People with Hispanic heritage can sure use some help all across the country. In order to protect your loved ones against xenophobia, racism, and all other forms of discrimination, it’s good to get familiar with the many organizations that have got your back. Their services range from legal protection against unfair deportation to economic advice and political empowerment. Here are the top 10 organizations that empower Latinxs in America.
United We Dream
Committed to ensuring the safety of immigrants across the country, UWD is the largest immigrant youth-led community in America. It’s specialized in helping undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. They seek to empower people into developing leadership and organization skills as they help them fight injustice at the local, state, and federal levels. Recently, they created a series of flyers to let every migrant know how they should prepare and what they should do in case ICE goes after them.
Hispanic Scholarship Fund
One of the main concerns for Latinxs in America is getting a good education. That’s why many families move there in the first place. So, it’s great that there’s an organization, the largest non-profit of its kind in the country, that dedicates all its attention to help people do just that. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund provide Latinx families with the information and the resources needed to complete a higher education successfully. It helps as many Hispanic students obtain scholarships and support services as possible—leading them to do well in their course work, graduate, enter a profession, and become the kind of Latinx leaders the country so desperately needs right now.
Hispanic Institute
The Hispanic Institute is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide the most effective education forum possible so that Latinxs can get accurate information on a wide array of topics. Currently, the HI is managing several ongoing projects, including consumer fraud protection, citizenship education, study of Hispanic economic contributions, media monitoring, and Technology & Telecommunication research. All of these projects are directed at improving Latinxs’ quality of life in the U.S.
Hispanic Heritage Foundation
Speaking of education, this award-winning nonprofit has the mission to identify, inspire, prepare, and position Latinx leaders in the classroom, community, and workforce throughout America in order to meet the nation’s priorities. The Hispanic Heritage Foundation promotes cultural pride and empowers the community to become united in the face of its political struggles. The organization achieves this through a unique cycle of leadership programs, including the Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards, Public Awareness Campaigns, Latinos On Fast Track (LOFT), and Hispanic Heritage Awards.
NALEO
As one of America’s main non-profit, non-partisan organizations, NALEO Educational Fund has the ultimate goal of facilitating full Latinx participation in the political process of the U.S. That ranges from immigration, citizenship, voting rights and election reform, to the Census, appointment of qualified Latinxs to top executive and judicial positions, and any other key issue that affects Latinx participation in American politics. As such, NALEO often looks to mobilize the community to engage in civic life, and promotes policies to advance the political engagement of all Latinxs.
Unidos US
Once known as the National Council of La Raza, Unidos US has earned its place as a trusted, nonpartisan voice for Latinxs in the nation. The organization is focused on actively helping the community through research, policy analysis, advocacy efforts, and programs to work directly with Latinxs across the country. Unidos US is partnered with nearly 300 affiliates throughout the U.S. who work together to serve millions of Latinxs in civic engagement, civil rights, immigration, education, health, housing, and economic issues.
Voto Latino
Co-founded by actress Rosario Dawson, Voto Latino evolved from a PSA project into a full-fledged civic media organization that provides young Latinxs with the tools to forge their own future beyond whatever limitations society has unfairly imposed on them. Through digital campaigns, the power of pop culture, and grassroots voices, Voto Latino promotes Latinx engagement in America’s public life.
Grassroots Leadership
Grassroots Leadership focuses exclusively on the problem of mass incarceration, specifically the outrageous phenomenon of for-profit detention, deportation, and criminalization of immigrants. As such, Grassroots Leadership scrutinizes for-profit migrant detention policies and their impact on families and communities. The organization’s efforts against these practices involves the regular organization of communities to fight back against immoral deportation in Texas and the rest of America.
Latino Victory
Described as a “progressive political action committee working to grow Latino political power by increasing Latino representation at every level of government,” Latino Victory identifies, recruits, educates and develops promising candidates to participate in public office, while simultaneously building an increasingly large base of Latinx donors to morally and financially support the corresponding campaigns. Ultimately, the company seeks to increase representation and promote Latinx values to make them more relevant in the public and political spheres.
The Committee for Hispanic Families and Children
The Committee for Hispanic Families and Children focuses on developing and promoting social programs to help low-income Hispanic families and children to improve their quality of life in such areas as youth development, immigrant services, child care, public policy, advocacy, HIV/AIDS prevention, and sexual education. As they state themselves, “CHCF combines education, capacity-building, and advocacy to strengthen the support system and continuum of learning for children and youth.”
There are many other interesting organizations out there, but this is a good place to get you started if you or someone you know either needs any of these services or simply wants to become involved in a more active social role. After all, the Latinx community is nothing if not helpful.