New Year. New leadership. The West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is kicking off the New Year with an entirely new Executive Committee. Officials say it’s an exciting time for the organization.
“So for us, it’s an exciting time to see that we’re on the cusp of being able to implement a lot of programming that we’ve been wanting to do for years, but the challenge is now delivering on that, we’re setting high expectations and we want to make sure we can deliver on those.”
That’s Luis Avila. He’s the new president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee. He says they’re anticipating a progressive year that positions the organization to address numerous goals. One of which is economic development.
“We are a part of the conversation now and we want to be a bigger part of the conversation in terms of economic development in our region, and looking at it from a diversity perspective. We don’t want to just look be a voice for the Hispanic community, we really want to help minority businesses have a bigger voice.”
Avila says the Hispanic Chamber is also focused on talent recruitment, whereby they work with local colleges and universities to strengthen the “college to company” pipeline for young Hispanics.
“And we have employers that want to hire these students and making those connections , making sure students have access to these employers and vice versa. So, it’s exciting that we now have a seat at the table and it’s very important that we keep that seat and make our voices heard.”
Leadership says Avila is key. He credits the Hispanic Chamber’s new Executive Director, Jorge Gonzalez, with already putting the organization on strong footing. He says Gonzalez started in April and already membership has increased by about 20 percent. Avila says members are excited about the direction of the chamber and look to make increased strides in the community.
“I think we all see that the economy is bouncing back and our smaller businesses see an opportunity to maybe start moving beyond the Hispanic market, but really the West Michigan market. So our local businesses are telling us we want to find ways to sell our product, sell our service , not just to the Hispanic customer base but to a larger West Michigan base and we’re excited to help them bridge that gap and make those connections.”
Avila says they’re expecting to see their membership numbers continue to grow in 2016
