Hispanic Federation Latino Digital Accelerator
Recognizing the need to close the Latino digital skills gap, Hispanic Federation (HF) and Google.org collaborated to create the Latino Digital Accelerator combining HF’s mission of strengthening Latino nonprofits and Google.org’s deep commitment to closing the digital divide to accelerate economic success for the Latino community.
- Latino Digital Accelerator – Designed to strengthen the organizational capacity, programmatic offerings, and reach of Latino-focused nonprofit organizations involved in digital workforce development
- Digital Career Centers – Support for a network of 24 technology centers housed in Latino-led and -serving nonprofits, including use of customized curriculum to help support digital skills training
- Latino Digital Center of Excellence – Centralized information to build capability and share resources for digital skilling among nonprofits providing digital workforce development for Latinos, through research, curriculum development, and dissemination of lessons learned
In September 2022, HF released a detailed report–Closing the Latino Digital Divide: Lessons Learned from Community-Based Approaches to Latino Digital Skilling–which highlights the impact of the Digital Accelerator since its launch in 2019.
Since the digital trainings began in July 2020, the program has trained over 13,000 individuals across the United States and Puerto Rico. Here are some additional highlights:
- Demand is high for culturally competent digital skilling programs. Each non-profit program runs either at the maximum capacity or near maximum capacity. Many participating programs offer wrap-around services relevant to the Latino community as well as digital skilling courses in both English and Spanish.
- Hybrid and remote learning are here to stay. Programs can increase their capacity by no longer being restricted to a hyper-local community or those who have the time to physically travel to a learning site. This also increases access since many learners no longer must travel long distances to participate in programs. This presents a challenge and an opportunity—we need to find and implement creative solutions to ensure everyone can connect to remote learning.
- Program Expansion – Google.org’s ongoing investment in the Latino Digital Accelerator will result in the addition of new partners and will expand the services HF will provide to nonprofit partners and their participants including a pilot apprenticeship program as well as scholarships for digital learners to earn Google Career Certificates. Learn more about their investment and a success story from one of the program participants, Clariza Mayo, in our announcement video.
