Celebrating Latino Heritage Month!
To the Editor,
It is with great pleasure that we welcome you all to Hispanic Heritage Month. As Latinx women and migrants, it is essential for us to recognize the significant role that the Latinx community plays not only in Chelsea but within the United States. With 62.1 million Latinx individuals living in the United States, this community stands as the largest ethnic population in the country. Chelsea, the home of our operations center, is comprised of 80% immigrants, primarily from Latinx countries. At La Colaborativa, 92% of our staff identifies as Latinx. Latinx individuals are not only leading our organization but also shaping the future generation of leaders in the United States. These impressive numbers were not easily achieved but represent a hard-fought battle of endurance, resilience, strength, and unwavering hope.
Bright Spots of 2023
Survival Center: La Colaborativa has been able to successfully build permanent infrastructure to offer Latinx immigrant families unprecedented ease of access to a hub of community programs and services in the heart of Chelsea.
Made up to code: La Colaborativa has helped 2,200 households stabilize through free legal aid, emergency housing placements, housing assistance application support like RAFT, utility assistance, cash assistance, housing inspections, eviction prevention, landlord mediation and informing our population of Made: up to code, which teaches tenants how to perform self inspections of their homes. 78% of housing clients report continued housing stability 6 months after receiving our services.
Economic Mobility: La Colaborativa’s Adult Jobs program supported 950 residents in the last year with job search (resume building, job application support, interview prep, job placement services). We developed a rapid re-employment model to address widespread unemployment and underemployment in our community. We have provided our community members with over $300, 000 in cash assistance. We helped launch seven new childcare businesses with our childcare cooperative and an additional 13 women women have completed our childcare program, earned their credentials, secured jobs at existing childcare centers, family childcare businesses, and public schools. Recently, La Colaborativa has embarked on a new partnership with Chelsea Public Schools, Teacher Pathways Program. This program will provide a pathway for Chelsea residents to become involved with the public school system and eventually become certified teachers.
Youth Development: We supported 300 youth with career exploration, offering diverse work placement for career exploration. Our school year employment program supported 80 youth in intensive work readiness training along with leadership development opportunities and case to support our most at risk youth.
Immigrant Support: La Colaborativa has helped over 300 latinx immigrants in the area apply for a drivers license. As well as provided immigration support for newly arrived migrants to the State of Massachusetts.
Feeding our Neighbors Campaign: This year La Colaborativa alongside Senator Sal DiDomenico and Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, launched the the Feeding our Neighbors Campaign. This is an initiative that would help immigrant households access both regular food assistance (state funded SNAP) and cash assistance for families with minor children to meet basic needs.
It is an honor to celebrate the rich, diverse, and eclectic Latinx nations and ethnicities this month, both here in Chelsea and across the nation. Over the next month, we look forward to sharing with you the immense pride we hold for our roots, backgrounds, and culture. We thank you for being a part of the change needed to ensure stability, growth, and justice for Latinx people. As American labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta once said, “We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for.” Let us all continue the essential work for the betterment of our communities and extend our hands, ears, and hearts to all of our neighbors, both near and far, to create the future we all desire and need.
Many regards,
Gladys Vega
Executive Director
La Colaborativa
Dinanyili Paulino
Chief Operating Officer
La Colaborativa