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La Alianza Hispana is a social service organization founded in 1969 by the residents of Roxbury/North Dorchester. The organization was created to support Boston's Hispanic population. La Alianza Hispana's main function is to advocate for equal access to services and public resources for the Hispanic community. They do this by taking action against existing and potential discriminatory action against the Hispanic community, especially those with low economic resources and those facing immigration challenges.
History
[edit]La Alianza Hispana was founded in 1968 by Ana Maria Rodriguez, an elementary school teacher specializing in English as a Second Language. She started the organization in response to working with children of immigrants that had low economic resources. Since its foundation, La Alianza Hispana has dedicated its resources to support the needs of Hispanic immigrants with low income. The most targeted groups of people have been those who live in the Roxbury area.
In 1970, La Alianza Hispana became a 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.[2]
In 1981, Nelson Merced became the director of La Alianza. During his time as director, the financial standing of La Alianza Hispana has improved. [3]
Objectives
[edit]La Alianza Hispana has created four programs to assist the Hispanic community: The Youth Development 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 women.
Programs
[edit]La Alianza Hispana is a complex [how so?] 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. The programs are administered under four units: The Youth Center, Counseling and Advocacy, Adult Education, and Mental Health.[4]
The Youth Development Unit was established in 1978 with the aim of expanding and focusing on youth programs.
The program involves services aimed for children such as recreation, tutoring, and educational resources on substance abuse and prevention. There are different projects that occur yearly. The most notable project is the production of a documentary film that included interviews with the families, youth, and clients that form the organization. The film is produced and directed by participants of this program.
Other activities that the Youth Development Unit offers are adolescent counseling, after school program for ages 6 to 12, the prevention program ages 7 to 21, and cultural arts activities.
The adolescent counseling service involves three full-time and two part-time Drug Prevention and Recreation Workers.
The Latino Family Counseling Center offers culturally[clarification needed] 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 LGBT youth 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.[6]
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 goals 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.[7]
Funding Resources
[edit]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 is 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
[edit]1. ^ Jump up to:a b 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. ^ Jump up to:a b c 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 records, 1965-1999, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 78, folder 10
8. ^ La Alianza Hispana, Records, 1965-1999, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 70, folder 16
9. ^ La Alianza Hispana, Records, 1965-1999, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, Box 3, folder 15