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The Hispanic Outreach Leadership Association of the Lakeway Area (HOLA Lakeway) reflected on those it helped in 2022 and discussed how it plans to assist more members of the community through its impact report.

The organization was founded in 2014 after seeing a need for an organization to improve the overall quality of life for the immigrant population in East Tennessee’s Lakeway Region.

HOLA Lakeway envisions a world where all immigrants are empowered and aims to facilitate the integration of immigrant families into the fabric of the Lakeway community through educational initiatives and advocacy.

In 2022, HOLA was very busy fulfilling its mission through its many outreach programs.

“We started January 2022 and it has not stopped.” said HOLA Lakeway’s Executive Director Betsy Hurst. “It’s beautiful as we reflect on all the families we have helped and impacted this year and we look forward to doing the same this year.”

Through its five educational programs it served more than 180 people over the year.

The organization offers four levels of ELL classes, Spanish classes, High School Equivalency Exam Preparation and has an academic support center and the Elevate program that aims to assist high school students through various transition phases.

“The beauty of our educational programs is families coming here try to improve themselves whether that be bettering their English or just homework help they are focusing on their education to better themselves.” Hurst said.

Through its six community support programs it helped over 4,900 people and 1,700 families within the Lakeway Area.

HOLA on the Move provides educational materials, health-related information and other resources from the community to families in their own neighborhoods.

“HOLA on the Move is great because we go to the neighborhoods to provide services,” Hurst said. “We bring ELA teachers or the Health Department or sometimes information about COVID.”

“This year we focused on neighborhoods in Grainger County and one in Morristown to visit and provide service.”

The La Tienda de la Gente/People Store Project is a partnership between HOLA and Second Harvest and provides cultural foods to those in need.

“The store is for everyone in the community and through it we have served around 1,900 families with that program,” Hurst said.

The Superhero Parent Education Program was created to help empower parents from different ethnic backgrounds with knowledge to better advocate for equality in their children’s education.

“When new families move to the area we teach them about the education system and we help them with registration.”

Through its cultural programs HOLA impacted more than 570 people within the area.

“We provide cultural training where we teach other about the various cultures in the area,” Hurst said. “We went to Carson-Newman University and spoke and we spoke with the Morristown Police Department.”

Tertulias, which means “let’s have a conversation.” are cultural meetings where community members come together and learn about the different cultures in our communities.

The International Food Festival, which was held in Downtown Morristown for the first time had around 7,000 visitors over the weekend.

“We had a new record this year with around 7,000 people attend which is amazing,” Rita Castanon outreach director said.

“We had to move downtown to handle the growth from the festival and the move helped with the growth this year.

“We have support from the Tennessee Arts Commission and without their support we wouldn’t be able to provide the live performances.”

A need that HOLA sees within the community and a main focus for the New Year is providing support to college students.

“We feel that there is not a lot of focus on retention for college students,” Castanon said. “There is a lot of focus for recruiting, but not retaining and we will feel there is a need for more available study spaces, and have access to print and internet.”

“In the new year we will begin to provide a study space for local college students, later hours of availability and snacks for students.”

HOLA will introduce its RAICES program which stands for retaining, advocating, innovating college engaged students.

“We will host events for college students to mingle and get to know each other, we will take students to the Day on the Hill, teach them how to build resumes and prepare them for after college.”

HOLA is also excited to extend it services to advocacy, which will focus on advocating for equitable educational opportunities for everyone.

“We want to advocate for everyone in East Tennessee and not just immigrants.” Castanon said.

A dream of HOLA has finally come true with its new robotics club, Plan-Do-Check-Act.

“I think this will be a great opportunity for all students,” Hurst said. “This is in collaboration with several local manufactures and for students 9th through 12th.”