Our work in the United States is currently focused on the Hispanic community, and the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community in particular.  All of our activities in the United States directed toward Hispanics are channeled through our Acceso Hispano initiative.

Acceso Hispano’s fundamental goal is to improve the quality of life of the Hispanic population living in the United States. There are close to 47 million Latinos currently living in the U.S., and by 2050 this number is expected to reach 140 million, according to recent projections by the Pew Hispanic Center. By 2050 Hispanics will make up 29% of the U.S. population in 2050, compared with 14% in 2005. A little over half of this new Hispanic population will be recent immigrants, who need access to information and support services to effectively integrate into the broader society.

We seek to empower members of the Hispanic community to improve their lives by linking them to the support services or information they may need. It is our pledge to build trust and honor the confidentiality of every person we serve. We support the Hispanic community in the following ways:

• Mass Media. Acceso Hispano has forged a strategic and dynamic partnership with Hispanic Communications Network (HCN), a national network that reaches Latinos across the country through educational television, radio, print, and Internet media. HCN produces daily capsules and live interactive radio programs that air on over 240 affiliated Spanish-language radio stations and reach 90% of the U.S. Hispanic market. HCN also produces original television programs and works to integrate specific content into prime-time programs, produces a syndicated weekly print column published in over 100 affiliated newspapers or magazines, and places content on leading Spanish-language Internet portals. Acceso Hispano contributes to the content of some of the programs, and at the end of each program listeners are referred to Acceso Hispano’s hotline for more information. This strategic partnership with HCN ensures a steady stream of calls to the hotline and creates a continuous feedback loop to keep both institutions up-to-date on issues and challenges that Hispanics are facing in various parts of the country.
• National Hotline. We manage a bilingual toll-free Information and Referral (I&R) Service for callers from across the United States, and take calls and online inquiries between the hours of 9am – 10pm EST, Monday through Friday. All of our I&R Specialists are trained to address a wide variety of issues. When callers need to access local services, the I&R Specialists search our database of over 17,500 community-based service providers who offer non-discriminatory health and social services to Hispanics, to find the most accessible services. We are currently working to make our service provider database available online, which will allow service providers to update their contact information directly via the Internet and enable people to search the database for relevant services in their community.
• Electronic Media. To respond to an increase in access to new technology among our Hispanic population, we have integrated new ways to exchange information such as SMS text messaging, email, e-newsletters, e-surveys, chat rooms, interactive comments, and other features via our website. Now those who have access to the Internet can access our information, resources, referrals and support services any time they like.
• Community Outreach. In keeping with SRF’s mission, Acceso Hispano also organizes activities at the community level to reach the people who most need confidential, bilingual support services. These activities include fairs, town hall meetings, focus groups, and provider / community meetings. We are currently working to build a network of promotores or community educators in “new-growth” Hispanic communities (non-traditional Hispanic communities with a new influx of Spanish-language dominant immigrants) where Hispanics are most marginalized and discriminated against. The promotores will create a trusted source of information, referrals and support for the community, and communicate critical issues and needs of the community back to Acceso Hispano.
• News and Research. Acceso Hispano also supports the Hispanic community by disseminating news and research about issues that directly affect Hispanic individuals and Hispanic-serving organizations. We post news from other media sources about issues that affect the community, and we generate news stories about issues of concern happening in the community. We listen to our promotores, our callers, our bloggers and our chat rooms, to keep a pulse on what is really happening in the community. We also conduct surveys of our callers or visitors, of the service providers who serve our population, and from time to time we survey other stakeholders-so that we can let others know what is happening in our community or to our community and what can be done about it.

We believe that this component of news and research is critical in mobilizing people to action. We need both people within our community and our allies in the business, government, or NGO sectors who care about what happens to the Hispanic community to know what is going on and what they can do to improve things.

Please visit www.accesohispano.org to learn more about our U.S. programs.