With the year quickly coming to a close, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for helping us grow our impact and influence in 2021. Many times over, your support allowed Voces Unidas de las Montañas to elevate the voices of Latinas and Latinos and continue to create opportunities where we could advocate for ourselves and lead in our own communities.
Thanks to supporters like you, we reached more than 76,000 people in 2021. We invested in the growth and education of more than 260 Latina and Latino leaders. We involved more than 1,600 leaders in advocacy and policy work and engaged more than 33,000 Latino voters in the 2021 election cycle.
As an advocacy organization, we worked hard to elevate the voices of Latinas and Latinos in the central mountain region. And our voices were heard at the State Capitol where Voces Unidas contributed to the most pro-immigrant, pro-Latino Colorado legislative session in recent history. Together with partners, we helped pass 13 pro-immigrant and pro-Latino pieces of legislation. We were also heard during the state’s redistricting process, where Voces Unidas’ direct advocacy helped inform new redistricting maps where Latinos now makeup a significant percentage of the voting population in our local districts. Lastly, our voices were definitely heard in the ballot box, where Latino voters helped defeat three bad statewide ballot initiatives.
We accomplished all of this while also dedicating the better part of the first six months of the year to supporting the community. Many organizations stepped up to do more during the pandemic and Voces Unidas was no exception. We rolled up our sleeves to model leadership and community service in action. In 2021, thanks to our board members, staff, consultants, leaders, volunteers, and donors, we supported more than 3,400 people with direct services, financial aid or ensured that they received a COVID vaccine in one of our grassroots, volunteer-led vaccination clinics.
I want to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge the more than 170 community members from Silverthorne to Parachute and over to Aspen who volunteered their time and talents during our vaccination clinics and other COVID-related activities. In total, more than 3,400 volunteer hours were donated through Voces Unidas in 2021. Many thanks to Governor Polis for his willingness to partner with us and to the many businesses and other partner organizations that donated space, food, materials, or services to support our independent vaccination efforts.
We have ambitious goals for the future. Winning on issues like environmental justice, health equity, racial justice, and many other policy issues. Challenging the status quo and creating systemic change at the local and state levels. Making the central mountain region more equitable. Growing our community’s power and influence in our democratic systems. And all of this requires strategic work, partnerships and expanded infrastructure to be effective at reaching our goals. This is why this year we worked with statewide organizations to introduce the first-of-its-kind Colorado Latino Policy Agenda, an annual report informed by Latinas and Latinos from our region and across Colorado to identify policy priorities and solutions. We also partnered with our affiliate organization, Voces Unidas Action Fund, a new 501(c)(4) advocacy nonprofit organization that can do more intentional advocacy around key policy priorities and also hold elected officials accountable year-round.
Voces Unidas and our leaders took a seat at many tables where we had been missing for far too long. With your support, we achieved much more than we ever expected in 2021, and are excited to build on this momentum going into 2022!
Thank you, again, for your continued support.
With gratitude,
--Alex Sánchez President and CEO