Closing the year with a showstopping episode of I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. Make sure to experience it. This conversation with Gigi Pedraza, Founder and Executive Director of the Latino Community Fund (LCF Georgia) is what conversations behind closed doors look like among Hispanic leaders that are convening, galvanizing, organizing, and mobilizing Latino power – and have receipts to prove it.  “The problem with our community is that they don’t fear us,” says Pedraza, as she shares a step-by-step description of how to catalyze investment and promote collaborative work in the Latinx/Hispanic community…this is her mission, and she’s unapologetic about declaring ESTAMOS AQUÍ (WE ARE HERE). She’s walking the talk and I’m a huge fan.

 

LCF Georgia’s impact work as a 501(c)(3) is focused on growing people’s democracy, protecting, and building community, and investing in economic opportunity and they do this through direct community engagement, education, and mobilization. Under Gigi’s leadership, Latinx-led and governed member organizations throughout the state of Georgia are working together to bring to fruition LCF Georgia’s agenda of raising funds and re-granting to support power-building strategies, program development, and scholarships in three high-impact funds: Advocacy and Civic Participation, Capacity Building and Program Development, Educational and Micro-entrepreneurship scholarships.

Importantly, during the recent mid-term elections in Georgia (and the senatorial run-off elections as well) Gigi and the LCF Georgia family of organizations knocked on tens of thousands of doors, made countless calls, and accompanied people who were afraid to exercise their vote to voting locations where people were being harassed. This is the type of hands-on leadership that we need in the Latino community to ensure that Latinos who are eligible to vote are civically engaged. The overarching goal is to elevate the voice of the Hispanic community and demand that our concerns be addressed, including undocumented families who contribute to our society and economy. It’s worth repeating: ESTAMOS AQUÍ…and as Gigi points out, we’ve always been here.