Letter from the Interim Executive Director

Hola,

My name is Tristram Blake, as Interim Executive Director at La Alianza Hispana, I’d like to personally welcome you to our newly designed website.

La Alianza Hispana is a community based nonprofit serving the Boston Latino community as well as all residents in the surrounding neighborhoods of Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, and Mattapan. We provide a vital set of educational, health, and workforce training services enabling individuals and families to realize their personal, educational, and economic needs and goals.

Founded nearly 40 years ago, La Alianza Hispana has already assisted tens of thousands of Boston area families, yet there is still much work to be done: today, we are experiencing the most severe economic crisis in generations, and the impact to our communities is already apparent.  The most vulnerable are often at the greatest risk. Demand for our public health services and workforce development and education programs will multiply in the coming months.

In the face of this adversity, we have prepared a clear and focused approach to meeting the needs of our communities. Our newly-designed web site provides a wealth of information about our services and programs and how to access them.

We look forward to hearing from you, and to working with you.  Together, we will succeed. ¡Si se puede!

Tristram Blake
Interim Executive Director

Our History

Since 1971, La Alianza Hispana has been an icon of Latino leadership and has consistently served as a portal to hope for well over 30,000 Bostonians.As a hub of social service delivery, advocacy, and education, our organization has changed the landscape of community resources and has changed lives.

Mission

La Alianza Hispana, Inc. is a community based nonprofit organization serving the Latino community and all residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. Our goal is to empower individuals and families, strength communities and develop leaders through high quality education and social services, advocacy and community organizing.

Founded in 1971 in Roxbury, Massachusetts La Alianza Hispana has fostered the development of other organizations to meet the growing need of the Latino community. We believe in social justice as a means of creating a more egalitarian, participatory and peaceful society in which all members can realize their fullest potential People and families are the heart of our work, and our impact is measured in the number of individuals and families who have: stabilized their lives, developed healthy parenting styles, are living independent, healthy lives, and have obtained sustainable employment.

Interim Executive Director

In February, 2013 La Alianza Hispana’s Board of Directors Hired Tristram Blake to serve as the Interim Director, replacing Apolo Catala who graciously entered the position in September to help the agency with its transition when Janet Collazo retired.

 Tristram’s three areas of focus for the next four months:

• Conduct a feasibility study as to the organization’s current operations and programming to determine financial capacity for stabilization and growth.
• Initiate plans for short-term funding to support administrative functions.
• Search for a permanent Executive Director to make recommendations to the Board

Tristram Blake spent 38 years as the executive director of the South End Community Health Center in Boston.  In 1970 when he first joined the recently founded center, it was just a small pediatric clinic run out of the basement of a municipal building at the corner of Shawmut Avenue and West Brookline Street in the South End. The SECHC has grown impressively at its beautifully constructed space on Washington Street. Today the center handles 65,000 patient visits a year, offering services in adult medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, mental health, dental care, eye care and, of course, pediatrics.  “In the beginning, we didn't go into anything whole hog," Blake said. "We would start with a session or two of pediatrics and when those filled up we would add another session. As kids were coming in and mothers were coming in, we thought, why not start providing care for the mothers? Then, what about fathers? Expansion was never just for expansion's sake -- it was always to meet the needs of the community."

Today the SECHC is the largest provider of comprehensive care to Boston's Latino population. Since its inception in 1969, it has maintained its position as an independently run, community-owned and operated non-profit health center. In addition to a number of awards and accolades over the years, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has called the center a "critically important resource for some of our city's most vulnerable residents." 1

La Alianza Hispana welcomes Mr. Blake and appreciates what an ambitious task he has to quickly assess this organization and come up with a plan for its sustainability.

1  Excerpted from “The Insider”, Boston University School of Public Health. Submitted by Michelle Salzman

Our Staff

Staff Directory:

Our dedicated staff and management have cultural understanding and personal experience of the cultural-specific challenges of our clients and are able to effectively translate their professional competence into culturally appropriate care.

Board of Directors

The board of directors establishes standards of accountability and helps create a good environment for producing creative solutions to problems.

President
Alberto Cardenas
Architect, Domenech, Hicks & Krockmalnic, Inc.

Vice President
Rosette Martinez
Vice President, Community Relations, South End Community Health Center

Clerk
Alejandra N. St.Guillen
Executive Director ¿Oíste? The Latino Civic Education Initiative

Treasurer
Nadia Tejeda Colón
Internal Auditor, State Street Corporation

Members

• Helen Credle | U.S Department of Labor Project Director | Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, Inc.
• Lucinda V. Rivera | Attorney | Law Office of Lucinda Rivera
• Frank Sepulveda | Management Consultant | Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
• Tristram Blake| Non-voting Member | Interim Excecutive Director | La Alianza Hispana, Inc.