The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa will partner with a Spanish-speaking news organization and a caucus website to train Latinos about the political process and how to participate in the 2016 Iowa Caucuses.
LULAC, within the next couple of months, will begin an outreach program to educate the Latino community about how the Caucuses work and how to participate in them. Training sessions will be held throughout Iowa, with special emphasis on areas of the state with higher Latino populations and where LULAC councils are located.
“Our goal is to turn out 25,000 Latino voters to the Republican and Democratic Caucuses,” said Joe Enriquez Henry, state director of LULAC of Iowa. “The most effective way to involve Latinos in the political process is to show and explain to them how politics and the Caucuses work.
“We hope that once Latinos understand and participate in the Caucuses, they will continue to stay engaged in the political process,” Enriquez Henry continued. “The end of this journey is not just at the Iowa Caucuses; the end will be when we’ve empowered Latinos in Iowa to feel comfortable being part of a political system that has ignored them for too long.”
LULAC will work with Hola Iowa, operated by Hola America Media Group, to publicize efforts to reach out to potential Caucus-goers. Hola America was started in 2000 and provides news and information in English and Spanish through a website, social media, a print publication, a newsletter, television shows, mail subscriptions, translation services, and video and photography services. Hola America launched the web site HolaIowa.com last year with exclusive content featuring all the Latino communities of Iowa.
LULAC will use the “Iowa Presidential Caucuses” massive open online course created by Iowa State University in its training sessions. The course discusses the history of the Caucuses, how they work, the role of the news media and technology, and the future of the Caucuses.
Portions of the course will be showed at town hall meetings that will take place in September, between Oct. 13 and Nov. 10, between Nov. 17 and Dec. 15, and between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2. More details will be announced at a further date.
Founded in 1929, the League of United Latin American Citizens is the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. There are more than 1,000 local LULAC councils, which hold voter registration drives, provide awareness to residents about language and immigration issues, sponsor programs and advocate for Latinos.
For more information, contact Joe Enriquez Henry at 515.208.7312; or Melissa Walker at 515.681.7731 or [email protected] , or visit www.lulaciowa.org.
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