In 2012, MACG started a new initiative to support leadership development of our Latino leaders.

Since that time, we’ve worked with many Latino leaders in member and prospective member institutions.  Over 250 new leaders have received Leadership training in Spanish, to date, and are putting into practice the skills they’ve learned in their churches, schools, and communities.

In addition, we’ve been selected as one of 12 national sites to receive Spanish training from veteran Latino organizers from the IAF, our national organization, greatly enhancing our capacity to provide quality, culturally-specific training and mentoring of Latino leaders.

These trained Latino leaders are an important part of MACG’s organizational structure,  taking the lead on a variety of issues critical to their community and the community at large, in partnership with non-Hispanic leaders in MACG’s membership.

The cross-cultural powerbase we have built has allowed MACG to respond to pressures felt in the Latino community:

• In the 2018 election, Latino leaders took an active role in the successful statewide effort to defeat Measure 105 which would have overturned Oregon’s sanctuary law. Leaders, many of whom were unable to vote themselves, helped educate friends, family members, and others in the community about the measure, urging eligible folks to vote.
  
  
• In 2017, Latino leaders hosted four “Call to Action for DACA” events in two counties.  Eight DACA recipients shared their stories with close to 300 attendees, building relationships between those affected by the DACA issue and those with the political power to take action.
  
  
• Leaders also put on Know your Rights and Rapid Response workshops for over 300 people to support the Latino community in responding to increased aggressive action by Immigration and Customs agents.
  
  
• In 2014, based in the personal stories heard in the MACG Latino community, and with high participation of that community working side by side with other MACG leaders, we successfully raised awareness to over 450 people who attended a bilingual assembly about a statewide Drivers Card ballot measure for undocumented immigrants. Although that measure failed in 2014, the issue remains a critical one.  Leaders are currently part of an organizing effort to pass a bill in the 2019 legislature – Equal Access to Roads Act (HB2015) – which will enable residents without citizenship documentation to receive driver’s licenses.