Voto Latino, the nonprofit organization whose work empowering young Latinos has promoted positive change and attracted a celebrity following, turned 10 years old. The organization additionally sponsored the “Voto Latino Innovators Challenge” where participants from around the country were tasked with finding a solution to a problem that uniquely affects the Latino community, with a grand prize of $500,000 in grants to fund their concept.
“They have each had the experience that they faced, a problem, within their community, their family or themselves, and they applied a solution to that problem and that’s what we need,” said Voto Latino president and CEO Maria Teresa Kumar. “We need people to stop griping and finding solutions to empower others and that’s what made them standout.”
Behind many of Voto Latino’s initiatives – the Innovators Challenge included – are celebrities like Wilmer Valderrama, Eva Longoria and America Ferrera, whose commitment to the organization has forged lasting, impactful change, and many of its successes up to this point. After 10 years, however, Voto Latino shows no signs of slowing their pace.
“These young people are taking the mission of Voto Latino and owning it and taking it into their communities and that’s the point,” said Ferrera. “The hope is that it would be great in another 10 years there was no need for Voto Latino because we’ve empowered and inspired so many young people to become local leaders in their own communities and register every-single-one of their family members, friends and peers to show up and vote and to take responsibility for the engagement that exists in their community.”
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