La Unión works under the following issue areas:

Educational Justice:

We address the educational disparities that impact immigrant, Latino, and African-American students by organizing immigrant parents and students to change the system. The Parents Committee works with Youth Action Changes Things (YACT), creating an intergenerational campaign that engages entire families to improve public school services, both for immigrant parents and their first-generation Mexican-American sons and daughters.

Immigrant parents are organizing to ensure that public schools provide adequate translation services in order to give immigrant parents the opportunity to be partners and advocates in the education of their children. In New York City, language access for parents of students in public schools is mandated by law; however, our research and the experiences of immigrant parents has revealed that schools are in violation of this mandate and currently rely on students or untrained personnel – i.e. cafeteria workers – for translation services. Our research also shows that the education system does not embrace the cultural and language background of Mexican-American students or other immigrant students at risk.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform:

La Unión works in federal, state, and city-wide coalition to fight for Comprehensive Immigration reform, the DREAM Act, and other anti-deportation policies that will improve the lives of immigrant families in Sunset Park and throughout the country.

Food Justice: 

In the fall of 2010, our youth leaders of Y-ACT decided to assess the access to healthy food in Sunset Park, and began a survey of the local supermarkets and vendors. This project was bolstered by La Unión’s recent conversion of an abandoned lot into a thriving community garden and chicken coop in which our youth and adult leaders are learning urban farming techniques and creating a model of a healthy food system in their neighborhood. La Unión’s community farm Granja Los Colibries has engaged community members of all ages in all stages of the project, from cleaning the empty lot to learning about raising chickens and cultivating vegetables to reflecting about healthy eating and food justice. The main accomplishment is that this project is led and sustained by La Unión members, adult and youth, who are the chicken keepers and who have made the farm operational, and volunteers who contribute their knowledge, skills, time and work to develop this project. Learn more specifically about Granja Los Colibries, here.

We continue to address health disparities caused by a nutrition-born illnesses by educating our members about healthier food options and creating a larger vision for a more just food system. We are also linking our food justice work to our current public school improvement campaign by advocating for more nutritious options in the school lunch program, which is utilized by the majority our member families.

Youth Justice:

La Unión employs an intergenerational organizing model in which we develop the voices and vision of immigrant parents and youth together to be leaders in advocating for themselves and their community. Specifically, Y-ACT (Youth Action Changes Things) develops youth leadership through organizing campaigns to achieve the vision of a healthier, safer, and more affordable neighborhood. Learn more about Y-ACT, here.

Learn more about how we accomplish all this work described above, here.

Youth Action Changes Things (Y-ACT)