Lives of Consequence
Leticia Mangual ’92
HWS attracted Leticia Mangual ’92 with the promise of a low student-to-teacher ratio and a warmer, more personal college experience than a larger university would provide. When she arrived at the Colleges, she knew she wanted to work with people and volunteered a local daycare center. She credits this experience as the “spark” that steered her to a social justice services career in another small community.
Mangual is director of Youth Services at Human Resources Agency (HRA) of New Britain, Conn., a non-profit community action agency assisting 18,000 people. New Britain is a 10-minute drive from the state capital, Hartford, and has a large low-income population. Granted, with 70,000 citizens, New Britain is a bit larger than Geneva, but much smaller than New York City, where Manual grew up and where she first worked after graduating from William Smith with a B.A. in psychology.
Youth Services, which Mangual helped start in 2009, provides a path to college for 16-21 year-olds. The year-round program served 60 clients in 2013. Participants are a mix of high school graduates and dropouts. If they want a high school equivalency diploma or need to improve math or literacy skills, there are agency partners such as a nearby community college that provide courses in these required competencies. Within the group, Mangual says, fifty percent of her clients are teen parents and there may be issues with lack of family support, domestic violence and mental illness, so HRA provides further resources where needed.
Mangual’s team also runs a popular Summer Youth Program for 15-19 year-olds who are still in school. Last summer, 114 young people were at job sites for five weeks, “learning the world of work,” as Mangual puts it. Many earned their first paychecks.
Prior to becoming the director of Youth Services, Mangual directed HRA’s New Britain and Bristol One Stop Career Centers for eight years. Her operation was dedicated to employment, training and case management for unemployed and dislocated workers. She was named Service Provider Workforce Champion in 2007. In 2006, HWRA was named a Workforce Development Leader in the North Central Region of Connecticut.
“We’re passionate about the work,” Mangual says. “It can be very rewarding. I love my agency and what we stand for.”
She adds that moving from New York City to a smaller community like New Britain wasn’t a major transition for her -- she already did it when she attended college in Geneva.
“Choosing to attend William Smith was the best decision I ever made,” she says. “I learned a lot about people and helping others. It has led me to where I am now. I give thanks to William Smith for that.”