Catalyst Grantee Profile: Center on Halsted

Center on Halsted

Interview with Modesto Valle, CEO, Center on Halsted

Organization Name 
Center on Halsted
Organization Website 
centeronhalsted.org
Population Served 
LGBTQ and allies
Organization Location 
Chicago, IL
Founding Year 
1973
Organization Mission 
Center on Halsted advances community and secures the health and well-being of the LGBTQ people of Chicagoland.
Please describe the problem your organization is working to solve and the ways in which your organization’s approach to this work is new or unique. 
Center on Halsted (COH) works to advance community and secure the health and well-being of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people of Chicagoland. COH increases access for LGBTQ people by eliminating barriers related to the intersections of such identities as sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender and gender expression, economic status, physical or cognitive disability, and religion. COH’s approach is unique because it helps accomplish this work through providing a safe, affirming environment for a population too often exposed to violence and hate while advocating for change and acceptance in the community on a wide range of critical social issues at the individual, organizational, and community levels. Through arts, cultural, and affinity programming, it elevates and amplifies the history, lives, and contributions of LGBTQ people as a means of creating stronger identity and pride within the community while promoting inclusion and acceptance beyond it. Through social service offerings, COH provides resources to improve mental health, address the threat of HIV/AIDS to the LGBTQ community, and give youth and seniors the resources needed to live healthy and productive lives. COH also advances the LGBTQ community by hosting an array of robust, educational and enlightening programs open to the public as well as trainings on cultural competency. COH welcomes more than 511,000 visitors each year.
What are some key accomplishments your organization has achieved. 
Since opening the Center in 2007, COH has built the financial and administrative capacity to grow its annual operating budget to $7,000,000.
In FY2017, COH hired for the first time, a Director of Trans Relations and Community Engagement, Vanessa Sheridan, who took on the challenge of meeting with many Transgender groups and individuals throughout the Chicago transgender community. Today, Vanessa now serves as the Director of Gender Equity and Inclusion.
In FY2017, the Center, with support from the Board, hired an LGBTQ Person of Color for the role of a Community and Outreach Coordinator, Joanna Thompson, who managed outreach campaigns throughout the City to increase education and cultural competency while raising awareness of LGBTQ violence prevention and intervention strategies. Today, the role is now Director of Racial Equity and Inclusion.
The Youth Homelessness Initiative Program transitioned its housing of LGBTQ youth to the Woodlawn community in partnership with the Preservation for Affordable Housing (POAH) in the Winter of 2018.
The Center is setting out to open a COH youth “center” in the Woodlawn community of Chicago by FY2021.
Since the beginning of FY16, COH’s Youth Program Staff have provided support to youth through Individual Level Interventions. Among the 2,694 presenting problems noted in these interventions, about one-third (794) related to abuse, mental health, self-harm, and/or violence and trauma. Youth Program Staff have provided a significant increase in the annual number of Behavioral Health referrals compared to previous years, rising 71.43% from FY16 to FY18.
In FY2018, Senior Services provided 17,172 units of services to 1,026 unduplicated clients, of this 126 were new clients and 900 were repeat clients. This exceeded a Department goal of 500 patrons. Additionally, Senior Services served 271 unduplicated seniors 7,298 meals in FY2018. Through programming, which included an average of 66 monthly events, Senior Services reached a total of 755 seniors with 9,874 units of service.
What obstacles (either expected or unexpected) has your organization faced and how have you addressed them? 
The need for services at COH is increasingly greater than current staff capacity. COH clients present with complex issues, such as trauma, and require intensive services. At times COH staff are the only resource for these clients, and they present multiple challenges including mental health, substance use, social isolation, economic hardship, homelessness or unstable housing, family conflict, etc. on top of perhaps dealing with societal stigma and concerns about how to live with healthy gender and sexual identities. Also, public expression of hate and stigma against the LGBTQ population have recently risen. Societal stigma and oppression intensifies challenges in how the LGBTQ community is facing their daily lives. Trauma is triggered, and need for help increases. The safe space the Center has created is critical to defending these uncertain times and ensuring that the change that has been created continues to thrive and that the population it represents is counted and recognized. Despite these challenges, COH will continue to be a catalyst and expand its reach through community partnerships and competing for grant funding opportunities that will move the LGBTQ community forward, and help create a world that is more inclusive and supportive of human differences.
What current and future trends have you identified in your field?
LGBTQ Youth: According to Chapin Hall’s study, Voices for Youth Count, Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer young adults are more than twice as likely to experience homelessness as their non-LGBTQ peers. They are also at greater risk for experiencing high levels of hardship, including higher rates of assault, of exchanging sex for basic needs, and of early death. Young adults (18-25) who identify as LGBTQ experienced homelessness at more than twice the rate of their non-LGBTQ peers. Black LGBTQ youth, especially young men, had the highest rates of homelessness. COH is a member of the All Chicago CoC, provides housing, and is striving to add more housing through an application to HUD and the City of Chicago Department of Public Health.
HIV and Aging: Aging with HIV/AIDS is difficult. Many HIV-infected people, now in their 50s and 60s, who have lived for years with HIV under control, are developing aging-related conditions — heart, liver and kidney disease, certain cancers and frailty, for example — at a rate significantly higher than uninfected people of the same age. COH recently submitted a grant application to Gilead Sciences to provide a new program to help counteract these issues for Seniors 55+.
Increased access to Free Behavioral Health Services for LGBTQ individuals: Youth Program Staff have provided a significant increase in the annual number of Behavioral Health referrals compared to previous years, rising 71.43% from FY16 to FY18. From July 2017 through April 2018, COH’s HIV testing program referred 131 clients to behavioral health services. COH’s Behavioral Health Department is a critical resource in the community.
What advice do you have for others interested in contributing to positive changes in your field? 
Be patient, listen to the community while paying attention to availability and trends in funding streams and respond with compassion and action. Also, take time for self-care.
How can funders and supporters best help your organization accomplish its goals? 
Funders and supporters can best help Center on Halsted by spreading the word about the Center’s programs and services to those who may benefit which assists us in achieving greater visibility and impact. Further, unrestricted grant funding opportunities are an incredible way for the organization to achieve its funding and strategic priorities.

Selected Media Mentions
 
Windy City Times, “Successful WERQ Job Fair Takes Place at Center on Halsted”
Chicago Defender, “African-American Program Managers at Center on Halsted Educate and Enlighten the Black LGBTQ Community”
ABC7 News Chicago, “Center on Halsted provides safe space to talk about bullying”
Windy City Times “Vanessa Sheridan helps trans community at Center on Halsted”
Chicago Tribune, “Lakeview to be future home of first affordable building for senior LGBT”

Catalyst Grantee Profile: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Interview with John Draper, Executive Director, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Executive Vice President of National Networks, Vibrant Emotional Health

Organization Name
Vibrant Emotional Health. Vibrant administers the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for SAMHSA. The SCE Catalyst grant will be used for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, so subsequent answers are for the Lifeline, not for Vibrant Emotional Health overall.
Organization Website
www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
Population Served
The Lifeline is a 24-hour, confidential suicide prevention hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress in the Unites States and US territories. Our target population is the total potential number of suicidal persons who might seek help through hotline or chat services in the United States.
Organization Location
New York City, New York
Founding Year
2005
Organization Mission
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States. The Lifeline is comprised of a national standards and best practices. Vibrant Emotional Health administers the Lifeline through a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant.
Please describe the problem your organization is working to solve and the ways in which your organization’s approach to this work is new or unique.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s mission is to effectively reach and serve all persons who could be at risk of suicide in the United States through a national network of crisis call centers. SAMHSA funded some of the first-ever evaluations that since 2005 have shown how Lifeline centers significantly reduce emotional distress and suicidality in callers. Lifeline sponsored trainings for centers (ASIST) significantly reduce risk in callers more than centers not receiving training. Lifeline policies are effective in reducing imminent risk through less invasive means (76% highest risk de-escalated collaboratively). And finally, Lifeline follow-up calls to persons at risk work: 80% say calls helped keep them safe, with half saying the calls were a primary factor in stopping them from killing themselves.
What are some key accomplishments your organization has achieved.
– During the period from October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2017, the Lifeline answered 1,877,020 calls, including 668,610 that were directed to the Veterans Crisis Line. There were 95,996 chats answered. Crisis chat demand continues to increase greatly. At current rates, about 1.5M users will attempt to enter the chat system, about 35% higher than last year.
– Since April 2017, an average of 400,000 users a month find resources on the Lifeline website.
– Calls answered at the Lifeline in June and July 2018 hit record highs. Combined, those months were the two highest ever – 21% higher than the same months a year ago, and June broke the 200,000 answered call threshold for the first time ever (over 218,000) calls, nearly 40,000 more calls answered than in any month in the service’s history.
– In conjunction with the high profile of the Lifeline service related to media events in the last year, along with CDC reports of rising suicide rates and Lifeline’s reports of growing capacity challenges, the Lifeline is getting more attention from the federal government than ever.
– The National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act passed unanimously through all halls of Congress in July, and was signed into law by President Trump in mid-August.
What obstacles (either expected or unexpected) has your organization faced and how have you addressed them?
The Lifeline is funded by a SAMHSA network and certification grant that supports operation and infrastructure costs but not services. And Americans turn to the Lifeline more and more. Over 12M calls have been answered since 2005 and we expect nearly 12M more answered in the next four years; in 2017 alone call volume was up 60%. Increasing volume causes challenges at local call centers and potentially increased wait times for callers. Increased calls also results in higher telephone costs.
Lifeline focuses on consistently expanding the network by recruiting new centers, and by partnering with agencies such as the National Council of Behavioral Health and NASMHPD, and as well as Lifeline staff members educated stakeholders regarding the importance of supporting their local centers.
What current and future trends have you identified in your field?
In recent years suicide rates have been on the rise and the suicide prevention community has united together and set a goal toward Zero Suicide (see zerosuicide.sprc.org). While increasing rates are disheartening, they have allowed for more open communication about lived experience, which has resulted in more people with lived experience sharing their stories openly, and as result we’re learning more about what’s helpful to those in crisis; and we’re learning that everyone has a role in this public health issue (see www.bethe1to.com).
What advice do you have for others interested in contributing to positive changes in your field?
Focus on suicide prevention, and the message that healing, hope and health are happening, rather than on the rising suicide rates.
For further information, please see: www.vibrant.org/changing-conversation-suicide
How can funders and supporters best help your organization accomplish its goals?
Three things are wanted: financial support, spreading the messages outlined above, and supporting your local crisis center.

Selected Media Mentions
 
Buzzfeed, “Here’s What Happens When You Call Into a Suicide Prevention Hotline”
New York Times, “What to Do When a Loved One is SeverelyDepressed”
USA Today, ‘Like a busy emergency room’: Calls to suicide crisis centers double since 2014
Good Morning America, “National Suicide Prevention Week: What you can Do to Prevent Suicide”
WSJ, “After Celebrity Deaths, Suicide Hotline Calls Jump 25%”
 

Catalyst Grantee Profile: Project FIRE, ArtReach Chicago

Project FIRE, ArtReach Chicago

Interview with Marine Tempels, Development Director, ArtReach Chicago

Organization Name
ArtReach Chicago
Organization Website
artreachchicago.org
Organization Location
Chicago, IL
Founding Year 
1990
Organization Mission
ArtReach Chicago’s mission is to empower and connect people through the practice of visual arts. ArtReach is proud to offer glassblowing and ceramics, two media that are not only hard to access, but by their very nature elicit healing and build community.
Population Served
ArtReach primarily serves populations that have been impacted by collective or individual trauma, including violently injured youth, veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, undocumented populations, and Chicago Public School students on the South and West sides.
Please describe the problem your organization is working to solve and the ways in which your organization’s approach to this work is new or unique.
ArtReach works towards equity among Chicagoans by addressing barriers to accessing the arts, mental health resources, and employment. Our participants have told us that they’re looking for opportunities to connect with others who’ve experienced trauma, legitimate ways to earn money, and safe, positive relationships with mentors and adults. Project FIRE participants, who have been violently injured, face an additional challenge– their violence-related trauma places them at high risk for further violence (2014, Baskin & Sommers, 2). Project FIRE works to break this cycle of violence by supporting trauma recovery through intensive case management, employment, mentoring, healing through glassblowing and psychoeducation to individuals experiencing violence related trauma. Through Project FIRE, ArtReach has found trauma-informed arts programming to be a powerful tool for healing and building trust among participants. Therefore, ArtReach is currently working to expand this approach to other existing and future programs.
Combining glassblowing and ceramics with a trauma-informed approach is unique to ArtReach Chicago. Glassblowing, by nature, requires teamwork as it is very difficult to create a piece alone. Therefore it demands that individuals learn collaboration and build trust. Ceramics offers a different kind of healing, its meditative and tactile qualities offers respite, and creates a space for dialogue among community members. Glassblowing and ceramics combined with psychoeducation creates cycles of support that aid in trauma recovery and can interrupt cycles of violence.
What are some key accomplishments your organization has achieved.
In the past few years, ArtReach has nearly quadrupled its operating budget, more than doubled grant and individual donor revenue, and provided more professional development and resources to teaching artists to improve program quality.
Since its inception in 2015, Project FIRE has quadrupled its number of participants. Four participants moved into leadership and mentorship positions, of whom one is now a Teaching Artist for the program and ArtReach at large. Each year, several of our youth participate in national glass programs including Expanding Horizons in Corning, NY, as well as participating in conferences and lectures across the country. In 2017, Project FIRE was featured on NBC Nightly News and the Washington Post. The documentary by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation titled PTSD: Beyond Trauma, which features Project FIRE, was presented at the UChicago Trauma Conference. Here is what CBC lmmakers Patrick Reed and Andrea Schmidt had to say about the program, “ It is truly a safe space, where people not only can learn skills, but also rediscover themselves, and their city; a place to craft new affiliations, new friendships, and new lives.”
Most recently, ArtReach Chicago collaborated with Pop Up X to offer a glassblowing event aimed a destigmatize mental health through art. The event was supported by Dwyane Wade’s foundation. At the first workshop, Project FIRE participants, as the experts, taught NBA star, Dwyane Wade, how to make a paperweight. It was a powerful and empowering day of people working with and learning from each other.
Although not specifically designed as an advocacy campaign, one of the greatest victories of the program is that it has created an outlet for youth to share their full stories with a national and international audience, as well as important stakeholders in legislation reform such as Senator Dick Durbin. In this way, the program has impacted not only Project FIRE participants, but all young black men in Chicago who face challenges due to widespread false narratives about themselves and the root causes of violence and racism.
What obstacles (either expected or unexpected) has your organization faced and how have you addressed them?
Our participants face challenges in their lives that create obstacles for the implementation of the program. These challenges include personal and familial struggles that make it hard for them to show up to work on time, trauma that causes fight or flight responses and inhibit functions in their frontal cortex, making learning challenging, and transportation issues related to safety concerns. ArtReach works in very close partnership with HHP-C to provide services to participants and help overcome these challenges, including guidance on family struggles and finding a safe transportation routine, psychoeducation to assist with trauma recovery, bus cards and full meals to help meet basic needs, and financial literacy to help participants understand how to manage their paychecks.
What current and future trends have you identified in your field?
The use of ceramics as a tool for respite and healing appears to be growing among arts & culture organizations. Arts & Culture organizations have identified a need for spaces where niches of people, such as violently injured youth, undocumented individuals, Muslim women, veterans, etc., can meet privately and take ownership of a space. Arts programming, and especially ceramics, has the power to meet that need.
What advice do you have for others interested in contributing to positive changes in your field?
It’s been said many times, but speaking directly with those you wish to support before offering help is so important. To ensure that resources are distributed appropriately and no harm is done, one must gain a deep understanding of the problem. Listen first, then support appropriately.
For those in the field–include participant involvement in every stage of a program, including planning and evaluation. ArtReach has learned the importance of working with mentors or alumni of the program when creating pre and post surveys. They have helped us identify questions that may not have been appropriate and created other more compelling questions.
How can funders and supporters best help your organization accomplish its goals?
Invest in all parts of the organization including overhead costs, capacity building and personnel.
Pro bono professional support in various fields has proven to be extremely beneficial for the growth of our organization.
Opportunities for our participants to share their stories, sell their work or fulfill commissions are also very helpful.

Selected Media Mentions
 
WGN TV, Faces of Chicago, “How Victims of Gun Violence Find Healing in the Flames of Glass Art”
NBC Nightly News, “These Chicago Teens Are Fighting the City’s Gunfire With Fire”
Chicago Reader,  “Project Fire Offers Peace Forged in the Flame”
Greenexchange,  “On Shannon Downey’s community craftivism project for Project FIRE”
 

Catalyst Grantee Profile: My Block, My Hood, My City

My Block, My Hood, My City

Interview with Jahmal Cole, CEO My Block, My Hood, My City 

Organization Name:
My Block, My Hood, My City
Organization Website:
formyblock.org
Organization Location:
Chicago, IL
Founding Year:
2015
Organization Mission:
My Block, My Hood, My City provides underprivileged youth with an awareness of the world and opportunities beyond their neighborhoods. We take students on explorations focused on STEM, arts & culture, citizenship & volunteerism, health, community development, culinary arts, and entrepreneurism.
Population Served
Underprivileged youth (ages 14-18) from Chicago’s Englewood, North Lawndale, Roseland, and South Shore communities, 120 teens directly served to date.
Please describe the problem your organization is working to solve and the ways in which your organization’s approach to this work is new or unique.
We want to help teenagers overcome poverty and isolation they face, boosting [their] educational attainment and opening them to opportunities that make a difference in their lives.
What are some key accomplishments your organization has achieved.
To be honest, just being able to provide (120) teens with numerous safe explorations with no incidents has been a blessing. I started this program out of my jeep, with kids from the barbershop. Now we’re in seven schools. I’m also proud that we’re driving our first cohort of students to college this year. Ninety-five percent of our students know someone personally who’s been shot, but only 30 percent of our students know someone personally who’s been to college.
What obstacles (either expected or unexpected) has your organization faced and how have you addressed them?
I’ve learned that there’s a fundamental difference between the appeal of a practical organization and the appeal of a mass movement. Practical organizations offer people self advancement, but movements like My Block, My Hood, My City are about self-renunciation and self-sacrifice. I’ve learned that people can volunteer and have great enthusiasm, but after a year of working with kids in the hood, their passion for this work can become satisfied. If there’s no [personal] upward mobility [gained], then people get frustrated quicker. I basically have learned to recalibrate my expectations. Some people only with me for a season.
What current and future trends have you identified in your field?
I’m better when I play to my strengths. Instead of thinking about [broad] programs, I just stay around the kids and identify [specific] needs [and interests]. I will definitely do more podcasting with youth, actually teaching them how to produce their own podcasts, and more social media videos.
What advice do you have for others interested in contributing to positive changes in your field?
Know your goals and the risks associated with achieving them.
How can funders and supporters best help your organization accomplish its goals?
If you wake up wanting to do something about all this violence in Chicago, but don’t know what to do, listen up. My Explorers Program is a solution! If you show teens better, they do better. Exposure is key! Make a donation. We just need money, that’s all. I’m telling you, there’s plenty of money [readily available] when a corporation walks into a [local] elected official’s office and says, “Pay me or I’m leaving [the community],” but when it comes to investing in programs in poor communities, they’re like, “What have they done to really deserve it? How can we make sure they won’t abuse the system?” Come on, man. We just need money. This is the change you’re hoping for. Support this work. Help stop violence.

More from Jahmal Cole on My Block, My Hood, My City and  “Active Citizenship”

 
Press on My Block, My Hood, My City
 
SWHelper, My Block, My City, My Hood is Combining Social Justice With Service Learning 

Catalyst Grantee Profile: Community Activism Law Alliance (CALA)

Community Activism Law Alliance (CALA)

Interview with Lam Nguyen Ho, Community Activism Law Alliance (CALA) Founder & Executive Director

Organization Mission: CALA unites lawyers and activists in a collaborative pursuit for justice by leveraging legal services to benefit the most marginalized communities and individuals, empowering them to achieve social, economic, and political justice.
Population Served: Low-Income communities who are ineligible for, or struggle to access, legal aid: particularly undocumented immigrants, laborers, sex workers, and grassroots activists.
Founding Year: 2014
Organization Website: www.calachicago.org

INTERVIEW

Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work.
CALA stands in contrast to most legal assistance organizations, which have consolidated into centralized offices downtown, away from the communities they serve. Instead, collaboration is at the core of CALA and its vision to change legal aid. The premise is straightforward: lawyers need to be embedded with the activists, organizers, and changemakers pushing for structural-level reform in society because this will advance the cause of social justice more quickly and effectively. CALA’s strategy is to design and test a new model of community lawyering based on the principles of community-location, community-operation and community-direction, and then spread the model widely until it becomes the new normal.
At a fundamental level, the CALA model is a shift from a transactional relationship that tends to be more reactive and focused on individual crises to a transformative partnership model that is proactive and pushes for systems change. Plus by uniting lawyers with activists, CALA leverages the combined resources of each to operate more cost-effectively while achieving greater impact than what lawyers or activists working alone could achieve.
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem.
For families living in poverty, access to legal aid can be critical to basic survival (from avoiding homelessness, escaping violence, and fighting deportation), but the current legal aid system struggles to help “clients” combat injustice: its transactional, hierarchical structure does not empower. CALA is seeking to change that system: to transform legal services from a transactional process between lawyer and “client” to a transformative partnership between lawyer and community members that will change both the lawyer and the member, and ultimately the community. Through 19 “community activism-law programs,” which are community-located, community-operated, and community-directed, CALA works with the most disadvantaged communities by uniting lawyers and activists in a pursuit for social change, simultaneously addressing the justice gap, operating more cost-effectively, and creating greater impact than what lawyers or activists working alone could achieve. Our vision is to change legal aid by redistributing the power of the legal process to communities for which justice is inaccessible. Through this process, we shift power away from lawyers, and the government that restricts access to justice, and put it in the hands of low-income communities: to empower their members to lead their own fights for justice and social change.
How and why did you first start working for this organization?
I am the founder of the organization, which was inspired by my time working as a community lawyer on the west side of Chicago, operating 10 community-based clinics providing free legal services to youth and their families. I experienced firsthand the challenges of community lawyering and our current legal aid system, and was inspired to innovatively confront these challenges through the creation of CALA.
What current trends are you seeing in your field of work?
More lawyers are recognizing that the legal system is often an ineffective tool for social change. Lawyers who are committed to systemic change cannot work only within the law.
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years?
We hope for our work, and our model, will operate on a national level, as we seek to create an alternative legal aid system in the US: not controlled by the government and lawyers, but by people and their communities.
What are the three most important skills you value in your staff members? Why?
Humility, empathy, and patience. Working at CALA often means unlearning many lessons we’re taught in law school; the most important one being that lawyers should be in charge. Our model requires lawyers who are willing to be transformed: to learn from and be changed by the communities and community members with which they work.
How has technology influenced your field and/or the way your organization works?
We rely heavily on technology since all of our legal work is done in our partner communities—often in the evenings and weekends, when community members are available. We have 18 different programs across Chicago, and one in Lake County. That means our attorneys need to be able to access information efficiently wherever we go.
What are some key achievements your organization has accomplished over the last year and how were you able to attain this success?
As an organization, we’ve seen significant growth. In the past year, we’ve launched three community activism-law programs for neighborhoods on the westside of Chicago, immigrants and refugees on the northside of Chicago, and domestic workers to protect their rights under the new Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. That means we now have 19 total programs that serve over 4000 people annually. But the victories that are most important to us are the moments of transformation: an undocumented victim of domestic violence speaking to almost a hundred people about her survival, and urging them to join her fight; working with grassroots activists to stop a deportation already under way and could not be stopped using the law—convincing ICE to land a plane in Texas and return a father to his family; and sex workers “coming out of the shadows” at a demonstration, declaring and claiming their human rights and their worker rights.
Have there been any recent obstacles? If so, how were you and your staff able to overcome them?
Recent decisions by the government have ravaged our communities: ripping families apart, causing widespread fear, and forcing workers to work in harmful conditions. We have victims of violence and persecution too afraid to apply for remedies to which they are rightfully entitled; young children (under 13 years old), whose parents are in the US, facing separate deportation actions; and severely-ill legal permanent residents afraid to get medical help because they are too afraid of potential immigration consequences. We’re working with our community partner organizations to provide as much accurate information and address community fears as possible. We have also had conversations with our partners to help them make adjustments to our programs to respond to the changing needs of their communities.
What’s next for your organization? What are you looking forward to?
We’re taking our community-activism-lawyering model national to change our country’s approach to legal aid, but we’re doing it in a way that is true to our grassroots, community-driven values. In the words of a mentor, “we are not trying to become the [queen] of the mountain, we’re trying to change the mountain.”
What do you wish others knew about the organization or the populations you serve?
The majority of the community members with which we work are either ineligible for, or struggle to access, assistance from other legal aid organizations: including undocumented immigrants, day laborers, sex workers, and activists.

Selected Media Mentions:
 
Chicago News “Community Activism Law Alliance Fighting Deportations”
Daily Northwestern “Some students who protested ICE representative undergoing University’s conduct process, lawyer says”
NBC News 5 video “No Decision on Deportation of Man Told to Appear Before ICE With Plane Ticket to Mexico”
Chicago Tonight, WTTW “Demand Fuels Creation of Immigrant Hotline, Crisis Planning Workshops”
ABC 7 Chicago “Arlington Heights library cancels immigrant rights workshop amid threats, hate calls”

Chicago Tonight, WTTW “Cook County Sheriff: ICE Agents Shouldn’t Identify as Police”

CNN “Dreamers prepare for fight against Trump”
Features on Lam Nguyen Ho:
Harvard Law Today Lam Nguyen Ho named 2017 Gary Bellow Award Winner
The Harvard Law Record “The HLS 300 Project: Inspiring Careers” 
takepart “Seven People Take kindness to the Next Level”

Harvard Law Today “Top seeds: Harvard Law School entrepreneurs launch new ventures of service”

 
 

Catalyst Grantee Profile: The News Literacy Project

The News Literacy Project

Interview with The News Literacy Project‘s Founder & CEO, Alan C. Miller.

Organization Mission: The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, empowers educators to provide students with the skills they need to become smart, active consumers of news and other information and engaged, informed participants in civic life.

Population Served: Our primary audience is educators and students in middle school and high school. Our new website, www.newslit.org, also provides tools and resources for the general public.

Founding Year: 2008

Organization Website: http://www.newslit.org 

Interview

Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work. 
NLP’s programs enable educators to give middle school and high school students the skills they need to know how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. Students are taught how to discern verified and unbiased information from misinformation, hoaxes, opinion and spin — whether using search engines to find information about specific topics, browsing social media feeds, watching videos on YouTube or reading a news article or blog post.
Students are also encouraged to share and produce information that is accurate, fair and responsible and that empowers their voices. This is vital, because in an age of unparalleled access, in which unprecedented amounts and types of information can be shared more widely and easily than ever before, anyone can be a publisher — and everyone must be an editor.
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem.
Trust in journalism is at record lows. Increasingly trapped in filter bubbles, we often rely on the news not to inform us, but to confirm what we believe. The nation is mired in an at-times surreal debate about the very nature of facts, and whether demonstrable truths still matter. Meanwhile, in the months before the 2016 presidential election, a Russian disinformation campaign reached more than 126 million Americans through Facebook posts — and millions more through Facebook ads and other social media platforms.
All this is eroding the informational underpinnings of our democracy. As New York Times columnist Timothy Egan noted, “Too many Americans are ill equipped to perform the basic functions of citizenship.”
News literacy is one response to this rising tide of confusion, polarization and distrust. It is a proven way to give today’s students — and, increasingly, the general public — the tools to know what news and information to trust, share and act on and to become informed, engaged participants in civic life. It has the potential to increase individual responsibility to become part of the solution to the rising tide of misinformation, rather than part of the problem.
How and why did you first start working for this organization?
In 2006, I was invited to my daughter’s sixth-grade class to talk about what I did as an investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times’ Washington bureau and why such work was important. The responses I received led me to think about the impact that many journalists could have if they shared their expertise and experience with the nation’s students.
At my 30th reunion at Wesleyan University just a few weeks later, I had the opportunity to discuss my thoughts with another Wesleyan alum, Alberto Ibargüen, the head of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation — the largest funder of journalism education projects in the U.S. He introduced me to his vice president for journalism, and after several calls over the next 18 months, as I completed my last four-part investigative project for the Los Angeles Times, Knight was ready to give me a founding grant — and the News Literacy Project was launched.
What current trends are you seeing in your field of work? 
There’s a much greater awareness of news literacy — and the importance of being news-literate — than there was when I started NLP in 2008. The acknowledgement that Russian-sponsored misinformation and disinformation had spread, like a particularly nasty virus, across our social media platforms was certainly a wake-up call to many, as was the entrance into the daily lexicon of terms like “alternative facts” and “fake news.” We consider our programs to be the antidote to such infections, and we expect that demand will only grow.
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years?
We are in midst of dramatic internal growth to meet enormous demand for our services and opportunity for our organization. We expect recognition of the need for news literacy education to continue to grow. We anticipate having exponentially greater reach in impact over the next five years.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in the population you serve? Why?

  1. The ability to discern and create credible information because this is a survival skill in the digital age.
  2. The ability to recognize the importance of the First Amendment and a free press in a democracy because this is essential to their survival.
  3. The ability to push back when encountering misinformation because everyone needs to stand up for facts in an age of rampant conspiracy theories, hoaxes and viral rumors.

What are the three most important skills you value in your staff members? Why?

  1. Creativity, because our prime focus is creating resources for educators and students.
  2. The ability to communicate clearly and effectively, orally and in writing, because we need to do so routinely, both internally and externally.
  3. The ability to work collaboratively, collegially and virtually because of the nature of our organization.

How has technology influenced your field and/or the way your organization works?
The influence of technology on the field of news literacy is nearly as profound as the influence of technology on the fields of journalism and media. We think a vital part of teaching today’s students about news literacy is teaching them how to understand and navigate today’s information landscape. This involves everything from how to understand the role and impact of social media and smartphones to perceiving clever new forms of advertising to utilizing tools and skills to identify and fight back against misinformation.
NLP was founded as a program that partnered with individual classroom teachers to design and deliver news literacy units in classrooms in three cities. After demonstrating the impact of our curriculum, we started exploring e-learning and eventually transitioned into creating a teacher-friendly e-learning hub with lessons for students: the Checkology® virtual classroom. NLP has also made extensive use of videoconferencing to bring students and journalists together for lessons and engaging conversations about the opportunities and challenges of today’s information ecosystem. In addition, we offer an online professional development series, Teaching News Literacy, twice a year (the next series starts Aug. 28).
What are some key achievements your organization has accomplished over the last year and how were you able to attain this success?
Our Checkology virtual classroom continues to expand its reach. From its launch in May 2016 through the end of the 2017-18 school year, more than 13,600 educators — with a self-reported potential reach of more than 2 million students — registered to use the platform. During the 2017-18 school year we saw a 79% increase in the number of teachers who registered for Checkology Premium student licenses, which unlock a variety of features, and a 178% increase in the number of licenses used. We’re in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. territories and 93 other countries. In August 2018, for the 2018-19 school year, we’re releasing a revised and updated version of the platform, which we’re calling Checkology 2.0.
In May 2018, we unveiled a new website at www.newslit.org. It features a more immersive experience for all visitors — educators, students and members of the public — and offers resources and tools that everyone can use to improve their news literacy skills.
Educators are raving about NewsLitCamp® — a one-day professional development event that brings teachers and librarians from middle schools and high schools into a local newsroom for conversations and workshops with journalists from that news outlet. Participants come away with a better idea of the standards of quality journalism and a deeper understanding of the newsgathering process, along with tools and resources to take back to the classroom. Following our successful pilot of this program at the Chicago Sun-Times in April 2017, we held five NewsLitCamps during the 2017-18 school year — two in Washington (with The Washington Post and NPR), another in the Chicago area (with the Daily Herald), and one each in New York City (with Time) and Miami (with The Miami Herald). We’re planning at least five NewsLitCamps (including another in Chicago) for the remainder of 2018.
In the Chicago area, we are working closely with the Chicago Public Schools Participate Civics Program and a group of CPS educators to create a professional learning community that will focus on exploring and documenting how educators in grades 6-12 can most effectively incorporate and embed news literacy instruction into existing curricula across content areas. This is a project that we should be able to replicate across the country. We are also working with Illinois Civics to provide professional development training, news literacy curriculum and resources, and pathways to help students empower their voices and use news literacy tools to take informed civic action.
Have there been any recent obstacles? If so, how were you and your staff able to overcome them?
An unexpected challenge — but one that was most welcome — was the growth spurt in our Checkology platform during the last school year. Though our staff is small, it is nimble, and I was proud of how everyone stepped up. In addition, we were able to hire a third person for our education team, which eased some of the pressure and allowed us to also focus on creating new lessons, and revising old ones, for the release of Checkology 2.0.
On a more serious note, we were invited to participate in a session at the United Nations to celebrate World Press Freedom Day in May, and we planned to use that opportunity to preview our new Checkology lesson on press freedoms around the world. The organizers of the session attempted to censor one of our videos to remove a reference to restrictions on the press in Turkey; when we refused to accept this, and refused their subsequent request that we not show any of our videos, the organizers ended up “postponing” the session. We are proud to have taken a stand for press freedom.
What’s next for your organization? What are you looking forward to? 
We are in the midst of dramatic budgetary and staff growth to meet the rising demand for our services amid the growing recognition of the urgent need for news literacy education. We are also in the process of crafting an ambitious four-year strategic framework that will chart our path forward to build a national community of practitioners to facilitate systemic change. We look forward to raising NLP’s profile and extending our mission in the years ahead.
What do you wish others knew about the organization or the populations you serve?
We would like others to know that NLP is a national leader in the effort to give the next generation the tools to combat misinformation and become informed participants in a democracy. We would welcome any opportunity to share with them how transformative and empowering our Checkology virtual classroom can be for students.

Selected Media Mentions 
Profiles of NLP Founder Alan C. Miller

Videos

News Reports About NLP

  • July 2018: The Rotarian — the monthly magazine of Rotary International, with a circulation of more than 400,000 — reported on a sixth-grade teacher in Chicago who uses our Checkology virtual classroom to teach news literacy skills.
  • June 19, 2018: NLP’s Peter Adams, senior vice president of education, was interviewed by Courthouse News Service about a recent Pew Research Center report examining the difficulty people have in determining what is a factual statement and what is opinion.
  • May 11, 2018: NLP founder and CEO Alan C. Miller told listeners of the Pew Charitable Trusts podcast After the Fact that news literacy is a “survival skill.”
  • April 23-27, 2018: NLP’s director of partnerships, Damaso Reyes, took our message to the United Kingdom, where he addressed more than 300 students in hands-on lessons that left the teens “enthused and inspired.” The stops in Newcastle, Birmingham and Belfast were sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and Shout Out UK, an independent youth news and media platform.
  • April 18, 2018: Voice of America, which broadcasts to millions of people worldwide, reported on a Virginia high school where the students, using the Checkology platform, are being pushed to think critically about what they’re reading, watching and hearing.
  • April 3, 2018: Public radio’s Marketplace looked at the changing social media landscape and talked with Miller about what today’s teens need to know.
  • March 27, 2018: The Washington Post’s education blog, The Answer Sheet, featured an interview with Miller in which he discussed “the need to restore a fact-based middle ground to the national conversation.”
  • Feb 7, 2018: News Center Maine, the NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine, tested the virtual classroom on parents of teens to see if they could separate fact from fiction.
  • Jan. 12, 2018: A column in The Boston Globe contending that young people are leading the charge in the fight against “fake news” and featuring two educators who have registered to use NLP’s Checkology®virtual classroom.
  • Jan. 3, 2018: Quartz visited an eighth-grade classroom at George Jackson Academy in New York City to see Checkology in action (also a video).
  • Nov. 6, 2017: Kim Lisagor Bisheff of MediaShift, a website exploring the intersection of media and technology, discussed the importance of teaching students to become responsible news consumers and cited NLP as a great resource for separating good journalism from bad.
  • June 7, 2017: Wired reported on a Pennsylvania classroom that uses the Checkology virtual classroom.
  • Jan. 23, 2017: NPR’s The 1A interviewed Miller, CNN’s Brian Stelter and The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan about “fake news” and what can be done about it.
  • Dec. 22, 2016: NPR’s All Things Considered visited “The Classroom Where Fake News Fails.” (This report led to a 350 percent increase in registrations for the virtual classroom in the two weeks after it was broadcast.)
  • Sept. 11, 2016: Margaret Sullivan, media columnist at The Washington Post, featured NLP in a column about the importance of — and need for — news literacy skills.
  • April 23, 2013: The Chronicle of Philanthropy (PDF download) looked at the ways that nimble nonprofits, including NLP, managed to grow despite the recession that began in 2008 — the year NLP was founded.

Catalyst Grantee Profile: TheDream.US

TheDream.US

Interview with TheDream.US‘ Program Director of Advocacy, Development, and Communications, Gabriela Pacheco.

Organization Mission: Thousands of immigrant youth want nothing more than to get a college education. At TheDream.US, we work with a community of partners to provide that opportunity.

Population Served: Immigrant Youth

Founding Year: 2014

Organization Website:  www.thedream.us

Interview

Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work. 
TheDream.US is the nation’s largest college access and success program for immigrant youth, representing close to 4,000 current and former Scholars. By collaborating with partner universities and community colleges, TheDream.US provides scholarships to immigrant students who currently hold or are eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protected Status (TPS). We have two programs, the National and Opportunity Scholarships. The National Scholarships provides scholarships for up to $33,000 and the Opportunity Scholarship of up to $80,000 for bachelor’s degree programs.
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem.
Our Scholars are immigrant youth who came to this country at a young age.  For many, it’s the only country they’ve ever known. Over 800,000 immigrant youth now have DACA or TPS status which gives them the right to remain in the United States and to work legally.  But even with these immigration protections DREAMers have no path to citizenship, access to Pell Grants, federal education loans, or access to federal work study. Many face paying out-of-state tuition even in their home states.
While DREAMers are highly motivated students who bring a sense of responsibility and accountability to their college educations – only 5 -10% can afford it. Working with our 75+ Partner Colleges, we provide scholarships to highly-motivated DREAMers with DACA/TPS to help them pay for their college education.
How and why did you first start working for this organization?
As a DREAMer myself I knew first-hand the struggle of trying to get an education when the state you live in didn’t recognize your contributions or talents. After being able to successfully find private funding to help pay for my education, I wanted to make sure others like me had the same opportunities to obtain a college education. I worked with the co-founders and team of this organization to help start it, shape it, and promote it within the immigrant community.
What current trends are you seeing in your field of work? 
We recently surveyed over 1,400 Scholars and the survey results provided a unique picture of TheDream.US’s Scholars high levels of uncertainty and anxiety that they are facing in the current immigration climate, particularly with the forthcoming end of DACA and TPS. Thankfully, more institutions of higher learning are stepping up and opening their doors to undocumented immigrant students. They are also finding ways to provide them with institutional aid, mental and physical health resources, and legal screenings.
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years?
If the issue of DACA is not resolved we may see a loss of talent through youth being deported, or self-determining to leave the country and take their talents and skills to other nations like Canada, European countries, and for some even their birth countries.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in the population you serve? Why?
We provide scholarships to highly-motivated DREAMers to help them pay for their college education. Our hope is that these Scholars become life-long learners and active members in their community. We require our Scholars to give back and continue to be involved in our program as alumni and community members. We strive to create an environment of community—we send cohorts of no less than 7 Scholars to each institution to provide them with a sense of community.
What are the three most important skills you value in your staff members? Why?
Our team is small but mighty! We are always up for any challenge and in the current immigration environment what our team is best at is adapting to the times and the needs of our Scholars. We have a continuous growth mind set–where we see opportunity to partner with an organization that can help us expand our goal, we go for it. Lastly, everyone in the team is deeply passionate about these students. While we may not understand all the immigration laws or the policies surrounding this issue, TheDream.US recognizes the humanity and dignity of all students. We believe that no matter where you are from, if you want to go to college, you should have access to an education.
How has technology influenced your field and/or the way your organization works?
Our team depends deeply on technology. First, it requires a robust scholarship management platform to both manage our application process and support our over 4,000 Scholars. We are a data driven organization and rely upon a data management platform to track the persistence, graduation, and academic performance of our Scholars. This data enables us to make program changes as needed. We rely on social media, text messaging, webinars, and email to communicate and connect with our Scholars, Partner Colleges, Supporters, and Donors. We use social media and traditional medial to promote our scholarship and advocate for tuition and aid equity for DREAMers. Finally, we have a virtual team that is based in D.C., San Jose, Seattle, and Miami. Technology enables us to stay connected with each other and remain nimble and efficient.
What are some key achievements your organization has accomplished over the last year and how were you able to attain this success?
As of 2018, TheDream.US committed to providing over $103 million in scholarships, with over $41 million in scholarships distributed. We’ve raised just over $190,000,000 in funds that are 100% dedicated to funding scholarships to DREAMers. With a 94% first year persistence rate, The Dream.US is diligently working toward building a nationwide movement of Scholars – imbuing Scholars with a new sense of hope and a mission to help and support their families, communities, and nation.
What’s next for your organization? What are you looking forward to?
We are looking forward to continuing to support our Scholars, open our next round in November 2018, raise more funds, and help use our voice to change the nation’s narrative about the importance of immigrants – and specifically DREAMers – to our nation. We look forward to the day the United States Congress puts us out of business and passes a law that allows immigrant youth to get access to federal financial aid, loans, and work study.
What do you wish others knew about the organization or the populations you serve?
TheDream.US’s prioritization of education is particularly important in the current immigration climate, where students are on the verge of losing key immigration protections. We partner with institutions, organizations, philanthropies, and businesses who share our values, respect our Scholars, and support DREAMers in their drive to get an education. DREAMers and their contributions are an important part of our nation’s social and economic wellbeing. The efforts to help DREAMers access and succeed in college is improving the ways colleges and universities approach all students’ academic and social needs. Americans from all walks of life want to see common sense at work in our national policies. In that way, the work of TheDream.US is purely practical: we have these amazing resources—talents, skills, future contributions—all waiting to be developed in young DREAMers, and we have a workforce that needs their energy as more Americans retire and leave jobs unfilled. DACA was an example of a policy that freed our DREAMers potential. And we need more such policies, not fewer. We’re saying, “Let’s be resourceful and creative. Let’s find ways to put these two things together.” That’s what our organization does: we help the US solve a pressing problem by developing the untapped energy and skills of some of its young people.

Press

  1. Time: “These Dreamers’ Future in America Is in Doubt. But They’re Headed to College Anyway” (May, 2018).
  2. Diverse: “New Scholarship Fund at School Devotes $20M To DACA Students” (March, 2018).
  3. The Student Loan Report: “More Dreamers Hope to Attend College in the U.S.” (March, 2018).

Catalyst Grantee Profile: Latinitas

Latinitas

Interview with Latinitas‘s Marketing & Development Director, Victoria Garza.

Organization Mission: To empower all girls to innovate using media and technology.

Population Served: Predominantly young Latinas ages 9-18 in Austin and El Paso, although we have held workshops and conferences throughout the state of Texas

Founding Year: 2002

Organization Website: www.latinitasmagazine.org

Interview

Please provide a brief overview of the organization’s work. 
Latinitas’ mission is to empower all girls to innovate using media and technology. We have been doing this since 2001 through afterschool clubs in Title 1 schools, workshops in public libraries and public housing, and weekend conferences held at technology companies, colleges, and other locations. We also have an online magazine for young Latinas written and curated by Latinas.
Latinitas is reaching girls others aren’t and succeeding where others haven’t. 93% of Latinitas alumni are graduating high school and 81% attend college in light of having the highest drop out rates. 100% of our girls enrolled in Latinitas’ afterschool clubs are living at or below the poverty level and 36% are English learners; yet, we are graduating 50% more STEM majors than the national average for girls and 33% of Latinitas program grads are exploring digital media or communications. Our alumni are turning up at our local news stations, on film crews, and at technology companies such as Bumble – which has a headquarters here in Austin, Texas – combining their love of female empowerment, digital media, and technology.
In a few sentences, please describe the problem you are working to solve and your approach to solving this problem.
At a time when many parents are wondering what age to give their child a smartphone or tablet, we are still dealing with issues of internet access for many of the families we serve. We see the digital divide widening with the wealth gap, essentially leaving the poor – many of them minorities ­– behind in an increasingly digital world.
How and why did you first start working for this organization?
I first got involved with Latinitas back in 2004, first as a volunteer and then as a board member. I strongly believed in the mission of Latinitas and I wished an organization such as this had existed when I was a kid. Since gaining experience working in both the media and technology industries and witnessing first-hand the lack of diversity in both, it made me even more passionate about the organization’s work and when I was offered a position with the organization in 2015, I jumped at the opportunity.
What do you think will change most about your work over the next 5 years?
We are currently headquartered in Austin, Texas, with a pilot chapter in El Paso, Texas. Over the next few years we are planning on expanding our programs, starting with other Texas cities. As a matter of fact, we have partnered with the Boys and Girls Club of McAllen to bring our signature Game Chica conference to South Texas as a first step. So in the future, I see my work focusing more on meeting new partners and looking for new corporate sponsors in the cities we are looking to expand to.
What are the three most important skills you focus on developing in the population you serve? Why?

  1. Focus on media literacy training to engage population served with current representation in magazines, TV, and movies of Latinx population, women of color, and Latinas, specifically, in order to understand their valuable position as game changers as well as identify why and how that representation exists and adapt ways they can take action to combat misrepresentation and stereotypes as future media industry leaders.
  2. Focus on technology training to engage population with the latest equipment and platforms to increase their interest in STEM-related careers and further their knowledge of applications that can be used across a spectrum of topics including filmmaking, computer science, health and wellness, fashion design, social justice, etc. with the goal of steering their interests towards the technology industry.
  3. Focus on having population served acknowledge and embrace their identity, gender, and culture to evolve personally and professionally with the goal of bringing their unique perspective to the media and technology industries as a means to diversify innovation.

What are the three most important skills you value in your staff members? Why?
Passion, curiosity, and a good work ethic. Passion is important because I find people who care, are enthusiastic about their job and will go the extra mile. Curiosity because I believe that helps drive innovation. People who ask a lot of questions tend to find better ways of doing things and can help identify new opportunities. Lastly, a good work ethic is important because even if they have the passion and the curiosity, what good are they if they aren’t there when you need them or don’t do what you need them to?
How has technology influenced your field and/or the way your organization works?
As technology changes, so does our program curriculum. We want to help the girls we serve stay up-to-date with the latest technology as part of their digital education. We want them to be aware of everything out there and the jobs they can get in these changing fields.
What are some key achievements your organization has accomplished over the last year and how were you able to attain this success?

  • We were the beneficiary of a fully stocked computer lab from General Motors and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
  • We were 1 of just 5 recipients of Mozilla foundation funds.
  • We were just 1 of 2 recipients of Google’s Community Leaders program that matches college students and Google professionals with a community project at a nonprofit.
  • We were 1 of 28 recipients worldwide of Google’s RISE award.
  • We reached out 15th year and celebrated with a Quinceañera, hosting our city and state’s officials, school district leaders, and honored champions.
  • We had our first-ever Game Chica Conference where 60 girls mostly of Latinx decent learned how to code a video game and met with mentors from the industry.
  • We held our Startup Chica entrepreneurial conference for girls at Austin’s premier startup incubator, Capital Factory.
  • We started a mentor program to connect program alumni in college with women in working in the media and tech industries.
  • We increased parent outreach in the form of their own workshops in financial literacy, using technology to learn English and app design, and entrepreneurial learning, as well as improved organizing parents through our Facebook platform.
  • We invested and moved to new larger office space.

What’s next for your organization? What are you looking forward to?
We are working to expand our programs beyond Austin and El Paso, Texas, starting with a weekend Game Chica Conference in South Texas this summer in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of McAllen.
 

Press

  1. Community Impact Newspaper: “Male leaders pledge support to Austin nonprofit Latinitas in wake of #MeToo movement” (June 2018).
  2. The Austin Chronicle: “Documentary uses virtual reality to explore east Austin gentrification” (May 2018).
  3. My Statesman: “Latinitas celebrates 15 years of media, tech training for girls, teens” (May 2017).
  4. KXAN: “Innovators Talk Tech for Minority Youth at SXSW” (March 2018).
  5. Venture Beat: “Mozilla awards final grants from its $1.2 million Community Gigabit Fund” (April 2018).
  6. Telemundo Austin: “Organizan fiesta “Chica Power” estilo kermés a beneficio de la organización Latinitas” (June 2018).
  7. Univision Austin: “El alcalde de Austin y líderes locales se unen para empoderar a jóvenes del grupo Latinitas” (June 2018).

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