I’m excited to announce that starting this year, I’m on the board of directors for Latinos Progresando.

When Latinos Progresando opened its doors in 1998, it was led by founder & Executive Director Luis Gutierrez who was, at the time, just 24 years old and working as a volunteer. The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis was born and raised in southwest Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood—the largest Mexican community in the Midwest.  LP moved to the east side of Chicago’s Little Village (the area known as Marshall Square) with the goal of instigating neighborhood transformation.

Today LP is recognized as a community leader, reaching thousands of families every year: meeting immediate needs, putting our community’s story on center stage, investing in our next generation of leaders; and developing resources in our community through coalition building.

LP serves our community by offering high-quality, affordable immigration legal services, including an initiative that reaches victims of domestic violence; providing arts and cultural programming for youth and adults through Teatro Americano; helping promising young students afford higher education through a scholarship fund; and convening key stakeholders through the 20-organization collaborative called the Marshall Square Resource Network.