LatiKnow Leadership Committee kick-off event

The ALCC LatiKnow Leadership Committee held a kick-off event at Raices Brewing Company in September where over 25 up and coming Latino industry leaders came together to network and discuss the future of the industry. The committee will leverage feedback collected during the event to shape the direction of their work.

ALCC has made it a priority to attract and engage more Latinos, including both Latino-owned businesses and Latino employees across the industry, and established the LatiKnow Leadership Committee, which participants named.

"The happy hour was a great success in introducing our mission and initiatives of the LatiKnow Committee. We managed to bring a diverse group together from various companies and positions. The information we obtained from our attendees was so valuable and is going to be used as a tool to help fortify our mission with ALCC. This event gave us the inspiration to keep moving forward to establish our committee as the growing voice of the Latino landscape community here in Colorado." - Committe member Marisol Medrano 

Luis Estrada and Mari Medrano work together on the committee. Both agree that information and education are key to helping grow Latino businesses and encourage more to see the opportunities available in the green industry. They believe that lack of exposure of Latino landscape businesses to others in the industry is both a challenge and the opportunity. The Latino community will be stronger when people grow together by networking and partnering with other. Estrada shared, "This great event reaffirmed the need of this committee in the industry. Software and leadership training was expressed as things that need more attention. We, as a committee, need to think about our next steps in response to this event." 

Estrada believes “the sky is the limit in this industry.” The challenge is helping fellow Latinos realize what he believes to be true. He wants to see more Latino employees take on bigger challenges, to become supervisors and project managers. He knows they are bright and capable but need support including mentors and training, especially in Spanish. “I want to help prepare people to take on more,” says Estrada. “Things have to change. Educating Latinos is a win-win for the people and the industry.”

"We were very excited with the turnout for the first LatiKnow happy hour. There were great conversations that gave the committee better insight to the needs of Latinos in our industry. We are now taking what we heard from the attendees and planning our ProGreen courses and future events to directly address the needs expressed to us. Thank you to everyone who attended." -Committee member Brian Carlson 

The committee plans to get the issues on the table and propose ideas to bring back to the ALCC board or directors. If interested in receiving information on future events email [email protected] to be added to the communications list.

The committee will assist in planning additional Spanish speaking education sessions and programming, including at ProGreen EXPO 2023.