The Hispanic Development Council exists to promote the interests of the Spanish speaking communities in Canada regarding its access to services by all members of the community.
In most recent time we have strongly connected with youth and the large array of issues that affect them from schooling to justice and counselling services. The other side of this theme is the work the Council does in promoting social, economic, cultural policy with the three different government levels in Canada. The latter is a more complex area in that advocacy, in the last five years, particularly, has become some kind of harder issue because of governments less interested in the engagement with communities to respond to social deficits. So, the issue remains that, in order to achieve community progress the community must begin a practice of stronger participation from the local to the national debates in the big themes of the overall social Canadian context. Indeed, from this perspective, the mission statement of HDC should provide us with continued direction and focus on HDC’s plans and operations congruent with our community interests:
We exist because our mission is to ensure that each member of the Latino Hispanic community in Canada can access the system and institutions so that she/he through her/his interfacing with the system can draw the necessary supports to achieve a sustainable quality of life. (achieve her/his full potential as a member of the Canadian society)”.
