Latino Legacy Fund makes $75,000 in grants for ESOL and economic mobility

Boston – The Latino Legacy Fund at the Boston Foundation announces it has made $75,000 in grants to four Greater Boston organizations focused on ESOL and workforce development programs focused on improving the economic mobility of Latinos in the region. The grants were unanimously approved by the Fund Advisory Committee.

“The selected organizations have varied approaches, but a unified theme – improving opportunities for Latino workers for whom language skills can be an insurmountable barrier to better work conditions and higher-paying jobs,” said Aixa Beauchamp, co-chair of the Latino Legacy Fund.

The four organizations receiving money are:

Mujeres Unidas Avanzando (Boston): $25,000 to expand Carreras de Salud para el Futuro with support for their Certified Medical Assistant and community childcare provider training programs.

Project Hope (Boston): $17,500 to support ESOL training for women enrolled in Project Hope’s Family Childcare and Business Enterprise (FCCBE) network, that provides an opportunity for women in the neighborhood to manage and grow their own home-based childcare centers.

Margarita Muñiz Academy (Boston): $17,500 to partner with Youth Build Boston to provide instruction and stipended experience for students to transition into post-secondary careers or further education in building trades, in partnership with local community colleges.

Chelsea Collaborative (Chelsea): $15,000 to partner with local employers and other organizations to provide residents with training in soft skills, ESOL training (including hospitality-themed English training) and place many of them in permanent jobs.

“These groups represent the best of a strong list of applications for this year’s grantmaking,” said Juan Carlos Morales, co-chair of the Latino Legacy Fund. “We are pleased to announce that the Fund reached its goal to raise $1,000,000 by the end of 2018, however, this process underscores the need to continue to expand the circle of Latino philanthropy to include more donors and thereby support more Latino-led and Latino-serving organizations.”

The Latino Legacy Fund, a unique partnership of local Latino philanthropists and leaders, the Boston Foundation and Hispanics in Philanthropy, was founded in 2013 as the first Latino-focused fund in the Greater Boston area. The Fund’s mission is to create and maintain a permanent endowment to strengthen the diverse Latino community of Greater Boston and contribute to the region’s civic vitality by supporting issues and organizations that advance the socioeconomic status of Latinos—while enhancing the leadership capacity of the entire Latino community. While raising money for the permanent endowment, the Fund has also given more than $300,000 to Latino-led and Latino-serving nonprofits in the Greater Boston area.

The Boston Foundation and the Latino Legacy Fund also partnered in 2017 to found Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico, which raised more than $4 million to organizations providing relief, recovery and relocation support to thousands of people affected by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and Massachusetts.