Dinuba Community Center Named After Beloved Community Advocate

Dinuba Community Center Named After Beloved Community Advocate

Posted on October 31, 2019

On Wednesday, October 30^th, friends and family gathered as Self-Help Enterprises held a surprise celebration to officially name the Community Center at Sierra Village Apartments in Dinuba after original incorporator and longtime board member Ralph Rosedale.

Thanks in large part to Ralph Rosedale’s participation in the early 1960’s, over 6,300 families have now built their own homes through SHE’s mutual self-help housing program. Furthermore, because SHE was the first organization in the country to focus on sweat equity homeownership for low income farmworkers and other families, he is indirectly responsible for more than 50,000 homes built across the country by organizations modeled after SHE.

“Ralph Rosedale truly embodies the lesson from Mother Teresa – ‘with charity you give love, so don’t just give money but reach out your hand instead’ Self-Help Enterprises is proud to be associated with this great man,” said Tom Collishaw, CEO of Self-Help Enterprises.

“Thanks to Tom Collishaw for the event. I thought it was real nice that Self-Help Enterprises did that for me,” smiled Ralph Rosedale. “I appreciate meeting everyone that came to the event, and I appreciate the people that work for SHE, because they make the organization great.”

Between his commitment to Quaker values and his political connections, Ralph was a perfect person to help get SHE off the ground. Howard Washburn, the first Executive Director of SHE, worked with Ralph and other incorporators to lay the groundwork for the nation’s first self-help housing nonprofit. Ralph played a critical role in the drafting and adoption of legislation that became the original core funding for SHE. During that time, Ralph served as the founding Chairman of the Board for the then new nonprofit, known now as Self-Help Enterprises. Ralph was instrumental in making self-help housing and other rural development efforts meaningful in the United States. In his honor, Self-Help Enterprises is naming the Community Center at Sierra Village Apartments after Ralph.

The Ralph Rosedale Community Center is a gathering place that includes a computer lab available to adults and children for schoolwork and educational activities. Self-Help Enterprises’ Resident Services offers programs to enhance the everyday lives and futures of the residents. These classes include financial fitness, computer literacy, nutrition, English as a second language (ESL), and adult fitness.