The Latino Community Association

Our purpose is to empower our Latino families to thrive by creating opportunities for advancement. We aim to support roughly 640 people to increase their household incomes collectively by $500,000 a year through job connections and workforce education and training including English and basic computing. We plan to assist 1,445 people each year to access legal assistance, personal identification, tax filing and citizenship assistance. We will work toward getting 1,620 people either enrolled in health coverage, accessing low-cost dental care or free youth dental checkups, or getting a free health screening. Our emerging Youth Rising program aims to increase educational achievement for about 100 elementary-age kids each year and, ultimately, have more youth graduating on time from high school and continuing to higher education. The second part of our mission is to build bridges between cultures, which we do by providing cross-cultural volunteer opportunities and cultural events and activities like our Latino Fest in September, annual Empowering Families Luncheon in December and Gala de Oro in April. We are also members of Welcoming America and work with our cities to host and coordinate activities that celebrate our rich ethnic and cultural diversity.

1) Position ourselves as a recognized provider of workforce education and training,
2) Attain Bureau of Immigration Appeals Recognition and Accreditation
3) Certify staff as enrollment assisters for state and federal health coverage programs
4) Provide critical legal and health services in partnership with private and non-profit providers
5) Lift up our youth through literacy and leadership services.
6) Incorporate volunteerism as a job training activity and a cross-cultural community builder
7) Develop leadership in our Latino community

Our strength lies in our ability to develop and nurture a very capable bilingual, multi-cultural team of skilled, uniquely qualified professionals focused on meeting the specific needs of our immigrant community in Central Oregon, and our ability to build bridges across cultures. Our staff, board, and key volunteers bring a wealth of experience to the organization to guide and implement our work. We are successful at promoting the advancement of Latinos by serving as a training ground and a referral source for other businesses and organizations. Many of our volunteers are now working in key positions with other organizations and serving on boards and committees. We are skilled at creating forums for the development of friendships that enrich the lives of many and lessen their feelings of isolation. We are a source of support and advice for businesses and organizations that wish to serve the Latino community effectively. We are a reliable community partner that strengthens and promotes services to the Latino community across our region and builds bridges that increase awareness and understanding, as well as the resilience of individuals, families and our regional economy.

We have accomplished a significant increase in revenue and staff capacity, as well as a corresponding increase in clients served. We began English Classes with childcare in 2015 for the first time since cancelling classes due to the effects of the recession. We opened a small Computer Lab and have begun piloting our curriculum and trying to promote a drop-in culture among our clients, most of whom have never used a computer. We hired a Workforce Navigator in 2015 for the first time and saw an immediate uptick in people we helped gain employment. Annual household incomes collectively rose by $141,000 after just four months. Unfortunately, this position is currently unfunded. We launched our Youth Rising program in 2016 and are seeing positive results for elementary-age kids and their parents. We grew our Oregon Health Plan outreach and enrollment team, who served 2,089 people last year. We have taken the lead in forming a Latino Emotional Health work group to assess the need for services and develop community-based interventions to ensure our immigrant families have access to emotional support resources that are culturally-relevant and effective. We hired a Volunteer Coordinator in January 2018 to strengthen and expand our tutoring services, including improving our client outcome evaluation efforts. And we hired a Development Manager in 2019, as well as a Youth Rising Program Manager.