We are a community resource driven by and for Latina women dedicated to supporting programs that enhance the lives of Latina women and girls in the greater Milwaukee area. By pooling our resources and funding programs that enable lasting social change, supporters of Latinas en Acción (LEA) are improving the lives for Latinas now and for future generations.
The idea for LEA grew out of the Latina Task Force, a statewide group that helped women of Latino heritage develop the skills to organize their communities around important issues—encouraging political participation, leadership development and educational support. In 2006, several of the founding members of the Latina Task Force worked with the Women’s Fund to create Latinas en Acción as a community resource that would preserve a legacy of Latina advocacy and activism.
A gift to Latinas en Acción supports our commitment to funding programs and services that address critical issues for Latinas in our community.
Consider Lydia, one of 22 promotores de salud, or health promoters, trained by LEA grant partner Proyecto Salud. Proyecto Salud is a joint project of natural healing center CORE/El Centro and Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic. Combining education, leadership development and advocacy training, the project builds the capacity of Latino community members to improve public health through a bilingual, culturally competent, grassroots approach to social change. Health promoters talk with family members, friends, and neighbors about their concerns, and take those concerns back to the table to share them with health professionals and policymakers.
Lydia, a wife and mother of three, holds monthly women’s health workshops, works on the group’s community garden at Mitchell Park and makes home visits to families of children with disabilities. “There’s no payment that measures up to the way that [this work] makes me feel as a human being,” Lydia says. “I feel like a complete person—I am a mother, wife, friend, worker, professional, and I’m a volunteer who is helping my fellow Latinos.”
Milwaukee Public Television crew spoke with LEA co-chair Claudia Guzman at a past Dia de los Muertos exhibit at Walkers Point Performing Center for the Arts. She said, “it’s really important because I feel like it’s Latino history that’s not highlighted in the books. When you hear about movements you hear a lot of men’s names and the women’s names don’t come up as much. This is an opportunity to provide more information and educate around women activists who’ve made a difference in our community.” Watch the entire clip here.
Grant Partners
Cientificas de Milwaukee (a program of Hayes Bilingual Elementary School)
$2,750 | Unrestricted Support
The only extracurricular program that offers bilingual STEM education to elementary school-aged girls in the Milwaukee Area
CORE/El Centro
$1,000 | Latina Leadership Development in Movement
Develops community leadership to address healthcare disparities among low-income people with an emphasis on the predominantly Hispanic Walker’s Point and Clarke Square neighborhoods.
Milwaukee Christian Center
$1,500 | GIRLS (Girls in Real Life Situations)
Developing leadership capacity among Latina girls in Milwaukee’s impoverished communities to engage them in preventing teen dating violence.
Milwaukee Mijas (Fiscal Sponsor: Walker’s Point Center for the Arts)
$750 | Dia De Los Muertos Parade Project
Offers free month long workshops on specific Dia De Los Muertos projects that teach people the history with lectures and art projects.
Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee
$1,000 | Reproductive Justice Project
Meets a matching grant from Groundswell’s Catalyst Fund of the Tides Foundation to support Milwaukee’s reproductive justice movement.
Past Grant Partners
CORE/El Centro
Educators Network for Social Justice
The Healing Center
Latina Resource Center (UMOS, Inc.)
Loyola Academy (Council for the Spanish Speaking, Inc.)
Reproductive Justice Collective
Reproductive Justice Project
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center
Voces de la Frontera
Walker’s Point Center for the Arts
Latinas en Acción Steering Committee
Marcela O. García, Co-Chair
Claudia Guzmán
Ava Hernández
Carrie Koss Vallejo
Tonya Mantilla, Co-Chair
Adriana Rodriguez
Maria Rodríguez
Nicole Thomas
Michelle Villanueva
Patricia Villarreal
Note: The Women’s Fund retains a percentage of all restricted gifts.