Executive Summary

For over 30 years, the Latino Policy Forum (initially formed in 1989 as Latinos United) has played a unique and essential role within Illinois’ Latino community and its broader advocacy, social, economic, and political landscape. It is one of eleven organizations in the US focusing on public policy to pursue equity for low-income Latinos and their families. The Forum’s policy and advocacy outcome is that Latinos are converging toward more equitable prosperity in economic, educational, and civic life. The Forum’s staff and board are predominately Latino. The Forum conducts ground-breaking research; leads or supports public policy and advocacy efforts resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in increased funding for Latino households and community-based organizations; provides trusted information to decision-makers and information on rights and opportunities to tens of thousands of Latino individuals and their families. The Forum created innovative programming to strengthen the collaborative leadership capabilities of Latino and Black community leaders. To address emerging crises, the Forum co-created and incubated vital new organizations, including Illinois Unidos, the most robust COVID-related consortium in the US; and Welcome to Illinois, an 80-organization coalition responding to the ongoing immigration crisis. Informing the Forum’s strategies and activities are ongoing collaboration and collective agenda setting with the coalitions and advisory groups it convenes through partnerships with more than 150 organizations. Additionally, we collaborate with community members/leaders, academic researchers, and leaders in business, philanthropy, non-profits, and public policy. The Forum is both a trusted partner and a voice.

Organizations may provide budget and employee data based on this proposal or the organization as a whole. For more information on this proposal or organization, please email us.