Grassroots Organizations

Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) – Central Los Angeles, California

HOLA is an organization that offers extracurricular activities for Latino children in the Central Los Angeles communities that contain underfunded schools. The organization offers music, film, dance and theater classes, while also providing college prep and SAT prep sessions to prepare high school students to apply to college. Heart of Los Angeles believes that every child deserves a chance to pursue their education and strengthen their community. From starting with a few kids in a gym to serving 2,300 students, HOLA has helped children avoid gang violence on the streets of Rampart and Lafayette Park by giving children the tools to succeed.

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Barrios Unidos – Santa Cruz, California

Barrios Unidos is an organization that helps rehabilitate Latinos that were formerly incarcerated using cultural healing (indigenous) techniques of meditation and self reflection. The organization helps “Latino criminals” to find and maintain jobs where they can make a difference and feel fulfilled, while being productive citizens that contribute to society. The Barrios Unidos organization mains the objective of going into the Latino communities of Santa Cruz, California to keep middle school students  from engaging in criminal activities and to support adults to prevent them from returning to maximum security facilities through restorative justice practices.

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California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) – Covina, California

The California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) is focused on providing bilingual literacy for everyone in California because of the large population of English Language Learners coming from Mexico or children born of Mexican decent. The CABE organized a grass root effort to get the State Board of Education to comprehend and establish English Language Development Standards in order to devlop their English Language Arts criteria. The contributions that CABE makes to the English Language Art criteria helps with the development of textbooks and supplementary material for student that are English Language Learners.

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Latino Community Foundation – San Francisco, California

The Latino Community Foundation was founded to create a group of Latino philanthropists that would help their people help themselves. This Foundation from San Francisco, California invests in Latino non-profit organizations, corporations, and foundations that address problems that arising from the rapidly growing populations of Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The organization is an invaluable resource to Latino communities in California because their objective is to focus on these specific communities to offer Latino/Hispanic early childhood literacy, invest in small business and tackle the minority homeowner crisis in California.

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Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project – Sacramento, California

The Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project is a state wide community based organization that aims motivate leadership through strengthening cultural identity and community connections so students can attain academic achievement. The CLYP focuses on Latino youth having the resources they need to support their academic success so their professional success will bring social, economic and political equality to Latinos/Hispanics in California. The organization recognizes the massive growth of the Hispanic/Latino population that requires more leaders that understand the issues affecting Hispanics and Latinos in the United States.

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Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) – Oakland, California

The Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) addressed the problem of students of color like Latinos being underrepresented in the STEM fields through helping thousands of disadvantages students begin their careers as engineers, scientists and mathematicians. The organization helps train high school teachers to encourage their students to become involved in the sciences, while providing personal counseling to college students that are pursuing an education in the STEM fields. The objective of the organization is to create the leaders of tomorrow, in STEM fields, that will conduct research, but will return to serve the California communities.

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Latino Equality Alliance – East Los Angeles, California

The Latino Equality Alliance advocates for the equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer peoples, but seeks to most of all address the lack of acceptance of these people in Latino communities in California. The LEA is actively promoting community activism throughout Los Angeles and seeks to develop the leadership of the Latino LGBT students because it benefits all LGBTQ in the United States. The creating of this organization was a result of California allowing a proposition of anti-gay marriage to be put on a ballot. The LEA firmly believes that Gay Latinx Activists can be the bridge to connect LGBTQ to the Latino community.

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Latino Coalition For A Healthy California – Sacramento, California

The Latino Coalition For A Healthy California focuses on giving Latino communities in California access to health care because their lack of documentation doesn’t allow them to receive proper treatment. This organization also breaks language and cultural barriers because it allows doctors and nurses that speak and look like their patients to properly treat these underserved communities. One of the largest problems that they address are the high rates of child obesity and adult diabetes in Latino communities because of the larger amount of access Mexican-American families have to food in the United States and the traditional Mexican food they eat.

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Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A) – Santa Barbara, California

The Chicanx Student Movement of Aztlán was forged through the Plan of Santa Barbara, in California, that gave Mexican-American students historical and cultural empowerment to combat social inequalities like their underfunded public schools. The state wide organization also helps support the incorporation of Chicano Studies in universities and colleges across California because they believe that Xicano students need to recognize their social, economic and political connection to the United States. M.E.Ch.A believes that XIcanos didn’t cross the border, but that the border crossed them because Aztlán is the mythical land, in California, of the Mexica.

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Coalition For Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) – Los Angeles, CA

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Right of Los Angeles was created as a result of the Immigration Reform and Control Act that made it illegal to hire undocumented workers, so employers would take advantage and exploit workers that fell under that category. This community organization was forged by the efforts of immigrant families and individuals who fought for social change in an environment where Mexican immigrants felt unwelcome in the State of California and in the country. CHIRLA helps immigrant gain a workers permit and/or permanent residency to help immigrants to provide for their families and not be torn apart from them.

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Mother’s of East Los Angeles (MELA)

Madres del Este de Los Angeles began as an a group of Latin American mothers that united to prevent the local government from building a prison in their community. These mother’s advocated for their children’s education to be improved, instead of feeding the prison industrial complex with their children. They are environmental activists that protect their community from government funded projects that may be harmful like freeways that pollute the air and water.