The La Casa Years and Expanding Community Services

At the time Rosales served on the city's Human Relations Commission he was the Director of the Latino Cultural Center on the University of Illinois campus, a position held since 1991. While serving as the Director of the Cultural Center he was able to increase programs and connectivity, to and from, the Latina/o community at the U of I. Rosales started a Spanish radio show, 'La Voz Latina', on WEFT radio in Champaign, along with a Spanish newspaper by the same name (later renamed 'El Informador'). The Spanish radio at WEFT was so popular Rosales created a second venue with the assistance of two UI faculty to meet the rapidly growing Latina/o population on the UI campus. Rosales was also instrumental in contributing to establishing a Latino Studies Program to address the student demands that were made out of the 1992 protests for educational equity on the university campus.

 

Rosales expanded the Cultural Center's scope by providing outreach programs to the Spanish speaking immigrant community by partnering with the Department of Children and Family Services and the Illinois Board of Education and formed Comunidad Unida using the Shadow Wood trailer park site with the support of its owner. Shadow Wood was once a cesspool for drug dealers and prostitutes, but in its present incarnation it has become a safe haven populated by Spanish speaking immigrant families. Comunidad Unida serviced the children of these immigrants by offering after school programs, providing computers, tutors, and social services until the parents came home from work.

 

Rosales soon found other resources to connect the Latina/o families to. Partnering with the Champaign Public Library to form Libros Y Familias was one such connection. This effort has enabled Spanish speaking families to have access to books and valued information.

 

As the outreach continued to grow, more and more programs and service components were implemented to meet the demand of the community. Rosales saw a need to bring the various agencies and organizations together under one umbrella and spearheaded the idea which later came to be known as the 'Latino Partnership' which now serves as a clearinghouse for both the Spanish speaking community, and the community at-large, who want to find resources and share an understanding about one another.

 

Recently, Rosales had an opportunity to use his experience as a Bilingual teacher. As an active member in Rotary International, Rosales participated in the Learning for Life curriculum with the Bilingual Program at Booker T. Washington Elementary School in Champaign. For 30 weeks he volunteered and taught Spanish speaking children lessons on respect, responsibility and perseverance. He was able to inspire the students by sharing his own challenges trying to become acclimated to a new country as a child.

 

Along with being a member in Rotary, Rosales is actively involved in the NAACP, the Urban League, the YMCA, the Independent Media Center, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, and the Champaign-Urbana Joint Telecommunications Commission.

 

Sitting on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Champaign County, an organization that funds community groups, Rosales is instrumental in providing a different lens from which to think about charitable giving. Mark Ballard, former Chairman of the Board for the United Way, said that having a community activist with a knowledge of the Latino community, like Rosales, was a plus for the organization.