San Diego nonprofit CEO leads a life of community service

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. We're celebrating trailblazers in the Hispanic community with a profile of Arnulfo Enriquez , president and CEO of nonprofit Mac. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Hispanic Heritage Month is well underway , and all month long , we're highlighting the leaders in our region who've dedicated their lives to serving the community. One of those leaders is Arnulfo Henriquez. He is the CEO and president of Mac , which is a nonprofit that runs education , health , housing programs and much more , all with a focus on economic mobility. He's gotten a lot of recognition for his work over the years , including the San Diego Padres Comunidad Award. And Arnulfo joins me live in studio to talk about his path into community service and how issues of inequality and inequity continue to affect San Diegans today. Arnulfo , welcome. Welcome.

S2: Welcome. Thank you for. Thank you. Good afternoon. Great to be here.

S1: So great to have you here in studio. And and thank you for all of the work that you do. So I mean , let's start at the very beginning. You were born in Mexicali and grew up in Tijuana before moving to San Diego.

S2: Moving to the United States was a was a big change for my entire family. I'm the youngest of five , and we actually went through the immigration process where we were on wait on a waitlist and none of us wanted none of my sisters really wanted to come to the United States. We had all of our friends , um , but , you know , it definitely was an adjustment. Language was the biggest challenge that we all had. Um , I , I think because of the I was the youngest. I was able to , you know , get a little bit more of that language in there. But , you know , being in this , um , uh , growing up in , in the South Bay , which is where I grew up , there were a lot of Latino families around us , and a lot of as I went through school , I did go to a lot of different schools. Um , and I actually did not interact very much with my counselor or , you know , even with my teachers , even though I was a , a sort of a had excellent grades in my GPA. Um , there was really not a lot of attention placed on me by , by school. And , um , but I do remember that one of my sisters , when I was a senior in high school , came in and asked me , um , so what colleges did you apply to ? All my sisters were already in college or had graduated , and I said , I'm not applying to anything. And so she made a , um , uh , she made a commitment to me like , no , you got to apply to at least one. and I applied to UCSD and got in , and so I. As I went through college , a lot of things began to define what kind of work I was going to be doing , simply because of those experiences in high school that at the moment that I was going through them. I , I had no idea that I was going through , um , something that I was kind of set aside. I was already put in a box and said , this is what you're going to be doing without really knowing it. And , and so having the ability to go to school , graduate and then understand , um , when , when I started working with a nonprofit building affordable housing , I was the only one that spoke Spanish. I was the only Latino in the organization. And , um , I think there was 1 or 2 on the board. Uh , maybe. Maybe. Yeah. And , um , I did go through a program back in 1994 with a Chicano federation.

S1: That's awesome. Like , you know , when I hear you talk , it really sounds like your time at UCSD was a pivotal point for you. So talk to me more about your studies and experience there and how that influenced you and the work you do now.

S2: Oh , well , absolutely. Um , UCSD was pivotal. I went to the Oasis Summer bridge program , which is , uh , back then with an affirmative action program where I was able to join about 200 other students before the school year started. And I realized that there are other people like me going to UCSD , that the orientation I had not seen many people like me. So that program is actually what solidified my stay at UCSD , and it became my support system throughout my four years of college. And so it was something that I don't know that I would have gotten that involved had I not been for a program like that. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Well , well , tell me about the nonprofit you lead , Mac.

S2: We are. We've been around for 60 years. We're celebrating 60 years this year. And I started in 1965. And our focus is on maximizing self-sufficiency , really helping lift the economic mobility of families. And we do it through education and health , housing and economic development. But with leadership and advocacy woven into everything that we do. So we we build affordable housing. We operate a Head Start and state preschool programs , charter schools , drug and alcohol recovery homes. We run the DUI program and , um , a lot of work around economic mobility , financial literacy , workforce development , and all the way on to helping somebody buy a house. And it is the type of work that I love to do because , um , I see it working. I see it creating opportunities for people. And a lot of times it's just access to information , like people don't , don't don't realize that there are these opportunities he's there. Um , and then sometimes we locked ourselves from from taking that next step. And so our job is to make sure that we show them that the next step is possible. Uh , we show them all the opportunities that are there. Uh , we help them get through those. But it's really up to the families to do on their own. Right ? They have to take those steps. They have to do for the for themselves. But we are there as a support system for them.

S1: I think that's great because it's you started in , in housing and then saw that there was this greater need in , in this opportunity to sort of build on that and provide information. Absolutely.

S2: Absolutely. Early on when when I started working and we completed our first project and people started moving in. Uh , the we started getting phone calls. I started getting the phone calls because I was the , the , the face of the for the people that were living in the residence because I was the one that was only bilingual. And , you know , three , 4 or 5 months later , I would get a phone call and , um , saying that somebody lost their job , or that they needed help in accessing one area or another of school or. And and so , I mean , I was 22 , 23 years old , you know , not really knowing all the resources that were out there. And but I would go out and try to find the help for them. So it became pretty obvious after a , after a year or so that there was a lot more that we needed with the families , uh , their low income before they move into affordable housing. They're still low income. And so we do need to help figure out the trajectory of those families.

S1:

S2: And so , um , because we have such an array of programs , um , every family is going to be in a different , um , Situation under path to self-sufficiency , right ? There are families that are just needing a place to to live. They are living in overcrowded living situations. And so once they are able to make it to one of our affordable housing sites , we do make sure that , you know , we understand what their credit score is when they move in. Uh , we we understand what their income is because they are low income in order to qualify. And then we sit down and say , what are some of your goals ? What are some of your your aspirations ? Like , do you need to complete your education ? Do you need your diploma for high school ? Do you want to go get a job training certification or AA or a bachelor's degree ? And you know , many times we'll get confronted with like , oh , no , that's not for me. Oh , I can't , I can't do those things. And , um , our staff are all focused on how do we present that information , how do we help paint that vision for them ? And , um , or it might be that somebody joins us because their child is going to a Head Start program. And in order to qualify for the program , you need to be at the federal poverty level or below. And right now , it's about $36,000 for a family of four. Now picture that like 36,000 family of four living in San Diego County. Right. That's a very high cost of living area. And and so what we do is we take care of the child when the child is in the program. It's a preschool. Excellent curriculum. When the child goes into kindergarten , they're going to excel. They're going to do great. But we have a captive audience with the parents while the child is enrolled. And so they do get involved in one in leadership programs. They get involved with governance of the program. There's some volunteer time that they are required to provide in the evenings , sometimes in the day. But we do get a connection of , uh , what's their job situation ? Uh , are they going to school ? Are they needing a better job or are they do they have immigration situations that they need help with ? And we do have family service advocates and case managers that are able to really wrap around services around the family as a whole. Right.

S1: Right. Wow. So you all are running early education programs , preschools and charter schools across the region to talk a bit about that work and the kids you're serving and why that part is so important.

S2: Well , the , um , the , the majority of the families that we serve are low income. Uh , there are some families that are that are middle income or market or their area median income is , well , but by far the majority are lower income households in San Diego County. The majority of low income households are Latinos. Uh , so we always want to make sure that our programs are able to connect well with the population that we're serving. Uh , so most of our programs are bilingual. Actually , all of our programs are bilingual. And , and sometimes we do have to go out and reach out to those students in our high school , for example , that have dropped out of school. and there they may be 20 , 21 years old. And , um , we do a lot of word of mouth. We also do work with counselors at other high schools. Uh , so there's there are a lot of times that we have to do outreach , but for most of the other programs , you know , people don't know us until they actually need us. And , and , and they all connect with us. Uh , our job , like I said , is , is to be able to paint that picture. We have had families that move into our affordable housing and , you know , five , six , seven , eight years later , they're buying a house because their income is going up. They fix their credit. They , um , their , their um , they've got their education completed or job training certifications. And so we , we have seen that happen.

S1: Tell me more about that. I mean , that's got to be one of the most fulfilling parts of the work that you do is to is to see a family excel. Do you have a story maybe from your family ? Absolutely.

S2: In December of 2019. Um , every every board meeting , we have what we call the my Max story. And we had a single mother that came in to talk about her Mac story. She moved in in our affordable housing in , um , around 2010 and was moved into a four bedroom apartment. The rent at the time was about $740. Uh , it was one of our very low income units. And , um , but she had been living in a garage at her uncle's house with four children , and this was. And she was working , um , came from a domestic violence situation , and so came in and had a place of her own , like her children had bedrooms. And , uh , we had a computer lab where she and the children had access to the computer lab. And the story that she shared was , I came in and I started learning about , uh , you know , food program. And so I started getting assistance. help with food. She started learning about some other income supports for her because she was very low income , and then her car broke down and was needing to go buy another car , and we went through a financial literacy conversation with her and helped identify a loan that she could go get a car so that she could go to work. She needed that for transportation for for working. And she just got engaged with us and started growing her skills , got improving on her job training opportunities , and then started realizing , I do need to fix my credit , started paying off bills. And and then she started hearing about first time homebuyer programs. And this was all through the access of this affordable housing site that we operate. And , you know , this is somebody that the information as the information was coming out , she was hearing it and she was saying , I can see myself doing that. And um , so fast forward. Right. Nothing happens overnight here , and nothing happens in a couple of years. Like you do have time to be able to build all that up. She was out , put an offers on a house , and she found the house she wanted to to buy , and she offered the maximum. Others were offering more at the time in 2019 , and she wrote a letter saying , this is who I am. This is my story. This is why this house would be perfect for me and my family. The sellers actually chose her bed , even though others suffered more , and because that letter changed their mind , they said , we want to help you and so that the help for people there is. She became her own advocate. She became the leader of her family that was wanting to be able to move into this opportunity , and she was able to qualify for the house that she could afford and moved in with her children. So her children were older. You know , one of them was already working as well because time had gone by. But that is the story that happens more often right within our housing sites. The current situation , though , it's it's a lot harder for families to leave housing like that with the cost of housing being so high now. But we always are still trying to find opportunities for things like that to happen.

S1: Yeah , that is so wonderful. Arnulfo , thank you so much for sharing that and for the work that you do. I've been speaking with Arnulfo Enriquez , president and CEO of Mac. Arnulfo , thank you so much.

S2: Thank you for the opportunity to be here and tell our story.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman.

S3: Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.