Press Releases

On July 1, 2015, Kate Steinle tragically lost her life in San Francisco through a senseless act perpetrated by an evil individual. That individual happened to be an undocumented immigrant. In the aftermath of Steinle’s tragic death, anti-immigrant legislators in Congress have sought to use her murder as a political wedge to push through legislation that targets immigrants. They have focused especially on punishing cities across the country that offer sanctuary from the most onerous federal immigration laws.
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With so many challenges facing the Latino communities of the mainland United States, one might think that Latino leaders should avoid getting involved in Puerto Rico’s complex economic crisis. But the truth is that the challenges facing Puerto Rico’s economy not only affect the 3.5 million United States citizens who live on the island or the 5 million American citizens of Puerto Rican descent living in the mainland U.S. No, it affects all 55 million Latinos and indeed, the nation itself.
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Last year Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered all agencies to begin aggressively tackling income inequality. In this spirit, the Hispanic Federation presents its 2015 policy paper Growth with Equity: Meeting the Workforce Development Needs of Latinos in New York City. It is a rethinking of the city’s workforce development services as well as a launching pad for ideas on how to economically uplift Latino and other struggling New Yorkers.
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One of the reasons for the creation of the Hispanic Federation twenty-five years ago was the need to address the lack of parity in funding for Latino nonprofits compared to their non-Latino peers in New York City. A review of government and private philanthropic allocations to nonprofits in the late 1980s revealed that Latino community-based organizations, many of which were on the front-lines of the battle against New York’s most pressing social problems, did not receive their fair share of resources from government or private funders.
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When the Hispanic Federation was created a quarter century ago, the geographic focus of the organization centered on the Latino community-based organizations in New York City. Those organizations, many of which were created out of grassroots efforts to address problems of poverty, housing, education and health care in the city’s Hispanic neighborhoods. Our model of providing direct support to these organizations to strengthen their operations and to improve the ways in which they helped their communities has proved successful. While there is still much work to do in New York City, the benefits of the Hispanic Federation model are obvious and can well benefit Latinos in other parts of the country.

Confidence in our model is what drove us to open an office in Hartford, Connecticut two years ago. And, now this year, to expand into Florida, a goal that was achieved this past June.
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Over the past three and a half years, the Hispanic Federation has broken new ground by engaging Latinos nationally in an unprecedented and historical campaign in defense of public lands and the validation and promotion of national monument designation. The benefits of our nation's parks are many, from preserving our precious resources to fostering economic development. Of equal importance is their contribution to the health and well-being of the nation’s 55 million Hispanics, too many of whom are inflicted with obesity, diabetes and other preventable and treatable diseases.
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The Hispanic Federation was founded to strengthen Latino nonprofits, but we have always been, at our core, a civil rights organization. That means that while we work with our member agencies on important social issues such as education and housing, we are also deeply committed to preserving and expanding civil rights for all Latinos. We do that in large part by organizing and leveraging the collective wisdom and power of our community to create opportunities for social action. This year, we significantly increased our capacity to this critical work by making some key staff hires and launching new issue-based coalitions.
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Our Mid-Year Report is here! It’s a time to review recent accomplishments - and to set the stage for finishing the year even stronger. I’m proud to say the Federation has already done incredible work. Working together with our incomparable network of Latino community-based organizations, we've touched the lives of more than 65,000 individuals and families over the past six months through our array of health, education, immigration, civic engagement, and environmental services. At the same time, we’ve continued to strengthen our Latino nonprofits by providing over 1.1M in grants to date. We've also convened our community's leadership around major issues to drive action on community schools, farmworkers rights, criminal justice, immigrant integration, health disparities and environmental protection and conservation. And we’ve pioneered HF’s first-ever satellite office in Florida. Overall, HF has grown in scope and reach to achieve greater impact – for more of our families and more of our community.
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WASHINGTON DC — Hispanic Federation has released a report entitled Healthy Parks: Healthy Latinos, which outlines the health disparities impacting the nation’s 55 million Hispanics and the importance of green spaces to Latino communities from coast to coast. The report calls on Congress to permanently reauthorize and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund – set to expire in September – while preserving the longstanding Antiquities Act and the President’s authority to designate national parks and monuments.
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July 1, 2015 (New York, NY) – Hispanic Federation has released the following statement regarding Macy’s decision to pull Donald Trump merchandise from its stores.

“The Hispanic Federation applauds the decision by Macy’s to discontinue their relationship with Donald Trump and pull his brand merchandise from its stores. It has become clear that Mr. Trump’s comments, which reflected gross mischaracterizations of Mexicans – and, by extension, the Latino community – are not in line with the values Macy’s and the overwhelming majority of Americans hold dear.
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(February 5, 2015)—Coordinating organizations for the newly-created Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund today announced grant awards for 80 New York City-based nonprofit organizations. The Fund is the first of its kind in New York City and provides capacity building support to emerging and seasoned social services organizations.
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With voters preparing to head to the polls on November 4th, Latino community leaders descended on the State Capitol in Hartford to release Latino Connecticut: A Call to Action, a comprehensive public policy blueprint intended to inform the soon to be elected Governor, General Assembly and other government officials on how to best respond to the needs and aspirations of the more than 500,000 Latino residents across the state.
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With just over 100 days left in Mayor Bloomberg’s 12-year tenure, Latino community leaders descended on New York City Hall to release a comprehensive policy blueprint intended to inform the city’s next mayor, city council and other government officials on how to best respond to the needs and aspirations of the city’s 2.3 million Latino residents. The report – La Gran Manzana: The Road Ahead for New York City’s Latino Community – includes over 150 recommended reforms and investments covering nine major issues and constituencies including economic empowerment, education, immigrants, civil rights, women and strengthening Latino nonprofit organizations. The policy blueprint was compiled and written by the Hispanic Federation (HF) in partnership with over 60 NYC member agencies, who comprise some of the leading nonprofit institutions across the city.
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