The city of Poughkeepsie and the Poughkeepsie City School District have created a new position to improve communication with the city’s Latino community.

Julee Molina was born in Chile and moved to the United States as a toddler. Speaking Spanish as her first language, Molina is now Poughkeepsie’s Spanish Public Information Officer.

“Being able to help my community has also been something there able to help me,” Molina said.

Poughkeepsie City School District Superintendent Eric Rosser and Mayor Rob Rolison said the position is a solution to overcoming communication barriers between the city, school system and community members.

“Those are gaps that need to be filled. We need to be able to communicate to others within our community about the things that we’re doing,” Rolison said.

Rosser said the number of Spanish-speaking students has gone up.

“It is important that as a parent and community engagement strategy that we continue to transform the district to be able to meet the needs of the city’s growing Latino community,” Rosser said in a statement.

Molina said this became even more clear during the COVID-19 pandemic as people needed to get health and vaccine information.

“There’s things that come secondhand to us that are never, ever going to be connected in the time that is vital to get things done. These are vital things that I’m communicating on that affect them every day,” Molina said.

Esperanza Dutchess County Hispanic Organization hosts a youth summer program aimed at assisting families of all ethnicities. In the month that Molina has been in this position, she has already helped the organization get a tent it needed.

“Having unity, which is the name of our program – esperanza is unity and hope – so that kind of made us very happy that it happened,” said Norma Vizcarrondo, CEO and executive director of Esperanza.

Molina said she works with the school district, community leaders and members, as well as organizations and nonprofits to help with communication efforts “to give people some kind of peace of mind in knowing that there’s actually somebody out there specifically for them that is working to get, to have a stronghold, a center of information to be able to refer them to, to be able to help them,” Molina said.