MEDA-VITA Svs & Outreach

Hi everyone! It’s Carla and Hong and we are this year’s interns for Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) located in the Mission district of San Francisco. Before we start to tell you more about MEDA, here’s a little information about ourselves…

Carla Cayas – I am originally from San Jose, CA and I am a senior double major in Accounting and Finance. I was involved in numerous extra curricular activities in high school and throughout college. In high school I was Treasurer for the Filipino Student Association (FSA). In college I was active in the Filipino multi-cultural club, Kasamahan. During my sophomore year, I served the position of Sophomore representative and the first semester of my junior year I was Treasurer. In addition, I was Finance Vice President for my service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. I believe that my experiences in these organizations has helped me be more organized, helped me prioritize my priorities, and exposed me to working with different groups of people. Taking on this internship at MEDA as a Tax Preparer has given me the opportunity to experience something new. At MEDA there was a language barrier between the clients and I. Most of the clients that came in were Spanish speaking only, but during the days were there were more clients than volunteers, they had no choice but to go to me. Although, I do not speak Spanish fluently, I can get a good grasp of what they are saying. I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and I am mostly fluent in Tagalog. Since I can speak and understand Tagalog, some of the words and numbers are very similar to Spanish, therefore I can communicate what I know and hope for the best that we can understand each other. However, if questions are needed to be be asked, the other volunteers and the workers of MEDA are always open to help translate. 

Hong Nguyen – I am from San Leandro, CA andam a senior double major as well in Accounting and Business Administration.  In high school, I volunteered for a lot of different activities so it exposed me to working with a lot of different types of people and catering to different needs.  I took three years of Spanish in high school and although I have not been keeping up with it since going to college, it definitely came into play while volunteering at MEDA.  Language was definitely a barrier between us and the clients, but there were many people there that were willing to help translate what any questions that were raised.  Volunteering at MEDA made me a more patient person because there were not always clients there or they would request for a Spanish speaking volunteer.  The people at MEDA were very helpful and I am grateful for this experience.

We are volunteering at Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), which is a nonprofit organization. Our supervisor is Graciela Reyna and our task there is to work with individual clients and prepare their tax returns. In order for us to prepare the tax returns, we had to become certified. There are different levels of certification and tests that go accordingly to that specific certification. We were told by our supervisor that we needed to be certified by January 14th, because we were going to start preparing tax returns the following week. For each level of certification, there is a practice lab that we went through and it was a series of sample situations and we had to fill out sample tax returns according to the situations. The practice lab was useful because it asked us questions at the end regarding different amounts that should be shown on the tax forms. We worked with our supervisor during the testing for the certification and she was able to review our answers and explain to us the reasoning behind them. We are able to work closely with our supervisor and it is great because if we have any questions, she is there ready to help us.

Now, a little background on the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA). MEDA has been providing services to the community since 1973. It focuses on helping improve the economic and social conditions of San Francisco’s immigrants and working class families with an emphasis on the Latino community and the Mission district of San Francisco. Some programs MEDA provides, aside from the Tax program, are business development, home ownership, financial education, and organizing and advocacy. The business development program helps assist entrepreneurs in San Francisco that want to start a microenterprise or expand their current businesses. MEDA professionals provide consultations in obtaining access to capital, business assessment, business planning, financial projections and budgeting, marketing, lease consultations, and family childcare providers within the city of San Francisco. The homeownership program provides one-on-one consultation services to those who want to know more about the basis of homeownership such as financial education, credit counseling, information on down payments and closing costs assistance, affordable housing options, and foreclosure intervention counseling. The financial education program provides low and moderate Latino families with the education they need to improve their credit score to at least 650 or higher, increase savings to three months of living expenses, and reducing their debt to income ratio to 40% or lower. Last but not least, the last program organizing and advocacy helps develop and advocate for public policies that support the Latino working class community of the Mission District and throughout the City of San Francisco.

MEDA has a big impact on the community because they are able to provide free services to their community.  We deal with a lot of clients and they tell us how grateful they are that we are able to provide them with free tax preparation.  Because we deal with low income families, they cannot always afford to pay someone todo their taxes for them.  Last year, MEDA prepared about 2,000 tax returns and their goal this year is to surpass that number.  So far, we have prepared over 1,000 tax returns and there is still about 4 weeks left until the end ofthe tax season.  Thepeople at MEDA want to help out their community and try to get their clients the most amount of money back and offer free financial classes at the site to teach the clients how they can save up and get out of debt.  Their mission is to help better the community.

The last day of the tax season was April 18th and there were a lot of people at MEDA getting their taxes done before we closed.  A total of 2,710 tax returns were completed and it gave back $2.3 million to the community.  It has been a great experience working with different clients and understanding their individual needs.  Language was sometimes a barrier because of where MEDA is located, there are a lot of Spanish only speakers, so they need a Spanish speaking volunteer.  However, there are some clients that have someone else with them that can translate for them.  All in all, I learned a lot during this experience and glad that I was able to be a part of it.

To add to what Hong said, I am honored to be a part of what MEDA has done for the community. Since most of the clientele were low income families, any refund they received was a huge help. After working this tax season at MEDA, I have learned to not take what I have for granted. Some clients I have had have multiple jobs just to get by. This shows that nothing comes easy. I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to work at MEDA and their employees and other volunteers I have made friends with.