For over 35 years, the Latin American Coalition (LAC) has been a leading advocacy and service organization for the most vulnerable immigrant families in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region of North Carolina. Since our founding in 1990 as the first Latino-serving organization in North Carolina, we have worked to empower thousands of families through:

Integration Services: We operate four centers, each specializing in a different area of focus, to provide holistic, comprehensive services that address the most pressing needs of our clients and help lead them towards a path of self-sufficiency and long-term upward mobility.
Advocacy: We track local, state, and national policies that directly affect the immigrant community, promote civic participation, and mobilize and support grassroots activists.
Cultural Celebration: We highlight the rich diversity of Latino cultures in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, support local Latino artists, and bring community members together through multiple annual cultural events as a way for Charlotte residents to connect with newcomers.

Our service centers cover four main areas of need for the community we serve:

Our Family Wellness Center (FWC) is often the first stop for immigrants seeking assistance navigating the resource ecosystem in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region. It offers wraparound services for recent arrivals such as assistance applying for Medicaid and government social assistance programs, enrolling children into local schools, a Community ID program (to provide a locally recognized form of ID for those without any), crisis response (domestic violence, detention of family’s main provider, transport to medical appointments) health and wellness workshops, referrals to partner health providers for free or low-cost vaccinations, medicine, and mental/physical health screenings, consultations, and exams.
Our Immigrant Legal Center (ILC) assists immigrants through low-cost services and representation, regardless of immigration status, providing Department of Justice certified legal representatives to assist them with the naturalization process, permanent residency applications/renewals, visa applications/renewals, and DACA/TPS status renewals. The ILC also offers Know Your Rights workshops and administers a Civics for All program to help immigrants understand the U.S legal system and how to engage with civic institutions.
Our Economic & Workforce Center (EWC) connects immigrants with employment opportunities, skills training, and empowerment workshops. It accomplishes this by offering certification programs in areas such as digital literacy, interpretation, community health work, OSHA, forklift operation, babysitting, and project management, classes focused on professional-level English, resume building, financial literacy, and small business development, and individualized resume, job search, and small business assistance. It is also beginning a new accreditation and soft skills program for professional immigrants with bachelor’s degrees to continue home country careers in the United States.
Our Youth Education & Opportunity Center (YEC) supports the academic needs and success of Hispanic/Latino, immigrant, and first-generation students through its volunteer-based mentorship program: Great Achievement through Non-Traditional Academic Support (GANAS, or "give it your all" in Spanish), which connects local volunteer mentors with multilingual high school students aged 13-19 to guide them through their intellectual and emotional development while having students and their families attend workshops centered around college access for immigrants, career pathways, mental health, violence prevention, and drug abuse. Mentors also assist these students with developing goals for their academic/career futures, searching for summer jobs, and applying for university. The YEC also hosts interns to bolster the LAC's capacity to service our community.

LAC Hispanic Heritage Month Campaign

Team Members