On October 14, 2020, we hosted representatives from Urban Promise International, one of our partner organizations, and enjoy an introduction to a local organization, Juntos.
Juntos, is a South Philadelphia, community-led, Latinx immigrant organization whose programs include Solidarity Bank, a member-led initiative to get food and other resources to underserved immigrant families. We heard from Erika Guadalupe Nunez, an immigrant, artist and cultural organizer who emigrated from Mexico as a child with her mother "without papers and without fear." Erika graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 2013 with a BA in comparative Literature and Fine Arts, Printmaking. In addition to working Manager of Community Programs at Fleisher Art Memorial, she has served as a national coordinator of Mijente, an online social networking site serving the Hispanic Community, and a board member of the Leeway Foundation which supports individual women, trans and gender nonconforming artists, arts programs and arts organizations. Erika Erika, who has been a resident artist and Vice President of Juntos' Board and was recently appointed its Executive Director. discussed Juntos' community-based advocacy for resources and for the human rights of workers, parents, youth and immigrants.
WIL has had several projects with Urban Promise International and showcased our ongoing overseas student mentoring project. The Urban Promise International fellows are In the US for two years of training to become leaders of sustainable youth development organizations in Africa before returning home to develop and run local NGOS that serve vulnerable children and teens. We heard from a panel of speakers representing different experiences of this work followed by an open discussion about the project.
View the program recording here.
