"As of now, [Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement] VIDA has graduated over 4000 students with an average salary of about $48,000 a year. Lifting our community, our families from poverty, depending on welfare to be self sustaining, to get out of poverty and bringing about dignity and respect to their families and bringing about an opportunity for the next generation to do better than themselves. That's what Valley Interfaith has done."

-Eddie Anaya

[Excerpt]

"Just a week or two back the nonprofit was named one of only 25 organizations nationwide and the only one from Texas to be awarded a $3 Million Nursing Expansion Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop professional pathways to nursing...

Some may not know that VIDA was started almost 28 years ago by Valley Interfaith. In this “Historical Sidebar,” Rio Grande Guardian International News Service audio editor Mario Muñoz interviews two Valley Interfaith leaders, Eddie Anaya and Joe Hinojosa, about the early days of VIDA."

[Photo Credit: Rio Grande Guardian]

Valley Interfaith Leaders Recall the Early Days of VIDA, Rio Grande Guardian [pdf]
Original Interview Audio
Interview Transcript