An idea that’s been 15 years in the making When Sami DiPasquale became the executive director of Ciudad Nueva 15 years ago, he was eager to explore community development initiatives focused on housing and asset development. At the time, however, Sami was the only staff person at Ciudad Nueva, and he was only working part time. “I knew we had to focus on what we had right then,” Sami says. “We only had Launch Pad, the after-school program for elementary kids. Our initial energies had to be on expanding to middle school as the kids grew, then to high school.” Even more important, Sami knew that … [Read more...]