“I hold a position in the community where I am seen as a representative for other Latinos and Latinas, and so I take that very seriously. It’s a big responsibility for me,” said Rut Miller of her work in Estes Park as the Executive Director of Estes Valley Investments in Childhood Success.
EVICS is a nonprofit organization designated as a family resource center that has been operating in the community since 2006, evolving over the years to offer a full suite of family resources today.
Miller has been with the organization since 2021, starting as the bilingual family development coordinator, promoted to program director, interim Executive Director, and by the middle of last year EVICS Executive Director, the first Latina-American to hold that position.
EVICS serves all demographics of families in need in Estes Park. “We don’t discriminate,” said Miller. “We have a discrimination policy. We don’t discriminate against race, color, gender, nothing. So, here we serve everyone.”
Housed in a small office park, EVICS’ family resource center is the organization’s home. A place where the governing board members can meet and staff can work. There’s a playroom and a kid’s closet, a stash of diapers, and several offices kept empty for family intake sessions.
Since its inception, EVICS has provided childcare tuition assistance so working families can put their kids in daycare while they go to work. EVICS is a place to start for a family seeking help. The organization has a web of partners throughout the community and if EVICS doesn’t know or can’t help, their referral network is comprehensive.
Over the years, the organization has developed an extensive network of community partnerships and collaborations under Miller’s leadership.
“My own desire to grow has led me to continuing education,” she said. In 2022, Miller took part in the eight-month BASE program, which was run by the Estes Development Council. BASE—Business Accelerator Service of Estes—which is now run by the Estes Chamber of Commerce Economic Development and Workforce Council, is a “theory light – application heavy” program designed to help participants align their business with the realities of a changing business environment, build a cohort that can help them network both during and after the program, and improve participants ability to “intercept the future” of business in Estes Valley.
Miller has participated in two leadership workshops, subsidized by Colorado Health Network. The Collective Leadership Initiative Makespace Programis a competitive process that teaches new or emerging leaders how to effectively communicate with members of a diverse community and, the HadaNou Collective’s Leadership Bootcamp, a training program for leaders in the nonprofit industry.
Miller is a board member of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program with the United Way of Larimer County, which provided more than $646,000 in funding to local nonprofits to support emergency food and shelter needs.
She is also a board member of the Estes Park Housing Authority which provides housing options and services for qualified low-to-moderate-income households that is oversees the implementation of the 6E “bed tax” funds designated for workforce housing.
Originally from Paraguay, Miller first spoke English at home to missionaries visiting from the United States.
“At that time, my church wanted to open a new location,” she said. When one couldn’t be found, “my mom decided to open up our home for the new church. These missionaries came to my home, and I couldn’t understand them. I wanted to speak to them, and I wanted to connect with them, but I needed an interpreter to communicate,” she said.
“This was in the year 2000, and I remember I told my mom, ‘I want to learn English.’” The only opportunity was an hour away on the bus, so every Saturday after a full week of school, Miller got on the bus to go to English class at the Paraguayan American Cultural Center.
“I had zero English,” Miller remembered. “I didn’t know anything. And I remember the teacher said, I am going to speak to you in Spanish for 15 minutes. That’s it. Then, we are speaking in English. You came here to learn English, so you will learn English.’”
“But I’m very thankful for that,” Miller said. “Because within six months, I was able to start basic conversation, and within a year, I was able to communicate. By the time these missionaries came back, I was their translator. Every year they came, I was the translator for them.”
Miller is the only member of her family who has graduated from college. She attended the Universidad Nacional de Asunción, “the only public university in Paraguay” to get a bachelor’s degree in obstetrics, maternal, and infant health, which is one of two paths to take before studying to become a nurse, which was her ultimate goal.
“This is essentially midwifery,” she explained, and after graduating, “I was in charge of the delivery room in a small, rural hospital.”
In the meantime, her parents had migrated to Spain for work, and while she was visiting them, Miller decided she wanted to live there. She passed three tests needed for certifications to use her degree in Spain and looked into becoming a permanent resident. She was in the process of certification to practice midwifery when she became engaged to a man from the United States. In 2012, he obtained a “Fiancé visa,” and the couple moved back to his home in Nebraska.
Their plane landed in Colorado, where her first impression was, “It’s very cold! That was my first culture shock. The weather in Spain is not cold,” she said. It signaled a new focus to life: getting married and putting her career on pause while she homeschooled her three children. In 2018, she became an American citizen.
During the pandemic, the family lost their income and moved to Estes Park for a job prospect. Miller’s journey to becoming the staff leader of EVICS began when she met one of the organization’s board members during the summer of 2021.
Miller was eager for community connections that could not happen during the COVID social distancing restrictions. “I was very isolated. It was very hard on me as a mom, but also as a Latina, not having a community,” she said. She and her family attended an ice cream social hosted by EVICS at Stanley Park.
“It was beautiful because I was able to see so much diversity, and I was able to see a lot of Hispanic, Latina woman. I just came to them and said ‘Hi, my name is Rut. I’m new in town. I would like to meet families and schedule play dates,’” Miller said.
“Jane Stuart approached me and she said, ‘I hope it doesn’t scare you, but I’ve noticed that you are bilingual.’ She shared with me that she was an (EVICS) board member and that there was a desire to connect with the Hispanic community, and that they were hiring a bilingual staff member. I thought, ‘Oh, this will be a great opportunity.’”
Nonprofits in Estes Park are facing cuts in state and federal funding, and while bolstered by 6E funds for childcare tuition, EVICS has many other programs that need support, along with ongoing operational expenses.
“My biggest fear is without funding, we cannot have an office space, a place to host our families, to welcome them,” Miller said. “It’s easier to secure program funding,” but funds to pay for the staff to run the programs are very difficult to find.
“That’s one of my biggest goals for 2025, to secure funding to maintain the operations,” she said. I want my staff members to go through training, to be the best at what they do. I want them to be highly equipped, highly prepared to execute the programming into the community.”
Rut is a fantastic, compassionate leader for EVICS. My grandchildren have benefited from her leadership and service. She brings a sincere, loving emphasis that is very welcoming and supportive of the young families in Estes Park. God bless you, Rut.