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La Alianza Hispana

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La Alianza Hispana is a social service agency founded in 1969 by the residents of Roxbury/North Dorchester. The organization was created to support Boston's Latino population. La Alianza Hispana's main function is to advocate for equal access to services and public resources for the Latino community. They do this by taking action against existing and potential discriminatory action against the Latino community, especially those with low economic resources and those facing immigration challenges.[1]

History

La Alianza Hispana was founded in 1968 by Ana Maria Rodriguez. Ana Maria Rodriguez was an elementary school teacher at Winthrop Elementary School in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Her specialty was teaching English as a Second Language, mainly to children of Latino immigrants. After observing the impoverished conditions the children where living in, she and another teacher at the school, Betsy Tregar began to set up meetings with the Latino parents at Denison House in Roxbury, in order to address the needs of the community.

Since its foundation, La Alianza Hispana has dedicated its resources to support the needs of Latino immigrants with low income. The most targeted groups of people have been those who live in the Roxbury area.

Objectives

La Alianza Hispana has created four programs to assist the Spanish-speaking community: The Mothers and kids Program, The Latino Family Counseling Center, and The Elderly Services Program.[clarification needed] It has also developed a financial and budget management system in order to keep track of each program's record of financial activity by conducting monthly computer program based financial reports. Through the Finance Committee, the Agency's Board of Directors creates policies and supervises staff operations.[1] The organization has collaborative agreements with other institutions such as Roxbury Community College, Project AFRIC and the University of Massachusetts. La Alianza Hispana has also developed an adult literacy program to assist disadvantaged and homeless woman.

Highlights

Affiliation with United Way In 1968, La Alianza Hispana became the first Latino community-based non-profit organization, funded by Boston's Model Cities Program. This lead to the organization becoming an affiliate with United Way in 1975, as a way to work on diversifying funding.[1]

Gran from Model Cities Program On September 30 of 1970, members of La Alianza Hispana met with members of the Roxbury Multi-Service Center to discuss possible assistance to the growth and development of the Alianza Hispana organization. This stemmed from the ever-growing Spanish-speaking community and the need for resources to integrate members of this community into the greater Boston community. From this meeting, a proposal for a Spanish Multi-Service Center had been put together, which turned into La Alianza Hispana with a $33,000 grant from Model Cities. This incorporation caused a small controversy from some of the members of the Black community of Roxbury and Dorchester. They believed that La Alianza Hispana was taking away resources from the Black community, but with the expanding Spanish-speaking community, a resource center was deemed necessary. [11]

Park Design Contest In 1985 La Alianza Hispana held a contest between landscape contracting students from Roxbury Community College and landscape architecture students from Harvard. The contest was was to create a design for a park that would be built on the vacant lot next door. The winner, chosen by the neighborhood committee and the staff at La Alianza Hispana, was a Harvard student named Beth Arndsten. The design was described by a writer from the Boston Globe as “a simple but elegant and formal Spanish garden, full of color accents.”[12]

Programs

La Alianza Hispana is a complex service agency that functions in a decentralized manner. Units that focus on particular topics in order to achieve the organization's overall goals organize it. [4]

Madres y Niños en Proceso (MYNP) Comprehensive maternal/child home-visiting program targeting high-risk Latina immigrant pregnant/parenting mothers and families with children birth to age 5. The program resolves families’ basic needs, provides parenting education, promotes school readiness, and teaches nutrition and physical activity. Provides social supports and public health programming to this vulnerable population. The result is parents who are empowered to improve the lives of their children, which results in both better individual outcomes for children and a stronger, healthier community.[4]

The Latino Family Counseling Center offers culturally individual, group and family counseling, as well as behavioral health services to Latino communities. It provides counseling resources about welfare, housing, food and social security. Other services available are counseling around mental health, sexual abuse, and substance abuse, in addition to a support group for LGBTyouth and their families.[4] La Alianza Hispana is the only Spanish-speaking contributor that offers both child welfare and mental health services. By increasing its clients' access to community resources, the center seeks to empower individuals to cope with their behavioral and mental health issues.Appropriate guidelines serve as a model for tackling universal challenges.Currently, the agency wants to partner with a parent clinic with the purpose of obtaining the necessary license for third party payments.[4]

The Elderly Services Program offers linguistically and culturally relevant services to Latino elders age 60 and older. The services are run by bilingual and bi-cultural staff that has been trained in servicing existing health and medical needs of disabled, cognitively, and or physically impaired Latino elders living in Roxbury and Dorchester.

The goal of the program facilitate the networking, companionship and quality of life of Latino elders. The services work under a medical model of service which responds to certain plans.[4]

The program allows elders to continue living at home while attending the Adult Day Health Program for at least two days a week. Some of the different services include counseling, daily nutritional meals delivered by Council of Elders and client escort.[6]

Aliancianos Senior Center (ASC) Healthy Living for Seniors & Adults with Disabilities—Center-based program providing care, supports, activities, socialization and resources for low-income Latino immigrant elders, to optimize independence, health, access to services, and ability to age in place. The ASC advances LAH’s mission on multiple levels; Empower Latino seniors by providing them with the tools they need to be independent and by creating a strong connection to their community. This community connection strengthens the broader Latino community through enriching the intergenerational benefits of a vibrant space for elders to realize their potential. On another level, the ASC strengthens the community by providing a safe, reliable space for working families to have their elder family members spend the day so they can continue working more efficiently.[4]

Tomando Control de su Salud (Chronic Disease Self-Management Program) Culturally-competent, evidence-based model teaching adults prevention and healthy life-skills. This program is led by community members who suffer from chronic disease themselves. It develops leadership skills amongst group facilitators, and it empowers group participants to maintain and/or improve health outcomes. The program positively impacts individuals and the larger community. It is one of the only Latino facilitate chronic disease self-management programs in Boston.[4]

Financial Literacy and Latino Entrepreneur Development Program (FLLED) Financial coaching, financial literacy workshops, business skills and planning, basic and advanced computer training, and 1:1 coaching for future small business owners.[4]


Funding Resources

La Alianza has tripled its operational budget since its founding. Currently, the organization accepts around 5,000 clients per year. The majority of the programs do not charge any fee for the services provided due to clients tending to come from lower resources communities.[8] However, there are a combination of sources that fund La Alianza Hispana. For example, the Department for Social Services and the Department of Public Health provide funding for the Youth Center Unit. Besides public sources, the Alianza is also funded by private sources.[9] United Way of America is a non-profit, U.S.-based organization, provides 18% of their current funding while other non-profits provide 6-7% of the current operating costs.

References

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

  1. ^ Estorino, Maria; Maing, Michelle; Van Cleave, Kendra (2000). "Finding Aid". La Alianza Hispana records. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  2. ^ La Alianza Hispana, Records, 1965-1999, University Libriaries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 3, folder 24
  3. ^ Hardy-Fanta, Carol; Gerson, Jeffrey (2014). Latino Politics in Massachusetts: Struggles, Strategies and Prospects. Routledge.
  4. ^ La Alianza Hispana (2014, February 13). Retrieved October 17, 2014
  5. ^ La Alianza Hispana, Records, 1965-1999, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 83, folder 23
  6. ^ La Alianza Hispana records, 1965-1999, University Libriaries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 75, folder 13
  7. ^ La Alianza Hispana (2014, February 13). Retrieved October 17, 2014
  8. ^ La Alianza Hispana records, 1965-1999, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 78, folder 10
  9. ^ La Alianza Hispana, Records, 1965-1999, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 70, folder 16
  10. ^ La Alianza Hispana, Records, 1965-1999, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 3, folder 15
  11. ^ Garcia, Frieda. "Cooperation Pays Off." Boston Globe (1960-1987), Nov 05 1971, p. 19. ProQuest. Web. 28 Mar. 2019 .
  12. ^ Steve Curwood, Globe S. "Vacant Lot Becomes a Park." Boston Globe (1960-1987), Mar 29 1985, p. 21. ProQuest. Web. 1 Apr. 2019 .
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