MILPA prevents violence with wraparound support for Latinx youth and families

Milpa is an agricultural system originating in Mesoamerica that uses a single field to grow a variety of crops. The crops support one another, nutritionally and environmentally, so farmers do not have to use artificial fertilizers or pesticides. Nothing gets wasted, and everything nourishes something else.

The spirit of milpa is at work in Latino Network’s Youth Empowerment and Violence Prevention programming.

Founded in 1996, Latino Network serves immigrant communities, communities of color, and Latinx communities that face barriers threatening their right to self-determination. Their services include everything from early childhood education to housing assistance to leadership development. Community members often participate in multiple Latino Network programs, benefiting from the interconnectedness of the organization.

Just within Latino Network’s Youth Empowerment and Violence Prevention (YEVP) division, community members can access a wide range of programs that prevent and address youth involvement in the criminal legal system. These include layered services in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties.

Latino Network prides itself on being a trusted community resource. The Director of Youth Empowerment and Violence Prevention, Ximena Ospina, told us about a family with multiple generations of gang involvement. They participated in Latino Network programs nine years ago. This summer, the family experienced a violent death, and they walked into the Latino Network office looking for support—a grandmother raising her grandchildren. Latino Network has held them at their most desperate times. The grandmother is now participating in one of YEVP’s parent groups and has found, again, a community of support.

How do YEVP staff foster trust and support youth and families? For one, 100% of their department is Latinx, bicultural and bilingual. 10% are former program participants, 22% have previous justice involvement, and 11% have a history of incarceration. Staff serve as trusted role models, because the youth know they understand on an experiential level. YEVP is based in a culturally centered curriculum, La Cultura Cura (The Culture Heals) that honors cultural values. In addition, staff lead with a strengths-based approach, which recognizes every person’s inherent capability.

Within YEVP, MILPA Gresham and MILPA Portland focus on reducing violence, with an emphasis on gun violence. MILPA works on three levels: preventing violence before it ever happens, intervening with a threat of violence is imminent, and stepping in when violence has already occurred.

MILPA staff identify youth and their families who have experienced trauma and violence. These youth are paired with a mentor. They also receive access to intensive personal development, educational assistance, support navigating health and mental health services, alcohol and drug treatment, financial resources and more, as needed. Their families are connected with a family care manager to ensure youth are supported, and families engage in activities to strengthen parent support. Through one-on-one and family assessments, MILPA staff create an Ecomap, which visually represents a youth’s connections to people and systems in their life, and an individual success plan. 

Just like the milpa method of agriculture, MILPA recognizes that youth, families, and MILPA itself need a variety of accompanying programs and services to thrive. Existing in siloes—in monoculture—is not sustainable. Ximena Ospina told us, “the way gun violence prevention has been pieced out by the cities is not working… We want to look across the region. Justice Reinvestment Equity Program allows for flexibility and is not linked to the city boundaries.” 

With Justice Reinvestment Equity Program funds, Latino Network has been able to cover staffing and client assistance. MILPA staff have also valued being a part of the JREP community, including attending regular grantee convenings. Connecting with people who have similar experiences and are running similar programs is crucial for staff morale.

Still, Latino Network needs more funding, and they need ongoing funding, for MILPA and their other YEVP programs. There’s currently a waitlist of youth and families who need support. And time-limited funding risks breaking the trust of the youth and families who are already receiving support, who may lose that support if funding runs out. Ximena said, “We get asked to produce outcomes that are unattainable in a funding scale. We can’t dismantle oppression in a two-year funding cycle. That’s absurd. $130k isn’t going to do it. It’s insulting to the pain and trauma of my people.”

This critical work needs long-term funding, and it needs to live within a field of programs that support youth, families, and communities to flourish.

Thank you, Ximena and the whole YEVP team, for the beautiful and important work you do every day to keep our communities safe!

The Justice Reinvestment Equity Program (JREP) supports culturally specific organizations and culturally responsive services in communities most harmed and least helped by Oregon’s criminal legal system. JREP seeks to elevate organizations that have been overlooked by traditional funding streams with the goals of reducing incarceration and racial disparities in the criminal legal system, promoting healing and advancing community safety in Oregon. Learn more about JREP.