About the Latino Academy Teocalli Tequiotl Opportunities Industrialization Center (“TTOIC”):
Teocalli Tequiotl is a word of Nahuatl (Aztec) origin that means: “House of collective work.”
In early 2009, a group of Latino leaders lead by LEDC started conversations with the leadership of the OIC state council in order to bring employment and placement opportunities to Spanish speaking individuals. They wanted to explore the feasibility of establishing a Latino OIC that would be an affiliate member of the state council. After forming the interest group representing the Latino constituency, the interest group submitted a letter to the board of the state council requesting the LEDC’s Teocalli Tequiotl to be formally recognized as an opportunities industrialization center in the state of Minnesota and to request their assistance in order to formally establish and grow it. In January 2010, the board of directors of the state council of OIC’s formally recognized Teocalli Tequiotl OIC (TTOIC) as a program of the Latino Economic Development Center to provide industrialized education, training and placement assistance to Latinos in the state of Minnesota. TTOIC is an affiliate of the MN OIC state council (www.mnoicsc.org) and the OIC America (www.oicofamerica.org).
The MNOIC State Council is a collaborative of five local affiliates and community partners with the same commitment to providing education and job employment opportunities to the disadvantaged, working together for a common goal of self sufficiency. These partners are:
Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America (OIC/A) is a national network of 42 partner OICs in 22 states in the USA. Each OIC creates employment and training programs bound together by a common commitment of serving the poor and unemployed. The first OIC was founded in 1964 in Philadelphia by Reverend Leon H. Sullivan.
At the annual meeting of the Executive directors of OICs in New Orleans in March 2010, TTOIC was introduced as the newest member and was invited to participate with teams of OIC's interested on establishing training programs related to the green, hospitality, high tech, and health industries.
TTOIC’s interest group:
The interest group of the TTOIC provides short term/long term vision, mission, guidance and oversight. This group is composed by volunteer individuals that are recruited from several fields of expertise. Current members of this group are (In alphabetical order):
- Bradley Capouch, Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Church, Minneapolis.
- Hector Garcia, MN Chicano Latino affairs council
- Luz Gonzalez, Heartland community action center, Willmar
- Ramon Leon, Latino economic development center
- Juan Linares, Prosperity campaign, East Str. Paul
- William Means, MN OIC state council
- Robert Mendez, Business owner “Signs by Mendez”, East St. Paul
- Patricia Torres Ray, MN state senate
- Roberto Valdez, Willmar area multicultural marketplace
