Today we’d like to introduce you to Yessica Holguin.
Yessica, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when my journey seeking social justice began. Having grown up in a low-income family, I have always been passionate about identifying solutions to poverty. In high school, I decided that my mission in life would be to end the cycle of poverty through education. For a significant part of my life, I lived my mission. While in college, I had the privilege to develop and implement programs to help underrepresented populations get into college. I felt that education was the path that got me out of poverty, so I believed that it was my responsibility to pave the way for others as well.
At the age of 21, I completed my Master of Science in Management and Organization degree and was hired by the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (now University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus) to develop a college prep program to introduce and academically prepare underserved students for a career in the healthcare field.
In 2006, I accepted a job with the Denver Scholarship Foundation, which had recently launched. It was a dream come true. The initial five staff members hired were given the task of developing a program that would increase the high school graduation, college attendance, and college graduation of Denver Public Schools graduates. It made the dream of a college education a reality for the students I was determined to empower. As a young professional, it was a dream come true.
In 2011, my life partner and I decided to quit our dream jobs to join the United States Peace Corps, which had been another dream of ours. We were invited to serve in Nicaragua as Small Business Development Specialists. Our primary job was to work with high school teachers to implement an entrepreneurship curriculum as well as work with community small businesses. In this capacity, we also worked with cooperatives and small businesses to help them grow from micro-enterprises to small and medium-sized businesses. Additionally, we worked with local leaders to organize savings and lending circles to promote savings and affordable access to credit in the community. For me, this was the perfect placement. It incorporated my formal education in business administration and my passion to end the cycle of poverty through education. I enjoyed my service so much that I ended up re-enlisting.
In 2014, I completed my Peace Corps service and traveled through Central and South America for four months. I truly enjoyed visiting places that I once felt would be unreachable. My most exciting memory of the trip was visiting Aracataca in Colombia. When I was a high school student, I read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Gabo) for the first time and fell in love with it. I remember telling my teacher, “I don’t know how, but one day, I will visit Macondo.” It took me more than 17 years, but I made it. Walking through Gabo’s house, which is now a museum, felt like walking through the book. It was truly a dream come true!
In 2015, I moved back to Nicaragua and accepted a job as Country Director for Project Gettysburg-León (PGL), an international sister-city organization that works to empower Nicaraguans to be the leaders of their own development. In this role, I worked with local leaders, organizations, and government agencies to build capacity and create partnerships that leverage resources and promote sustainable development.
In 2017, I moved back to Denver to lead efforts to create a more inclusive and sustainable economy. I am now the Executive Director of the Center for Community Wealth Building, an organization that promotes strategies for a sustainable economy and works to transform the current economic development system to a more inclusive and equitable model that prioritizes democratically-owned businesses, emphasizes local procurement, and ensures social, environmental, and institutional sustainability.
I grew up in the Swansea neighborhood in Denver and have done grassroots community organizing with immigrant groups and low-income communities across the Denver Metro area since 2000. I have dedicated my life to empowering disenfranchised communities to break the cycle of poverty through education and economic development. My passion is building a community of movement builders to tap into the collective power to inspire, transform, and foster an environment where everyone can thrive. I enjoy running, reading, and spending time with friends and family while drinking coffee.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have had many struggles along the way. In 1997, I ran away from home to escape domestic violence. At that time, I did not understand the cycle of violence. I thought I would leave the house and my mother would follow me. That was not the case. I was angry. I could not understand how she could stay in a situation that could potentially end her life. While that was a painful process, it has definitely contributed to my resiliency and overall appreciation for my community.
Despite being a full-time student, a full-time employee, and usually a part-time volunteer, I was able to graduate college on time. In fact, I completed my master’s degree at 21 years of age. While it was a difficult situation, the opportunities to create and implement programs from a very young age definitely contributed to who I am today.
Please tell us about Center for Community Wealth Building.
Center for Community Wealth Building (CCWB) is a nonprofit organization that works to create a people-owned, inclusive, and sustainable metro Denver economy that catalyzes prosperous and resilient communities free from racism and injustice. We promote inclusive economic opportunities to normalize a new economic development model that focuses on including and elevating the voices of impacted and vulnerable communities at the core of growth and leveraging anchor institutions’ economic engines as drivers of the economy.
CCWB’s work is driven by our commitment to economic justice, inclusivity, inspiration, and transformation. We work to inspire a fundamental shift within individuals, communities, institutions, and systems to support a thriving local economy, and a healthy and sustainable way of life.
Our goal is to catalyze an inclusive economy that works for disenfranchised people and builds communities, specifically to address the well-documented racial wealth gap in the United States, which is directly linked to health inequities. We develop new strategies and approaches to economic development that create opportunities for economic mobility for all communities. This is a reorientation of mainstream expectations of the current economy. Therefore, to help infuse this framework into multiple arenas, everything we do is accomplished through partnerships. We do not strive to develop flagship programs at CCWB. Instead, we catalyze demonstration projects in partnership with others. Once proof of concept is achieved and an effort has a supportive home with our partner, we move on to work with others.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Community, Perseverance, Resiliency, Resourcefulness.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3840 York Street, Ste. 215
Denver, CO 80205 - Website: www.communitywealthbuilding.org
- Phone: 720-341-9391
- Email: connect@communitywealthbuilding.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ccwbdenver/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cwbndenver/
- Twitter: @cwbnetwork
- Other: https://www.gofundme.com/f/meals4unsungheroes
Image Credit:
Dave Russell @ Buffalo Heart Images
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