach, education, and support in Puerto Rico and Florida, strengthening our collaboration with nonprofits supporting Hispanic Farmers and Landowners.

 

As you can see, we have been busy this year! One of our most critical and worthy accomplishments this year has been embracing the spirit of teamwork and working to support a shared sense of purpose. We have addressed challenges, communicated our goals and aspirations, continuously evaluated our ways of approaching and completing tasks, promoted open and honest ways of communicating, and, most admirably, grown closer as partners in working together. After all this, I can verify that we have embodied our company’s mission of helping each professional love what they do.  As we embrace 2023, I fully expect us to continue to live out this mission, thereby promoting our collective vision to multiply opportunities for success for leaders and agencies that serve their communities.

 

With that intention of vision and hope, I wish you all a Happy New Year.

 

Sincerely,

 

Molly Hass

Agricultural Development Specialist, mano-Y-ola

 

About our company — mano-Y-ola (formerly known as Nolo Consulting, LLC) is a minority- and female-owned consulting firm specializing in work with minority and immigrant farmer communities, early childhood education programs and leadership development.  The company’s mission is to help each individual professional love what they do.­­

Click Below for Past Press Releases and Spanish Versions 

Haga clic debajo para ver comunicados de prensa anteriores y versiones en español

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