Voices JH connects immigrants with our community
By Rebecca Reimers
Voices JH estimates that nearly 20% of Teton County’s population is comprised of immigrants. That’s 6.4% greater than the national average, according to the 2021 Census.
Immigrants perform essential work in our community. Many were raised here.They are our friends and coworkers. And yet, very few have influence or hold leadership positions in our community. Voices JH, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is on a mission to change that.
Voices was born at the start of the pandemic from a working group of nonprofits convened by the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. We all experienced fear and insecurity during the pandemic, but those concerns were amplified for immigrants.
“Immigrant community members were particularly impacted by the pandemic shutdown, as many could not qualify for stimulus checks or unemployment. Voices was initially founded to build awareness of local resources that were available to immigrants, and to ensure that people felt safe accessing those services,” said Jordan Rich, executive director.
The immigrant leaders who stepped up to help their community during that critical crisis moment included Blanca Moye, Elizabeth Perez, Tina Babis, Nicolae Botan, Miriam Morillon, Marcela Badillo and Roney de la Cruz. The working group hired these individuals to deliver public health and resource information to immigrant households via text, WhatsApp and social media. Thus, Voices JH was formed.
“Our community values immigrants for their basic labor, but does not activate the fullness of their talent, capacity and voice,” Rich emphasized. “We address this by holistically working with local institutions and immigrant communities to serve as an activator of immigrant social capital.”
At this point readers may be wondering what any of this has to do with Silicon Couloir. As it turns out, a lot. At the Couloir, we recognize that nonprofits are businesses, too. While the goals may be different, nonprofits share a similar structure and often face the same challenges as for-profit businesses. With more than 200 nonprofits in Teton Country, we also appreciate the essential contribution these organizations make to our economy. With this in mind, in July 2022 we started a pilot program to incorporate nonprofits into TEAMS, our highly successful mentoring program. Voices was the first nonprofit accepted.
“TEAMS has been a huge support in helping Voices grow our internal infrastructure,“ Rich said. “As a nonprofit that acquired 501(c)(3) status this summer, having experts to help us navigate organizational systems has been transformative for our learning.”
Prior to joining TEAMS, Rich was a student in Start-Up Success, our intensive educational program designed to help new entrepreneurs (or executive directors) form the needed vision, values and practical skills to succeed. “SUS helped Voices articulate for the first time our problem, our impact and our solution,” Rich said.
Impressively, Voices has grown its budget by 25% since first working with Silicon Couloir, and hopes to add a third staff member within the next year.
Voices continues its mission today to engage and empower the immigrant communities of the Teton region. Clients are from 15 countries and speak 10 languages. The organization has established a new network of information and connections, making it possible for entities and agencies to reach immigrant communities. In fact, Voices is a unique model in the nation, and one that is potentially scalable in communities throughout the country.
Says Voices client Cristina Silva Garcia, “The impact of Voices is that they want to lift us up and they want us all to have true involvement here. And that we all have this experience — to have trust and a little bit of support from Jackson.”
Anyone involved with a nonprofit organization that could benefit from free expert business mentoring should visit SiliconCouloir.com/teams-mentoring to learn more about the program and apply.