The group of students I have decided to research is the LatinX community. I believe this group of students is important because I idenitfy as a Latino/Hispanic student, and so I have a connection to that group of students as I identify as apart of that group of students. However, I believe everyone should be included which is why I chose to include LatinX students rather than “Latino/a” students because even students who identify themselves as aspart of the LGBTQ community, yet are also Hispanic should be represented.

The organization is Youth Eastside Services (or Y.E.S. for short) which is a non-profit youth mental health counseling service for youth and families. While they serve anyone regardless of their background, they also have certain programs that allow for support towards all kinds of groups of people. For my blog I will be focusing on their program known as Latino H.E.A.T. (Hispanos En Accion Together). Latino H.E.A.T. is a youth group that was formed due to racial injustice towards a student of Hispanic background, the goal of Latino H.E.A.T. is to involve the community in celebrating the hispanic culture while also offering support services to the students who choose to attend Latino H.E.A.T. They often hold events to share cultures celebrated throughout Central and Southern America and all are welcomed to these events, just recently there was a Dia De Los Muertos Event. 

Some supports that students can receive is educational assistance/help, students can receive help in applying for colleges, FAFSA/WAFSA, and even receive assistance with school work all free of charge. A very notable statistic that Latino H.E.A.T. was able to play a part in was at a local high school’s Hispanic student dropout rates. In the 2010/11 school year Hispanic student drop out rates were at 19%.However, with the support Latino H.E.A.T. was able to provide alongside with working with school staff to further support and understand Hispanic students, in the 2020/21 school year, Hispanic student drop out rates have dropped to less than 2%.

While the impact they have on their community is remarkable, One thing that could be improved upon is the consistency to updating events that occur or other updates to what they may be working on within the Y.E.S. website. I was able to easily find information but updates have become scarce after 2021.