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New La Voz director: 'I want to bring the world to Loudoun'
A nonprofit group that had a key voice in the illegal immigration debate last year in Loudoun has hired a new executive director.
Leesburg resident Yvette Castro-Green, 39, is taking the helm of La Voz of Loudoun after longtime executive director Laura Valle left the position several months ago to assume a more activist role in Loudoun's Hispanic immigrant community.
Castro-Green, who has lived in Leesburg since 2000, has a master's degree in international management and was the first in her family to attend college. She speaks English, Spanish, French and "a sprinkling of other languages" she picked up during a two-year stint in the Peace Corps in Europe's Baltic region in the 1990s, she said.
“Having traveled to over 20 countries, I have experienced total immersion in cultures about which I knew little and whose language I could not understand," she said. "So I can relate to the challenges that our local Hispanic and immigrant families face on a daily basis.”
The mission of La Voz, which translates to “The Voice” and of which Castro-Green is a founding member, is to help immigrants navigate local services and programs and assist them in learning English. The group is also part of a new county-led multicultural committee, which is examining how the county can better meet the needs of people with limited English skills.
This year, the county recognized La Voz as its most outstanding volunteer organization.
Similar to a new proposal by some immigrant groups to establish 25 immigrant support centers throughout Virginia and Maryland, a primary goal of La Voz is to create a one-stop facility in Loudoun for people new to the country.
La Voz envisions offering job-search assistance, English class placement and referrals to various public services.
As for her role as head of La Voz, Castro-Green, whose parents are Central American, said she wants to pull from her Latina background and her extensive travels to create a broader awareness of cultures outside this country's borders.
"I want to bring the world to Loudoun," she said.
Contact the reporter at jjacks@timespapers.com
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