Project LEDO: A Place of Belonging and STEAM Leadership With Fidel Ferrer, President and Founder of Project LEDO
Listen as Fidel Ferrer discusses how he began the nonprofit Project LEDO, its impact on BIPOC kids, and why STEAM is so important.
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Ari O’Donovan
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Learn more about Project LEDO at www.projectledo.org.
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Transcript:
Ari O'Donovan: (00:00)
Thank you so much for listening to boosting our Voices. This program has been brought to you by Boost, Oregon. You can find them online@boostoregon.org. G,
Fidel Ferrer: (00:13)
The whole point of Project Lido is for C communities to come together. So by having a community center as I, my dream has always been like center of innovation for Bipod communities kids and like the community as a whole can come in and innovate around ideas.
Ari O'Donovan: (00:33)
Welcome back y'all to another episode of Boosting Our Voices. As always, I'm your host, IRA O'Donovan and Boost Oregon's Diversity Program manager. We are here to talk about a really amazing nonprofit today and the man who started it. Today, I have Fidel Ferre and he's gonna share with us some details about Project Lido and his journey. Fidel, tell us a little bit about yourself. Listeners are gonna wanna know about you and how you got this all started and your journey. First,
Fidel Ferrer: (01:06)
Thank you so much, first and foremost, to be a part of this podcast and the tension that you're putting with lifting the voices of the community, uh, that we wanna see. Right? So I am honored and really appreciative that, you know, that I could be in your platform to lift the voices of others in our organization. And furthermore, and to like greater Portland, the journey of Project Lido and the journey of myself as a whole. It's been a little bit of a uneventful . I came from Cuba as a refugee couple of years ago, uh, and straight to Portland. Found myself with organizations such as like Erco and so and so many other organizations that helped me relocate in the states that I saw tremendous power of that support that I received from them. And reason being, you know, that I wanted it to start this nonprofit is just to give back exactly the same thing that it was given to me.
Fidel Ferrer: (02:10)
It's clear to me that if we don't have organizations like this, you know, the support, you know, minorities or the support like immigrants, we would not be able to succeed in this system. Right? Uh, that's been always my mo So I came to the states with that, you know, dream of pursuing, uh, the American dream as they call it, right? Uh, with a lot of, and drive to make something of myself and myself better of my family, quickly understood that in order for me to do that, I had to, to navigate through the education system. And then that education system starting at P C C Portland Community College and learning English allowed myself to be open to opportunities that, you know, that otherwise if I didn't see that, I wouldn't be in the place where I'm at. So I went to Poland Community College, you know, to better myself in English and understanding all of, uh, the educational system and how that will look like.
Fidel Ferrer: (03:15)
And from there, quickly after that I transferred to Portland State University, which I graduated from in the pursuit of becoming a dentist, uh, which was always was my dreamed. I found a couple of capstones in leadership capstones that allow me to connect with the communities that we serve right now. And when I say we, meaning like my friends, my classmates from the community started it volunteering at a regular elementary school, which is title one school. And then for those of you who don't know, the title one schools are the schools that they receive low funding from the educational system, educational department. It's based on kind of like the taxation of the place or where the community, I mean the school is at based on the community that they are around them. And those school like that, we, we, we went to the regular elementary school.
Fidel Ferrer: (04:13)
There were, or there was predominantly immersion schools or like predominant Latinx communities and Spanish speaker communities. And coming from my background, right, uh, coming from Cuba with, you know, like that's my, my primary language Spanish, I saw the, the connection between them and the kids that we work with at the time. They had that eagerness to learn to connect. And, and then coming from my background being in science degree, I wanted it to, you know, make sure that the kids get the opportunity to be supported in this predominantly, you know, white male dominant field. As was navigating through my undergrad and, and years and, and my college years, it was really hard for me, you know, when you don't see someone that you know, resemble the demographic that you wanna see. So from there we took, I would say really intentionally a look at what could we have done to better serve our communities.
Fidel Ferrer: (05:20)
We connected with the principal at the time at regular elementary school and uh, we wanted to kind of like keep going, volunteering to the school. It was clear to me that we needed to do something bigger than just, you know, come in and volunteering. Uh, there are programs that I wanted it to pilot that they didn't have but didn't have the funding for that we definitely could have the opportunity to come in. And that's kind of like where I started Project Lido with a lot of, you know, eagerness to learn. Even at that time I wasn't even in the path to actually, you know, embark in this journey. And the more I got closer to it, the more I was able to, you know, understand more what it takes to not only develop programs and and logistics around it, but fundraising and, and provide infrastructure for an organization to, to be, uh, strong, therefore supporting other schools and regular at the time.
Ari O'Donovan: (06:17)
That's remarkable. , you said earlier that your story isn't remarkable. Yes, it is. I'm gonna tell you that right now. This is not the time to get shy on the podcast and not be proud of all the accomplishments that you have made.
Fidel Ferrer: (06:31)
. Thank you. No, I always say that because, you know, as I move through this world, I understand that, you know, like my story, it's no more or less than any brown or black individual that is trying to make something of themselves and then therefore support the community. I guess the only differences between, you know, like thinking of an idea or like feeling that we need to do something and actually doing it is just starting, right? That process. I've been so blessed by the opportunity to, you know, like learn and, and therefore support my community to have so many people along the side that they see the importance and they buy into it. And that's what I always wanted to keep it because it's all about the community itself and it's all about, you know, like bringing the gift, whatever gift I may have when it comes to influence people that can make a difference to actually do. So. You know, if that calls for like an interesting journey, I would, you know, like I humbly claim that, but it honestly, it kind of like it goes back to those voices that otherwise might not be heard, you know?
Ari O'Donovan: (07:54)
Absolutely. And you have a lot of intersection realities. You're a black man, you're from Cuba, you speak Spanish, you also have a Latinx background. These are things that a representative of a lot of youth in our community and they need to be able to know that not only am I benefiting from something great that this nonprofit is giving me, it came from someone that looks like me that has a language like mine. And that's just a good feeling when you know that it's a source of empowerment. And I'd like you to share a little bit of what the power of empowerment means to you.
Fidel Ferrer: (08:35)
Yeah. Um, we always throw this, throw these kind of like ideas of what empowerment looks like and feels like and things like that. And uh, for me, I always try to like to pivot in a different way, you know, when it comes to empowerment, because you know, I've been talking a lot with my team about this specific topic, right? For me, empowerment is to realize that we don't have the resources empowerment. For me it's to understand that because we don't have the resources, we have a responsibility to fulfill that support to our communities, to fulfill that support even to ourselves. Like it goes beyond what you could do for your community. It's a personal believing that there's more to it than the circumstances that you're facing, right? There's more to it than than what your social economic situation is. That there's more to it than whatever you are made to be filled.
Fidel Ferrer: (09:46)
And if you walk along sigh with people that understand that concept and therefore like leaning towards, like bridging that gap, right? It becomes a sense of like strength that happens within yourself. And because you're walking along with people that understand that there's, it gets stronger and stronger and stronger. So it's kind of like having one stick and then breaking in half and then having like multiple stick, kind of like trying to break it. It's like harder to break it. And that's what I look at when it comes to, you know, like being able to, you know, to throw these like empowerment things. It's like the power lays on the community. The power lays on understanding that I might not have the resources or I might not even feel, you know, like that I belong to a certain environment. But there is a responsibility that I have within myself to leaning towards that.
Fidel Ferrer: (10:45)
And because I don't, you know, like might not be able to see it clearly, but feel that my journey has been paid for a while back and I have if be, and therefore if I am in that room is because I belong in that room, right? And then back to the kids, if someone that can see the potential that they have an invest in that potential, you know, and bring resources to them and the kids can see that they can do it. I always say that it comes both ways. I cannot, I don't believe that I can empower more than you can do yourself. The first thing, it has to come within that desire to make something out of a situation differently that what you experience it or what you're going through and align with people that can support you and provide resources for you to be able to like break away from that.
Fidel Ferrer: (11:39)
That's what the whole power is. And in understanding that sometimes we're not gonna get it right. And that's the po that empower empowerment comes from confidence, you know, like the confidence that even so we are not gonna get it right. We are going to try again and do it again and then if we fail, we are, you know, like do it again. And then like understanding like that it doesn't come just for one trial or two trials or three trials, it comes from that, those failures, those like setbacks. Uh, because that gives you more strength to kind of like keep, keep moving forward.
Ari O'Donovan: (12:18)
That's so true. You learn with every mistake that you make, as long as you learn from it, it's not really an end all be all mistake. And so many people of color, bipo community members in whatever like realm of professionalism they're in, feel that sense of imposter syndrome where they're questioning, do I belong here? Maybe I shouldn't be here. You gotta walk in there and believe that you belong there cuz how are you gonna get things done for other people and youth if you don't feel that yourself? So that's so important. And those resources for STEM science and math and technology and everything, they're not just naturally given to bipo communities. It's something that we have to secure for our own communities and work harder to attain, work harder to get youth to find the joy in STEM and how fun it can be. And I love that. I love that about your journey. I love that about Project Lido and I'd love for you to tell me what exactly does Project Lido do? How do you provide resources for kids? How do you make it so that there's a level playing field for Bipo youth, but also like an elevated one to where they get put in places and they get resources that they may never get otherwise?
Fidel Ferrer: (13:37)
Project leader as a whole, we provide, you know, like levels of like resources for the students in the bipo communities, uh, title one schools to empower themselves to see themselves represented in the field of stem and now coming out to steam, right? Like because we, we understand that art is a form of, of expression and, and a form of, you know, like realization that can be really integrated with stem meaning more engineering, more like technical side of things. So the fine arts and the technical side of things can be combined to create an amazing, beautiful thing. We do that through coding and we use Lego robotics as a way of connecting the kids with uh, coding, with critical thinking, with communication skills and leadership skills around stem. And the aspect of our organization that is so valuable to a lot of communities in Portland is that we provide that free of cost and that creates, I would say a bridge in between communities that they can afford having these programs and communities that they cannot afford.
Fidel Ferrer: (14:48)
Having Lego robotics programs as far as, uh, of their curriculum. Uh, we do that in two forms, whether it's like in the curricular activities or extracurricular activities in in afterschool programs where we come together bringing resources to our schools for the students to start working on the aspect of, you know, robotics and encoding and what does that mean and what are the core values that we in this, you know, world of STEM will look forward to. Such as, you know, diversity such as community, such as, you know, having fun first and foremost such as, you know, like communication such as inclusivity. So like all these different things that we are aiming for new developers or like web designers or you know, engineers or, or what have you and whatever field you're working on in stem, you know, having those elements of actually humanity and core values that are so important.
Fidel Ferrer: (15:54)
Now in the field of stem there is this like method that like stem, you know, focus careers, they're a little bit more, I always call it a square, a little bit more like rigid, a little bit more like formatted a little bit more kind of like edit it, you know, for lack of a better word. But when it comes to these programs that we're providing, we wanted to merge the two, you know, we wanna merge that the kids can be themselves, like bring their most authentic self but still have this aspect of like, I can be an engineer and I don't have to change anything about myself. I can bring my whole authentic self and still accomplish the task at hand. So the challenges that we give them and the programs that we kind of like ask them to code and therefore come to other schools, which they have these programs like readily available for them that they've been working with those programs for a while, right? And they have more resources and then still see in the same room. Right? So I'm coming back to what we talked about, like be feeling that we belong in the same room even though we didn't come from the same background. Yeah,
Ari O'Donovan: (17:02)
I really wanna see Project Lido develop and grow and support more and more kids. I love that it's free of charge because getting into robotics and coding and all that kind of stuff can be expensive. Sometimes it's something that's only like available for people at like private schools or like, you know, people that have higher incomes and I don't know anybody building anything in the realm of robotics. So that's really dope.
Fidel Ferrer: (17:32)
It is really expensive and, and we've put so much intention into fundraise and to, you know, like work with other organizations and develop grants to make sure that we can eliminate all these roadblocks for these students. Sometimes it's hard because some roadblocks are being designed for our system in the way that the, the school districts and the the admin work on the schools are, are kinda like designed to like pretty much I would say hinder or slow down the process of us coming in to the schools and actually being able to support these students. But at the same time we find courage to do it because we see the, the importance and we see the impact that we're creating. It's super hard sometimes to run our programs. It requires a lot of logistics. One of those like Lego sets or Lego boxes that we call them Lego kits.
Fidel Ferrer: (18:31)
It's about like $500 a piece for I would say four to five students to work around, right? So imagine having 400 students and counting now in our programs how much funding it goes just to bring the logistics and then iPads and then computers. But we have really good partners along the way on this, uh, initiatives that Project Lido has and all these programs. That's what it makes it all like a little easier for us. You know, we have big partnerships with an organization that is super dear to my heart. I actually got my first computers through them. Then they're also trying to bridge that digital divide, which is a free gig. And through them we've been able to deploy a lot of computers to the students and giving them, you know, free of cost for the students to like further their education. Which is something that that partnership we've been able to utilize, support a lot of schools and therefore we have, you know, first Tech Credit Union and Collins Foundation and the Mark Da Foundation. It's so many people that they're definitely been able to contribute to our efforts.
Ari O'Donovan: (19:44)
400 kids, that's phenomenal. There are other organizations I know of that are only serving like maybe a third that many and the cost $500 for a Lego box to begin. Wow, I can really see that the need for funding is really important and securing those grants that takes knowledge and courage. And I know that's frustrating for you cuz you're one of those people that wants to get out and help the kids. Like let me get out and do the hands-on thing, go to schools, talk to kids, get involved in that way. But there is that administrative side so that you can secure what you're doing and make it possible for people.
Fidel Ferrer: (20:27)
That's correct. And that's one of the things that's made like a really, I would say a learning curve for me. Yes, we move through this, you know, higher standards, being able to secure the funds but also, cuz one of the things I is, it's like what you mentioned, right? Like for me, I'd rather uh, spend my time in the classrooms, in the afterschool programs working with the students and see tangibly the impact that we are creating. But if I don't go out and fundraise and then get my strategies fundraising together with like my team and then my grants and then our partnerships, things like this don't happen. And that's one of the things that, you know, president and executive director, it's uh, something that you lose a little bit touch with, you know, and then you like at times I will feel like, you know, this is worth it, this is worth it. Let's go about and let's do it. But it's hard and you know, it's hard when you are trying to showcase to the funders and donors like what and why it's so important for these communities to actually have these resources and, and make it clearly that all the funding that goes into it goes back to the community and to support our programs and that's why we do it right. In such a way free of cost. Yeah,
Ari O'Donovan: (21:51)
That's amazing. I just love it. You have a personal dream to build a community center. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Fidel Ferrer: (22:01)
It's a dream of mine to create a community center. Build a community center in which not only our programs get, you know, elevated but that other communities, other organizations and people come to to our community center, right? To our a place where everyone can feel welcome and belonged. Right? And I can feel that they belonged somewhere, right? You know, one of the pinpoints and the difficulties that comes within like facilitating these programs as we expand is that we are all over like Portland school district, Beaverton school district, we are expanding to Hillsboro. So it's like really the level of like growth is really rapidly cuz it's sometimes it can be isolated. The whole point of Project Lido is for communities to come together. So by having a community center as I, my dream has always been like center of innovation for bipod communities kids and like the community as a whole can come in and innovate around ideas, around programs.
Fidel Ferrer: (23:08)
You know, like having that sense of belonging to somewhere that they can, you know, like go and you know, like middle schoolers and high schoolers can study even like college students can go in and study, can present their works that they're working with in their own journeys in college or in their own journey in school. It's one of the things that I will love to see in the future because it's easier for us also to, you know, concentrate our efforts in one place and then people can, in the community as a whole can come together in one place rather than having these kind of like sometimes outline disconnect. That's one of the things that we're seeing. Funding will go a long way in one place rather than just like deploy efforts in each each community. And obviously we're also looking intentionally into the ruler areas, right?
Fidel Ferrer: (24:03)
Like areas where there's not that much access, they're not in the inner cities, they're a little bit more farther away. How can we empower them, right? So that community center or multiple community centers that allow that to happen, multiple chapters will get us closer to bridging that gap, right? And there would not be a reason for an organization or two or three or four or five just come together and collaborate in that space. And it all about collaboration. It's all about, I believe that there is so much that we could do in one place where we can invite others to the same building, the same place to like elevate programs partner together to, you know, like look for more grants, more funding, you know, connect with different set of audience that we typically, if we're going into our own niches, we will not otherwise connect with.
Ari O'Donovan: (24:59)
That's just a whole one stop shop really for innovation, for like you mentioned earlier, showing up as your authentic self collaboration, steam all of it. And then getting out and reaching rural communities too because Bipo youth out there, they just don't have access to the same resources that a child living in Portland, in a major city in Oregon would have. And they still deserve those resources just like any other Bipo kids. So if, I hope funders are listening to this episode and I really want them to like contact you because if I was a funder, I would fund this project immediately. That is so dope. I would love to see that happen. And we've seen what community centers do for kids. It gives them a place, maybe their home life isn't the best. Maybe they don't have a whole lot of friends, maybe other aspects of their lives are not quite where they want them to be, but they can show up at a community center and that's their home, that's where they feel comfortable. They have mentors there, they have resources there. They get to do the thing they love doing when they're not in school. You can find them there. That's perfect.
Fidel Ferrer: (26:10)
Yeah, that's exactly what it is. You know, it's like your second home away from home that provides stability for you. The majority of these kids, sometimes they lack of stability because of the circumstances where they're at. Some of them in, in their own environments don't even have the resources to get internet or to get, you know, like we work with students that they, they live in like mobile homes and trailers and RVs and you know, motel, you know, at, at some point of their lives. And then just having a place where they can just go in and just like at least break away a little bit of what their circumstances are and focusing on their future and seeing that their circumstances that they're at right now doesn't dictate where they can go. Right. Influencing that it's what I am really passionate about. What, what I want to see in the future because it alters back to myself.
Fidel Ferrer: (27:08)
You know, I came in immigrant not having anything, you know, I I I came with 5 cents in my pockets, uh, to the land of the free and all that, what they said, good stuff. But then if it wasn't because organizations like this that supported me along the way, that kind of like gave me a little bit and then a little bit and a little bit that I could actually do for myself. I wouldn't be where I'm at if I have gone anywhere, right? So having that being back to the community and to others, it's what I love to keep enhancing and doing. And, and I believe that that community center is like the place, right? That ruler places, right? Like sometimes we look at it and the communities that I've kinda like been in touch with to brainstorm how we can support them. It's just that cycle breaking that cycle is so important because what they see from their parents is that they work in the field and therefore that's the only path that they can see, right?
Fidel Ferrer: (28:08)
And they don't even care or, or even are aware enough to understand that that's not the only path, right? So they will just go in and then they will look and, and mimic and what their parents are doing, which is not, I would say at this honorable like, you know, like job or work at hand. But uh, at the very least what I am aiming to do or what project leaders I mean to do is just, you know, showcase that there are multiple avenues in which they can go through and then they, they get to pick the majority of our communities. You know, like as sad as it is these nuances like is that because we didn't know what it could be available for us? We don't get the choice to, you know, go after what we thought it will be what it even wanted us to do because we don't see what's in front of us. We could be really good at it or not, but if we don't have those resources, we never will find out whether we are good or not. Whether that's actually our passion or, so a big, big aspect of, you know, like being able to, you know, see and like change your faith for the future is actually like being brought those resources into your front, therefore it's your choice, right?
Ari O'Donovan: (29:26)
I love that. I love having people feel like they have autonomy, they can do things for themselves. I really, really love that. And I am always here on every episode to be the number one hype woman. For anybody out here who's passionate about what they do, who's really trying to make a difference in some aspect of bipo community members' lives, that means a lot to me.
Fidel Ferrer: (29:52)
No, thank you. I appreciate you and you know, the day one that we connected, it's clear to me that you have that passion and that you definitely want to elevate those voices and because of, you know, people like you and resources that yeah you have, that's what elevating looks like and in that empowerment that we talked about looks like uh, you know, we might not, you know, understand the importance of, you know, why the systems and things that I'm in place and things like that. I mean all these barriers, but what we do understand is that there's something that we need to do and then by your platform amplifying the voices of, of my platform and then from me or we can amplify somebody else and then at the end as a result of like getting an impact. That's essentially what, you know, like unite us more than like separates us. For sure.
Ari O'Donovan: (30:44)
Most definitely. And thank you. Can you tell listeners how they can get involved, whether it's volunteering, donating, where you guys can be found on social media or your website, share all that information so people can support you guys.
Fidel Ferrer: (31:01)
Project Lido, it's a organization just calm based in Portland, Oregon, downtown Portland. You can, you know, find us on Instagram and if anything else by you just going to on Instagram and just typing Project Lido, which is the word project and then L e D O. It's our, the name of our nonprofit. You can just give us a like or DMAs if you want to be part of it, if you want to volunteer or if you wanna find out more about us or you can email us@infoprojectleader.org. I would definitely recommend also to search us on the web project leader.org. We have a lot of events, upcoming opportunities, find out a little bit more about what we've done in the community as well as our LinkedIn profile that we have. We have like all these social media platforms, Facebook at Project Lido, LinkedIn at Project Lido, Instagram that you definitely wanna get in touch with because we update our community a lot through Instagram and Facebook.
Fidel Ferrer: (32:08)
And if you really want to make a difference for sure, you wanna connect us through info project leader.org and or just reach out straight to me and have like a beg. I would not always gonna, you know, like follow through like right away. But I would definitely make sure that I follow with you at fidel dot ferre project lido.org. There's all these different forms in which you can donate through our website and you just click the donate button, whatever that is. Whether it's $1, whether it's $10, whether it's $20, it definitely makes a difference if you wanna partner with us in different programs and opportunities. Once again, info@projectlido.org that'll get you exactly connected with our team.
Ari O'Donovan: (32:56)
Absolutely. And definitely follow on ig. We follow them. Boosting our voices follows Project Lido, so y'all should do it too. We will definitely put that information for social media and your website in the description for this episode. Fidel, I know that you recently won an award, so tell me what that is and what it's about.
Fidel Ferrer: (33:22)
I humbly accepted the top executive director of the year for Social impact from Portland Business Journal. It's back to the team, back to the intentional work. And I believe that there is so much that we can do if people, you know, like lean in in them, they just like move towards the opportunity to connect with us, to partner with us. So I'm super excited and, and see what's yet to come. I think the future is bright. I'm hopeful for the future, but also I'm really excited to work on all these other things that we are trying to launch in and with your support, with the support of your audience, you know, that if anything resonates with our story, with what we're trying to accomplish, we can actually do it.
Ari O'Donovan: (34:13)
Fidel it has been wonderful talking to you. It really has.
Fidel Ferrer: (34:18)
It's, uh, amazing to be working with you and talking to you. I am really honored and appreciate the intention that you're put into, you know, like boosting the voice of others and you're in organizations that they're doing a good job and what I consider an important and meaningful job in our community. And I wish you nothing but success. I you are, you know, like without you and lifting those voices and getting all those people that you know, connect with your audience, we would not be reaching more folks. So I really appreciate all the efforts that you're putting into lifting the voices of our community. For sure.
Ari O'Donovan: (34:56)
Thank you so much. I'm glad that this is audio only. I almost started crying on the podcast , but thank you. It's very fun and this is exciting to showcase you work and I can't wait. I can't wait to see what y'all are doing. If you have an event or anything that you wanna notify people about, let us know and we will put all the information on social media, our social media so people know about it. Don't forget to do that. Stay in touch with me, Fidel.
Fidel Ferrer: (35:24)
Yes. No, I wouldn't definitely be there all the time. Once again, we, we got a really good thing coming and then going and then I will definitely be in touch for sure.
Ari O'Donovan: (35:35)
Wonderful. Well, until next time y'all don't be a stranger, email us or send us a voice memo at boosting our voices gmail.com with your health related questions. Your questions may even be featured on an upcoming podcast episode. Follow Boost Oregon on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. You can find all of our social media and our website information in the show description below. Until next time, thank you for listening and be well.