Empowering immigrants to never stop dreaming

True North is a nonprofit organization in Humboldt County that works to empower families, especially within the Latine community, through workshops, support
groups and community outreach. Among those making changes is Yohana Castillo who left everything behind as a teenager to pursue a dream, finding a better life.

Julia Lerma, director of True North, says the heart of the organization is connection.

“What we do is we bring folks together from different backgrounds and cultures, and sometimes faith and values, and we find that people have basic values that they are concerned, about families, about their neighbors, about each other, about education, about safety,” Lerma said.

Five or six years ago, she began participating in parent groups at her children’s school. She helped organize meetings, especially encouraging Latine
parents to attend and find their voice in a primarily English speaking district.

True North eventually gave a presentation at one of those meetings, where Castillo met Lerma.

“Later, Julia called me and said, ‘Yohana, I feel that you have leadership. I like your spark, I like that you are always active everywhere in everything related to school,’” Castillo said. “She told me, ‘I feel that you have that gift to lead the community.’ And then she offered me a job.”

Castillo was 15 when she made the life changing decision to leave Oaxaca, Mexico by herself. As a teenager, she wanted to continue her education, but economic
limitations and distance made it impossible in Oaxaca.

“I had much anxiety, much fear,” Castillo said. “I didn’t know about anxiety until I came to this country. I didn’t know anything about the language. The trip to
come here was difficult because it was a huge decision in my life.”

When she arrived, she contacted her brother, who was shocked she had made it alone. They picked her up and informed her father that she was safe.

Soon after, Castillo’s older sister helped her enroll in high school in Humboldt County. The transition was overwhelming. She didn’t speak English; everything from
the food to culture was unfamiliar. She sometimes wondered whether she had made the right decision.

She recalled her first day of high school in the United States. At the school bookstore, she began to cry because she could not understand the staff member.
A classmate, who is now one of her best friends, stepped in to assist. That moment of kindness helped ground her in a new country.

“She said, ‘hey, it’s okay, it’s going to be okay,’ and she made me feel like I could breathe again. From that moment on, she never left my side, she was always with
me, and we have been best friends up until now,” Castillo said.

Overcoming the biggest change in her life, Castillo now is the one that guides others through their paths.

“I can tell people like me, immigrants, to never stop dreaming,” Castillo said. “ To never stop having faith and hope because sooner or later I know they will achieve that dream they long for the most, even if many, many years pass.”