[This is the second in a series of video interviews captured at this year's National Conference on Volunteering and Service, which took place June 22-24 in San Francisco. To see them all, click here.]
Hispanic engagement is a hot topic these days. Whether your community has large Latino populations or not, nonprofits that service or are located in and around Spanish-speaking populations face some challenges in breaking into and working within the cultural and political environments.
Beyond the border, the numbers of Spanish-speakers in the U.S. are growing in nearly every city. And with the candidacy of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Surpreme Court, it’s clear that political, cultural and social power is finally shifting to enable Hispanics to not only have more prominent voice in their own futures, but also to bring new ideas and energy into the independent sector.
To get some tips on what volunteer coordinators need to know about working in Spanish-speaking communities, we spoke with Armando “Mando” Rayo, a specialist in Hispanic engagement, at this year’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Rayo is the director of Hands On Central Texas, in Austin, and a partner at a consulting firm that develops marketing strategies that resonate with multicultural America.
(Mando is also a popular food blogger whose exploits covering America’s taco trade are well documented. Yum.)
Some findings from the video:
- It’s no surprise that family and the language play a huge role in engagement and retention of new Spanish-speaking immigrants. But it may be surprising to learn that even second and third generation Hispanics respond differently from other U.S.-born cohorts.
- New immigrants actually volunteer at very high levels at churches and in their communities, but they often don’t consider that to be volunteering in the traditional sense. Also, those volunteers usually discover their roles because they are asked by people in their communities — not on bulletin boards or Web services.
- For second and third generation Hispanics, the cause of identity continues to be a driving interest in their service. But even nonprofits that aren’t focused primarily on Hispanic issues can respond by creating programs with an Hispanic approach.
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