Nonprofits at risk of closing programs respond to budget crisis by mobilizing immigrants to vote
In response to the state’s budget crisis, several nonprofit organizations serving immigrants, particularly the women of Mujeres Latinas en Acción (MLEA), are mobilizing immigrants to vote.
A team of 24 women from MLEA’s Latina Leadership program are walking street by street and knocking door-to-door, in an effort to register as many people as they can to vote.
One of those women is María de Jesús González. For the past six weeks, she has been carrying a folder filled with voter registration applications and information on upcoming citizenship workshops. She visits residents and businesses in Pilsen and conducts presentations at the Mexican Consulate.
“The community needs it. Many of the residents are not aware of the information needed to register to vote,” said Gonzalez, who has been registered and an active voter since 1995.
MLEA is a member of the New Americans Democracy Project, sponsored by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), an initiative to register and mobilize new citizen voters to the polls.
MLEA engages young girls, ages 13 to 17 from the Proyecto Juventud program, along with volunteers from the Latina Leadership program, to work together.
The women in Latina Leadership put their leadership and organizational skills that they learned at MLEA to mobilize and make an impact in their community. The girls of Proyecto Juventud serve as the support “street” team. The girls learn about the history of women’s struggle to vote, the voting process, the judicial and electoral system and how they can make a difference in their communities when they are of voting age.
“I didn’t understand how a vote could make such a difference,” said Mayra Hernández, a Proyecto Juventud participant. “Seeing the struggle women went through and working to register people
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