| Heritage University will use its Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting Communities (HSIAC) grant and the expertise of faculty, students in partnership with the city, and community organizations to address three urgent areas of need. The first is public leadership and civic engagement. This focus area will create a public leadership and civic engagement training academy to prepare neighborhood residents for public service opportunities. A series of seminars, networking opportunities, mentoring, and training on public leadership and civic engagement will be provided. The participants will also undertake community projects as part of their training. The second area is promoting tourism and marketing Toppenish. This focus area will work with the newly created tourism association to improve the local economy of Toppenish. Heritage will use its faculty and students from the school's business department to assist businesses in a range of marketing projects. These projects will include developing marketing materials, marketing campaigns, business Web sites, and a series of informational tourism presentations. The third area is upgrading a community facility. The Community Business and Training Center, built with a previous HSIAC grant, will be enhanced to enable community residents to fully use the facility for these two new activities. The new additions to the community facility will include videoconferencing capabilities, a computer laboratory, and a paved parking lot.
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