La Colectiva de Delaware joins with La Esperanza

GEORGETOWN— Delaware bicultural and bilingual nonprofit agency La Esperanza announced it will merge with La Colectiva de Delaware (LCD), an initiative to support, improve and expand opportunities for the Latino community in southern Delaware.

La Colectiva,  formed in 2017 as a partnership between   La Esperanza, the Matt Haley Trust, focuses on building nonprofit capacity to serve Sussex County’s burgeoning Latino community. The initiative has been funded by the Arsht-Cannon Fund at the Delaware Community Foundation at $400,000, and the Matt Haley Trust provided $190,000 in the past three years.

“La Esperanza is a natural home for La Colectiva de Delaware,” La Esperanza Executive Director Jennifer Fuqua said in a prepared statement. “Both organizations have worked hand in hand since the beginning and we’re very excited to integrate LCD and move forward with this successful initiative.”

In the past three years, La Colectiva has worked to bring together nonprofits (including schools, religious organizations and community groups), government agencies and the Latino community to build relationships, coordinate shared work and design solutions for issues the Latino community faced.

La Esperanza commits to do fundraising in 2022-23 to continue to support the administrative functions of LCD and pursue partnerships with funders for initiatives/pilots that grow from LCD, according to officials. As part of La Esperanza, La Colectiva will be led by a new full-time coordinator.

“The transition of La Colectiva de Delaware from an initiative developed in 2018 by three committed partners to a new program at La Esperanza positions La Colectiva to ramp up its important work,” said Dr. Christine Cannon, executive director, Arsht-Cannon Fund at DCF. “This work will continue to build relationships among community and nonprofit leaders to focus on developing collaborative approaches to the most critical needs and new opportunities.”