Hispanic and Latino Organizations Changing The Lives of Young Learners

It’s National Hispanic Heritage Month and to honor it, we’ve rounded up a few organizations that are helping to change the landscape of education for Latinx and Hispanic leaders and learners around the country. Below are the organizations you need to know.

Association of Latin American Superintendents (ALAS)

ALAS “provides leadership at the national level that assures every school in America effectively serves the educational needs of all students with an emphasis on Latino youth through continuous professional learning, policy advocacy, and networking to share practices of promise for our students and the communities where we serve.”

This collaboration between 8000 Latinx leaders strives to better address the growing number of Hispanic/Latinx students by providing resources to increase representation, talent and experience.

In a recent conversation with Executive Director of ALAS, Maria Armstrong, she made clear that the next-gen of superintendents will need to extend their jobs well beyond the school building and said “we need to take care of our kids, our communities, our entire families, our staffs […] we have to be a model for all of them.”

LatinX Education Collaborative

The LatinX Education Collaborative is a Kansas City-based organization that strives to “retain and increase the representation of Latinx education professionals in K-12. Our vision is to build a world where Latinx Educators are abundant and thriving.”

In 2021 alone, this organization reached over a thousand LatinX educators through monthly webinars and convenings, as well as publishing invaluable resources and content that spoke to the true lives and experiences of Latinx Educators.  

Latinos for Education

Latinos for Education focuses primarily on enhancing access and opportunities for K-12 Hispanic/LatinX youth. As “the first Latino-founded and led national organization solely dedicated to creating leadership pathways for Latinos in education”, this organization has spent years assembling a powerful coalition of changemakers to make education systems better serve their communities.

Excelencia in Education

Launched in 2004, Excelencia in Education’s mission is to “accelerate Latino student success in higher education by promoting Latino student achievement, conducting analysis to inform educational policies, and advancing institutional practices while collaborating with those committed and ready.”

Excelencia is committed to building a network of educators who are results oriented and ready to tackle the need for a highly educated workforce and engaged civic leadership in today’s U.S. economy.

“We have created a tradition, on the national landscape, where the ability to focus and serve Latino students at the programmatic level is honored and recognized in the way it always should have been,” shared Sarita Brown, President of Excelencia in Education.

Green Latinos

Green Latinos may not be an educational organization in the traditional k-higher ed sense but its goal to “envision a healthy and equitable society where communities of color are liberated from disproportionate environmental burdens, free to breathe fresh air, drink pure water, access clean transportation and enjoy our majestic public lands, ocean, and waters” will have lasting impacts for generations of leaders and learners to come.

Comprised of Latino/a/x leaders, Green Latinos demands equity to dismantle racism, resources to win environmental, conservation, and climate challenges and remains committed to political, economic, cultural and environmental liberation.  

UnidosUS

UnidosUS is the largest Latino civil right organization in the United States. Their website states that “Through our unique combination of research, advocacy, programs, and a national network of nearly 300 community-based Affiliate organizations across the country, we simultaneously challenge the social, economic, and political barriers that affect Latinos in the United States across a range of key issues.”

While not an outright education organization, their focus areas and strategy are core to making the lives of young Hispanic/Latino students better day in and day out.

Do you know of an organization that we should add to this list? Drop us a note at [email protected].