NASHUA – Continuing to spread good will and a sense of community while promoting leadership, Involved to Impact – a 501C3 non-profit formerly know as Be the Change Inc. – is once again accepting application for their Nashua Hondorous Outreach Team.

The team, which has been performing outreach services in San Francisco de la Paz – a municipality in the Olacho region of Hondorous – for the last seven years is looking for individuals who will take part in a two year program aimed at continuing to promote growth of leadership both in the members involved on the team as well as those in the community they are serving.

“Our intent is to support others in that community with people who are looking to establish themselves as leaders,” said Tom Lopez, the non-profit’s founder.

“The goal is to inspire positive leadership through service and communities in need,” he continued.

Lopez, who is a leader in the city of Nashua – as he serves as the Alderman for Ward 4 in the city, has been going down to Hondorous for around 15 years, since he was a member of Americorps.

Being a region that is less than 50 miles from where a strong immigration movement is coming from, as well as an area that has a high rates in terms of crime, gang activity and unemployment, Lopez said that during the trips the team works to promote a sense of community and leadership.

“That region is in need of leadership, support and opportunities,” Lopez said, “the only way they are going to get it is if they are encouraged.”

“The programs we are doing are geared to inspiring their emerging leaders” he added, “to help support their community and strengthen them, so that they can be in a more positive state.”

While in San Francisco de la Paz on their first of two-week long trips over as many years, participants will spend a week from February 29 to March 6 getting to know the community and the environment with which they will be creating a plan to inspire change in one form or another, which they will execute the following year.

Over time, the team has brought many community movements to the municipality while working with many of San Francisco se la Paz’s leaders. Many of these initiatives have been work to inspire cultural strength while working with artists.

“We’ve done probably several miles worth of murals, we have helped organize a breakdancing and hip-hop movement,” Lopez said, “we’ve helped organize an arts festival which includes the artist we’ve worked with.”

One of the projects the team took on over the last two trips was the revitalization of a playground at one of the community’s kindergartens, a space that was deemed to unsafe for the children to set foot on.

“We were doing a mural at the kindergarten two years a go and we saw the state that the play area was in, it was bad,” said Sam Cassista, who was a part of the outreach team over the last two years, “it had broken glass, a lot of trash and rusted metal everywhere.”

Due to the conditions, the children were either forced to stay inside during play, or venture across the street to a park that was no safer for other reasons.

After working with leaders within the municipality’s community, Cassista said they came up with a plan to rehabilitate the playground for the following trip, however when the team returned the following year the playground was worse than they initially realized. After teachers and team members worked to clean up the area, they were able to beautify the playground, making it safe once again for the children to use.

“There was 20 to 25 enormousness shingles, the size of industrial refrigerators, that were asbestos ridden,” she said, “there were two poisonous snakes that we had to get rid of in the playground.”

“But now it’s beautiful; it has wonderful new grass, and new shrubs and bushes” she continued, “and signs to throw your trash away in trash barrels will send a better message to the children.”

Through her experience as a part of the outreach team, Cassista said she was able to grow her leadership skills while helping to build up the skills of leaders in San Fransico de la Paz.

“We got to work with individuals within their community that already have tremendous leadership and community service spirit,” she said, “and we were able to show that influence and power of these individuals and we were able to add a little bit more prestige to the work that they were doing.”

Those interested in joining the Hondorous Outreach Team for their upcoming trip can do so on the organizations website; https://involvedtoimpact.org/join-2020/. The organization will be accepting applications through September when they will begin selecting new members.

Individuals chosen to join the team will be asked to commit a $500 deposit, which acts as only a third of the trips cost. Lopez said the rest of the trip will be funded by community fundraisers which the team will take part in from the time they are accepted until the leave for Hondorous.

Lopez said the growth of Involved to Impact – which in the beginning of the non-profits endeavors got fiscal support from established organizations including Positive Street Art and the Nashua Police Athletic League – has made it possible for them to expand beyond the Hondorous Outreach Team.

The organization now works to help other emerging non-profits, such as Operation Enduring welcome which is an organization that works to build bonds in the community between civilians and veterans.

Mathew Plamondon can be reached at 594-1244 or mplamondon@nashuatelegraph.com, @telegraph_MatP.