Issues We Face
The vision of Latina PAC is to put forth a political agenda from the standpoint of Latinas and endorse candidates that will affirmatively champion our goals.
In doing so we firmly believe that in order to do so we must be knowledgeable of the condition our society exists in. Therefore, the creation of such policy briefings as this one are important in spearheading our goals.
We want to:
- To ensure that elected officials, political organizations and leaders, candidates, and society at-large have an accurate understanding of the concerns and priorities among Latinas.
- To support and/or endorse candidates for national, state, and local office who are committed to improving the quality of life for Latinas.
- To hold accountable the leadership that sets policy and makes decisions on issues that impact Latinas.
- To serve as a forum for exchange of experiences and knowledge that can be used to train and cultivate Latina leadership.
Currently the Policy Committee will prioritize its initiative by addressing the following issues:
- Decreasing the HS drop out rate
- Addressing achievement gap among Latino children
- Availability of suitable educational facilities/programs for special need children
- Access to higher education
- Health/mental health education, preventive care (including suicide prevention, high incidence of AIDS)
- Medical issues for special need children
- Access to Health Care & Health Disparities (obesity, diabetes, heart disease
- Self-esteem and mental health of Latina girls, adolescents and young adults (including body image)
- Care for the elderly: most Latina women carry the responsibility for caring for older relatives, this causes not only issues of stress but limits opportunities
- Violence against Latinas (all ages)
- Immigration - take a stance on current debate
- Educating & mobilizing Latinas to aspire to political office
The following are additional issues the Policy Committee hopes to address in the near future:
- Increase # of small business loans given to Latinas
- Mentoring Latinas in the business world/entrepreneurial issues
- Poverty rates (especially prevalent amongst Hispanic/Latino Female-headed households) (also a housing issue)
- Perpetuation of single parent households (also a mental health and housing issue)
- Environmental justice - health impacts, sitting of municipal facilities in low income/minority neighborhoods (sewage treatment plants, bus depots, sanitation facilities)
- Environmental issues affecting special need children
- Housing crunch causing a migration of Latinos out of NYC