On Friday Oct. 9, Edinburg Housing Author-ity (EHA) Executive Di-rector Mr. Rudy Ramirez had the privilege to join the honorable Julián Castro, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), along with Con-gressman Ruben Hinojosa’s delegates, KRGV Channel 5 news anchor Letty Gar-za and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) President Dr. Guy Bailey for a forum that was held at UTRGV. The forum primar-ily focused on affordable housing issues, education, and prospective economic opportunities relevant to the local community of the

Rio Grande Valley. Julián Castro was born in San Antonio, Tex-as on September 16, 1974. He attended both Stanford University and Harvard Law School. Castro was the youngest San Antonio City Council member and the first Hispanic ever to de-liver the keynote address at a Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in Septem-ber 2012. He later became the mayor of San Antonio and today serves as the Secre-tary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban De-velopment. As the current exec-

utive director of the EHA, Mr. Rudy Ramirez is em-powering the residents by providing them with educa-tional resources and imple-menting many programs to help and further lead EHA residents to a more success-ful life. Dr. Guy Bailey, who was formally appoint-ed May 20, 2014 as the UTRGV President wel-comed forum participants to the afternoon session and Letty Garza moderated the forum. The questions most-ly focused on initiatives, ac-complishments

Please continue on page 2

BOARD OF COMISSIONERS2015

EDUARDO GONZALEZCHAIRMAN

ARMANDO BARRERAVICE-CHAIRMAN

JOE RODRIGUEZCOMMISSIONER

CRIS TORRESCOMMISSIONER

JUAN GUZMANRESIDENT COMMISSIONER

RODOLFO “RUDY” RAMIREZ

Executive Director

Main Office

Ciro TreviñoAdministration Building

910 S. Sugar Rd. Edinburg, Texas, 78539

REGULAR HOURSMon.—Thurs.

8 a.m.—5:30 p.m.

Friday8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

1

Stay updated!Visit us today

Rudy Ramirez meets HUD Secretary Julian Castro

UTRGV FORUM - Pictured left to right: Edinburg Housing Authority (EHA) Executive Direc-tor, Rudy Ramirez, Julián Castro U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

EL REFLEJOA publication of the Edinburg Housing Authority.

Volume 1 Issue 7 October 2015

This month’s highlights* UTRGV Forum, Page 2* Basketball Game, Page 3

* Breast Cancer Awareness Walk, Page 2* Office 411, Page 4

Breast Cancer Awareness Walk

2

On Oct. 14. as a part of Ed-inburg Housing Authority’s (EHA) commitment to raise awareness for Breast Cancer, EHA organized its 2nd Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Walk that took place at La Posada Apartments in Edinburg, TX. The walk started at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 10:30 a.m., with an at-tendance of close to 100 people who amongst them were residents, staff, agencies and other attendee’s filled La Posada walk/jog trail in pink in order to show their support for breast can-cer awareness. As well 13 health related agencies participated in the event in order to inform, provide and educate the attendees on different health re-lated topics.

With great efforts from our social work interns this event was a huge success. Rosalinda Gonzalez one of our interns had the opportunity to speak about the Breast Cancer Aware-ness Walk with Entravision one of the news station who covered the event.

“It was nice seeing so many residents and agencies participate in this event to create cancer awareness” said Ma-ria Lopez one of our interns who is excited to be graduating in Decem-ber. Along with receiving give-

aways and information by the agecies residents also had the opportunity to sign up with them so that they may receive further information in the future regarding any questions, con-cerns or thoughts they may have. We would like to thank Family Endeavors, Superior Health Plan, Woman’s Clinic of South Tex-as, Woman’s Renaissance Cancer Center, Behavior Health Solution of South Texas, Maximus Health & Human services programs, Texas A&M Working on Wellness, Dynam-ic Children’s Therapy, Rodeo Dental, Food Bank of the RGV, Easter Seals Project HOPE Program, Hidalgo County Health Department, and the American Cancer Society for their participation but most important-ly for educating our residents, staff and attendees on different health is-sues. EHA is proud to support such a great cause and will always do what it takes to continue to raise awareness for Breast Cancer.

and issues Mr. Castro has dealt with in his life as a citizen, mayor and now as HUD Secretary. Mr. Rudy Ramirez had the opportunity to share about his recent initiatives at EHA. He mentioned the demographics and statistics, which currently make up the EHA population and emphasized the im-

portance of education.Ramirez also mentioned the part-nerships established with different UTRGV colleges and departments. Dr. Guy Bailey closed the afternoon, offering remarks about UTRGV and the changes that will be occurring because of the new medi-cal school and future programs they

will be offering. He showed much appreci-ation for the attendees and distin-guished guests, and thanked Con-gressman Hinojosa for making the forum possible and inviting U.S. HUD Julián Castro to UTRGV.

UTRGV FORUM - Pictured left to right: UTRGV President Dr. Guy Bailey, KRGV Channel 5 news anchor Letty Garza, U.S. HUD Secretary Julián Castro and EHA Executive Director, Rudy Ramirez.

Around 27 EHA com-munity youth along with Mr. Ramirez and staff attended the Houston Rockets vs. Orlando Magic basketball game on Oct. 11. The Youth Leadership Association under Mr. Ramirez’s direct supervision led the group. Some staff members of EHA also assisted in organizing the event and helped supervise the youth while at the game. EHA provided transportation to all kids. All staff members who wanted to attend the game had to arrange their own means of transportation.

The youth and staff loved the game. They cheered for the Houston Rockets and afterwards got to take pictures with the fa-mous Rockets mascot. We would like to give spe-cial thanks to Mr. Garcia for his generous donation of tickets to the agency. From the YLA youth and Mr. Rudy Ramirez thank you Mr. Garcia for giving us the op-portunity to experience the thrill of a basketball game. Visit riograndevalley.dleague.nba.com for season in-formation and tickets!

3

Youth Leadership visits the Vipers

MASCOT - Youth Leadership Association members along with other game attendee’s taking a picture with the Houston Rocket Mascot.

On Oct. 16 in honor of National Boss Day EHA staff and interns came together in order to take a picture to show Mr. Ramirez that he truly is the best boss ever and that we truly appreciate his efforts to develop, strengthen, and em-power EHA and its vision. We greatly appreciate your sincerity and passion for the staff and residents of EHA.

On Oct. 14 in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month all EHA staff wore pink. We at EHA are proud to support such a great cause to encourage women and men to care for their health. If you would like more in-formation regarding screenings or have questions about breast cancer please visit the American Can-cer Society website cancer.org or contact our local American Cancer Society office at (956) 682-8320.

“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impacts last in your absence.” - Sheryl Sandberg

National Boss Day

EHA goes pink

Resident Meeting On Oct. 15 EHA had its monthly res-

ident meeting at El Jardin Tito Galvan Community Center.

At this month’s meeting our six new social work interns were introduced to the residents and we had a representa-tive from Valley Care Clinic (VCC) come and speak about the services they offer through their VCC On-the-Go mobile and on menopause.

The services the VCC On-the-Go mo-bile offers are fairly inexpensive compared to an on site clinic visits: Checkups, well-ness screenings, immunizations, physi-cals, preventive medical care and urgent care are among the services they offer. The VCC On-the-Go mobile is always at different locations throughout the valley offering their services to the communities of the RGV. If you would like to find out where the VCC On-the-Go mobile will be next call 1-855-822-2778.

If you would like to get more informa-tion or have any question regarding the mobile VCC or menopause please feel free to visit http://www.valleycareclinics.com or contact them @ 956-388-2007.

Due monthly by the 1st, but EHA gives you until the 5th to pay in full. There is a $15 fee for late payments.

Rent deadline

Residents 18+ years old who are not exempt must volunteer 8 hours a month in order to comply with HUD’s Community Service Requirement.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Interested in finding out what’s happening at EHA or your development? Come find out at our next Resident Meeting. Meetings are led by the Executive Director Rodolfo “Rudy” Ramirez and all residents are invited. Our next meeting will be:

Resident Meeting

Nov. 17, 2015 @10 a.m at Albores Please make arrangements to attend and receive one hour of community service.

Community service

4Stay updated!

Visit us todayn

Along with redesigning our website, we have created the EHA Achievers Blog to highlight the outstanding efforts of students pursuing a higher education, outstanding residents and interns that come gain valuable work experience at our agency. To view the EHA Achievers Blog please visit www.ehaachievers.blogspot.com. If you know any EHA students that are currently attending college or have attended, as well as any residents that are doing or have accomplished outstanding things, please contact us so we can feature them in the EHA Achievers blog by calling Juan Garcia at 956-383-3839.

Do you know an Achiever?

HOMEWORK HELP IS HERE! EHA is glad to announce its fall 2015 homework help session, which started Sept. 28 and continues throughout the academic year. The session is from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Mondays at La Posada, Ramirez and Albores; Tuesdays at Lantana ; and Mondays and Thursdays at El Jardin. All students from EHA are welcome to attend the session and get help with their homework. If you have any further questions regarding the home-work help session, please contact Araceli Porras @ 383-3839.

EHA welcomes any housing students 13 to 19-years-old to join the Youth Leadership Association! If you have a child that would like to learn more about or be a part of the Youth Leadership Association, he/

she can contact Diego Oros at doros@edinburgha.org or call him @ 956-383-3839.