GALEO was founded in 2003 to increase representation of Latino/Hispanic elected and appointed officials, to proactively address the issues and needs of the Latino community, and to engage the Latino community in the democratic and policy process across Georgia.
“We saw a need to create an organization to increase civic engagement and leadership opportunities across the state of Georgia for the new and continuously growing Latino population,” said Jerry.
One of the main ways GALEO accomplishes this is by collaborating with other Latino organizations and those that serve the Latino population. Current partners include MALDEF, the Coalition for the People’s Agenda, the Georgia Latino Forum and others.
In 2007 GALEO received a grant from The Community Foundation’s Common Good Funds to support GALEO’s Leadership Institute – a community program incorporating the leadership curriculum from University of Georgia’s J.W. Fanning Institute.
GALEO’s program provides bilingual leadership training throughout the state including the metro area, Savannah, Dalton and Gainesville. The GALEO Leadership Institute helps participants develop the skills necessary to gain a better understanding of themselves and their role as community leaders and, through the sharing of their ideas and concerns, to develop plans and strategies for creating community improvement projects. Nearly 100 participants graduated from the 2007 class in December.
According to Jerry, the Leadership Institute is serving an immediate purpose in the Latino community. The results of a recent study conducted by the University of Georgia reveals that basic leadership development is greatly needed and vital due to the growth of the Latino community in Georgia. Funding for programs like this is necessary to bolster civic engagement on many levels of participation.
“We want to move up the leadership scale and encourage individuals to move to the next level of leadership development,” said Jerry. “We want to create opportunities for individuals to serve on nonprofit boards, commissions or even become elected officials.”
The grant from The Community Foundation will help strengthen GALEO’s Leadership Institute and create more opportunities for individuals to learn how they can be better engaged in decision-making in their communities. This program is in its second year and Jerry cites the recent grant as a key factor in the program’s success. But the success that Jerry finds most compelling is hearing about the individual personal achievements of the program’s graduates.
“Graduates led immigration marches in 2006, some formed their own nonprofits and others became facilitators of our leadership program. There’s collaborative work being done with African-American groups and faith-based groups. There are undeniably numerous successes being reaped through this program,” he said.
For more information about GALEO, please visit http://www.galeo.org/.