This summer our res-ident Gladys Sanchez was one of 70 students selected to participate in this year’s Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Ready to Lead NextGen Program (CHCI R2L) held July 26-31 in Washington, D.C. The CHCI R2L pro-gram provides Latino high school students with the opportunity to spend a week exploring our na-

tion’s capital with all ex-penses paid. Sanchez, who is now a senior at the IDEA Quest College Preparatory and has been a resident of EHA since 2007, shared about some of her experiences during the trip. “I was able to meet young leaders who had dif-ferent backgrounds, but... Continued on Page 2 --->

BOARD OF COMISSIONERS2015

EDUARDO GONZALEZCHAIRMAN

ARMANDO BARRERAVICE-CHAIRMAN

JOE RODRIGUEZCOMMISSIONER

CRIS TORRESCOMMISSIONER

JUAN GUZMANRESIDENT COMMISSIONER

RODOLFO “RUDY” RAMIREZ

Executive Director

Main Office

Ciro TreviñoAdministration Building

910 S. Sugar Rd. Edinburg, Texas, 78539

REGULAR HOURSMon.—Thurs.

8 a.m.—5:30 p.m.

Friday8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

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Stay updated!Visit us today

This month’s highlights* Student shares about Washington, Page 2* Back to School Health Fair, Page 3

* SOLE-Search Shoe Drive, Page 2* Serving our elderly, Page 3

Volume 1 Issue 5

Summer Youth Camp program comes to an end

As a way to close our fourth annual Summer Ac-tivities Program, students held a special musical per-formance and a robotics presentation on Aug. 6. Parents attended the event along with EHA staff and Board Members. During the event, stu-dents who attended the fine

arts class performed the musical “Making the Band” which featured songs by the Go Go’s and The Beat-les. Following the musical, kids in the robotics class did a presentation of their work. Additionally, an Art Ex-hibit featuring the students’ artwork was displayed in

the Ciro Trevino Adminis-tration Building. Our agency is thankful for the success of this year’s program and would like to thank parents and kids for participating. We hope to see more students take ad-vantage of these opportuni-ties next summer.

August 2015

SUMMER YOUTH CAMP FIELD TRIP - About 16 students who participated in this year’s program got to experience traveling in a party bus and enjoy lunch at Red Lobster.

Volume 1 Issue 5

El Jardin resident makes family, EHA proud

Gladys Sanchez,ReadytoLead Participant

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Participating in The White House’s day of action A book a day keeps the typos away. This summer our stu-dents participated in The White House and U.S. Department of Education’s Read Where You Are day of action on Wednes-

day, July 29. The day was cre-ated to draw attention and awareness to the importance of reading over the summer.

SOLE-Search Shoe Drive gives to residents About 164 kids ages 5 through 16 in our developments re-ceived a free pair of shoes at Valley Day & Night Clinic (VD-N)’s first SOLE Search Shoe Drive in Mission, Texas on Thursday, Aug. 13. The event raised and distrib-uted 1,000 pairs of shoes for underprivileged children that were identified by the Mis-

sion and the Rio Grande City Crimestoppers and the Child Protective Services Rainbow Room. Our agency would like to thank the Valley Day & Night Clinic for helping bring smiles to the faces of our residents and helping families in need in the Rio Grande Valley.

SHOE GIVEAWAY- Residents-received free pairs of shoes at the Sole-Search Shoe Drive.

READY FOR SCHOOL- Chil-dren of RGV low-income com-munities received a free pair of shoes for the new school year.

who wanted to strengthen this nation,” she said. According to the 17-year-old, she also learned from other stu-dents during the trip. “We discussed issues that have been affecting our nation for centuries like immigration and ed-ucation,” Sanchez said. “The discussions were in-

sightful due to the experi-ences my peers had seen.” Having experienced a personal and intellectual growth, Sanchez said that she hopes to use what she learned to help others. “What I’ve learned from CHCI R2L NextGen I will use to share it with my community,” she said. “I want to encourage others

to educate themselves on the importance of voting and understand how laws are made and how they impact our lives.” Although applications for CHCI’s R2L program are currently closed, our agency plans to encour-age students to apply next year. With Sanchez expe-riences in mind, the Ed-

inburg Housing Authority hopes to have many more students participate in the future. Any resident interested for more infor-mation on the program can visit CHCI’s website at www.chci.org/readytolead or follow us on Facebook to stay updated.

STUDENT TRAVELS TO D.C.- Gladys Sanchez traveled to Washington D.C. and met many influential Latino leaders, visit-ed historical and learned from significant monumental sites.

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Servicing our elderly residentsHealth fair at The Towers In an effort to do more for our elderly residents, on Aug. 5 our agency held a health fair at The Tow-ers development to provide them with service and information on helpful resources.

About 15 health organizations at-tended, including a mobile Valley Care Clinic that provided residents with free health services like check-ups, wellness screenings, physicals and immunizations.

Art therapy classes Our agency also offered free art therapy classes for the el-derly population at The Towers development. The efforts have been led by Jennifer Ledesma and Sulema Razo, two Social Work in-

terns from the University of Tex-as-Pan American (UTPA). The art classes are taught by Ivonne Bol-lair every Monday at 3 p.m. at The Towers Community Center. About 15 to 20 residents attend the class-es each week.

Thanks to the efforts of our dedicated UTPA So-cial Work interns, more than 32 local organiza-tions took part in today’s Back to School Health Fair. Besides providing services for residents, community organizations and individ-uals also donated school supplies for students. Our agency is very grateful for

all the help and support we received from the com-munity. We would like to give special thanks to the UTPA Social Work Stu-dent Association, UTPA ROTC, Edinburg Parks & Rec and Memorial Pre-need for its generous do-nation of a television for a raffle.

Back to school health fair

ART CLASS- The elderly at The Towers developments come together every week to express themselves through art as they listen to some soothing tunes by a guitarist.

BACK TO SCHOOL - Residents receive free haircuts.

INTERNS - Health Fair orga-nized by UTPA interns.

HEALTH - About 32 organiza-tions provide services and infor-mation to EHA residents.

VOLUNTEERS - UTPA ROTC hands out free school supplies.

Due monthly by the 1st, but EHA gives you until the 5th to pay in full. There is a $15 fee for late payments.

Rent deadline

Residents 18+ years old who are not em-ployed 30 hours or more a week or are not full-time students, must comply with the 8 hour HUD’s community service requirement.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Interested in finding out what’s happening at EHA or your development? Come find out at our next Res-ident Council Meeting. Meetings are led by the Exec-utive Director Rodolfo “Rudy” Ramirez and residents. Our next meeting will be:

Resident Council Meeting

Sept. 10, 2015 @10 a.m at El JardinContact your property managers for the complete

schedule of days and locations of our next meetings.

Community service

4Stay updated!

Visit us todayn

EHA welcomes any housing students 13 to 19-years-old to join the Youth Leadership Association! If you have a child that would like to be a part of the Youth Leadership Association or learn more, he/she can

contact Diego Oros at doros@edinburgha.org or call 956-383-3839.

Along with redesigning our website, we have created the EHA Achievers Blog to highlight the outstanding efforts of students pursuing a higher education, outstanding residents and interns that come gain valuable work experience at our agency. To view the EHA Achievers Blog please visit www.ehaachievers.blogspot.com. If you know any EHA students that have or are currently attending college as well as any residents that have accomplished outstanding things, please contact us so that we can feature them in the blog. To let us know you may call Juan Garcia at 956-383-3839.

Do you know an Achiever?

Coming Soon! Our agency is excited to announce the continuation of our Tutoring Program. Flyers with dates and times will be handed out and posted to our EHA Facebook page in the following weeks. Stay Updated by fol-lowing us online @EdinburgHousing or like us on Facebook. For more information, please contact your property manager.