ABOUT LFGW

The Latino Federation of Greater Washington (LFGW) is a nonprofit membership agency that works to empower the Latino community through advocacy, research and capacity-building resources. LFGW’s core constituency comprises Latino-serving nonprofit agencies that work throughout the greater Washington metropolitan region in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. LFGW supports its nonprofit member agencies through the development of a collective voice and agenda that advances Latino concerns and facilitates research and capacity-building services to promote effective management and financial systems for its members.

Mission

To support and strengthen our member agencies so that they may better serve the Latino community.

 

LFGW fulfills its mission through three key program areas: Member Services; Advocacy; and Research.

 

Contact LFGW: 2437 15th Street NW, Washington DC 20009 - ph.202-328-9451

 

Vision

 

The LFGW envisions a future where all Latinos in the Washington metropolitan area enjoy a high quality of life, are perceived as full-fledged peers, and are engaged as full participants as a whole.

 

Because the LFGW is convinced that perpetuating Latinos dependency on mainstream funding will only reinforce Latinos role as supplicants and hinder efforts to create effective management and financial systems, it committed to promoting long-term sustainability and engaging Latinos own tremendous, untapped, community-based giving capacity. The LFGW believes that Latinos need to ensure they do not remain disengaged from this country's philanthropic processes, but instead take proactive and strategic steps toward self- sufficiency and empowerment.

 

Values

The Federation's work is integrated within an overarching framework that expresses our core values, articulates a vision of equity and abundance for our region, amplifies our longstanding mission by relating it to contemporary times, and lays out principles that guide our research, our advocacy, our capacity building, and our grant-making efforts.

 

History

Deeply rooted in the community it serves, LFGW grew in response to the need to address the gap that exists between available resources and Latino concerns.

 

Originally known as the Council of Latino Agencies (CLA), the formative stages of the Federation came from a group of Latino leaders and community activists who envisioned a more effective organizational stage in the development of the growing Latino community in Washington, D.C. The creation of a collective instrument to facilitate inter-agency communication and cooperation which would assess the community's needs, coordinate services, and advocate on behalf of the community, was a sophisticated concept for its time.

 

"The community at large is delighted that CLA will be changing its name to the Latino Federation of Greater Washington and eagerly awaits the launching of its thoughtfully structured expanded services."   Terri Lee Freeman President, The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region

Throughout the 1980's, CLA successfully functioned as the only organized local expression of Latino interests in the Washington area, coordinating and operating a panoply of much needed social services, bringing in new human and material resources, and providing a forum for a new generation of community leaders.  For almost two decades, CLA represented 37 member agencies who were direct service providers to the District's most vulnerable Latinos.  Since its inception, the organization played a vital role in providing data and analysis of Latinos in the region  which served to fill critical gaps, identify areas for further research, and generate more informed and appropriate policy decision. Following the Latino community's growth and expansion to neighborhoring counties in Maryland and Virginia. in 2007 the organization officially changed its name to the Latino Federation of Greater Washington (LFGW) to include members from Maryland and Virginia.