Policy-Advocacy

Puentes’ policy and advocacy program focuses on the following areas: criminal justice, youth, immigrant rights, open governance and language access.

Puentes core advocacy work revolves around creating alliances with community members and partners, building relationships with legislators, mobilizing supporters and preparing testimony against anti-immigrant and discriminatory bills and engaging in the fight against structurally racist laws and practices. On the policy side, Puentes uses an equity frame to support policy-change to benefit low wealth residents and communities of color.

For more information, please contact Puentes New Orleans

Civic Engagement A city wide civic engagement and cultural awareness program aimed at increasing civic participation among the city’s Latinos. LatiNola has several components that build capacity within the Latino community in the Greater New Orleans area.

Latino Health Programs aims to reduce health disparities and uninsured rates amoung Latinos. Puentes completed teh city{s first health assessmeent targeting Latinos and, as a result, is now owrking with the New Orleans Health Department to improve public outreach in the Latino community. Puentes has organized, hosted,  and facilitated several highly attended free health fairs and health enrollment summings targeting the region’s Latino population and all minority communities.

LatiNola Votes, a non-partisan voter registration campaign focuses on increasing Latino voter participation and create a spirit of active civic engagement while educating on the importance of voting.

The Latino Community of Interest Project focuses on creating an empowered and a civically engaged Latino group that can advocate for better resources, increase government accountability and participate in city planning and decision processes. This work is done through community presentations and the implementation of community surveys.

LatiNola also has a volunteer program, which is the backbone of our activities. We organize community and health fairs as well as Latino cultural events and outreach campaigns to enhance civic will and participation.

For more information, please contactJulissa Gonzales

Mi Casa Program

Puentes’ offers a First Time Homebuyer Education and Counseling Program in Spanish and at an affordable price. This program offers knowledge and tools to learn how to make an informed decision about purchasing a home. Our partnership with Neighborhood Development Foundation is helping our Program Coordinator by providing credit counseling as well as financial advise. This workshops and events within this program provide a significant amount of knowledge to the community. For more information about this program, please contact

For more information, please contact Scarlet Garcia

Economic Asset Building - Fuerza Economica Latina

Puentes’ economic asset building program is designed to build capacity and provide access to resources to support the economic growth of Latino families. This program focuses on small business development and homebuyer education.

Puentes offers Business Consulting Services that gives small businesses and expanding business access to highly qualified business experts who can help to increase their productivity and profitability. Puentes will work one-on-one with business owners to identify and understand their needs and the business results they want to obtain. Consulting services focus on start-up counseling to counseling on business management problems. Puentes uses in-house business development specialists and independent consultants with extensive consulting and entrepreneurial experience to address a client’s specific needs.

For more information, please contact Lisa Reyes

Escalera Program

Escalera is a curriculum developed by NCLR to help the at risk Latino youth excel in high school. Through extended training, case management, and internships participants of this program will learn valuable information that will help guide them through their final years of High School, and beyond. We are currently implementing this program at West Jefferson High School and L.W. Higgins High School.

For more information about this program, please contact Korinna Sanchez