Washington, DC – At a telephonic news briefing today, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., announced the launch of “LEAP to Action,” a voter mobilization project that will partner with community-based organizations (CBOs) in 15 states including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

“The marches and rallies in support of comprehensive immigration reform have inspired more than just massive attention. Requests for citizenship applications have surged in the last few weeks, and NCLR has been inundated with requests from Latino-serving CBOs all over the country on how they can get more involved. ‘LEAP to Action’ is designed to assist CBOs with the critically important process of integrating their communities fully into the political process,” stated Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO.

Among the elements of the project, an offshoot of NCLR’s Latino Empowerment and Advocacy Project (LEAP), are regional trainings and an interactive website that provides guidance on, among other issues, how to naturalize, how to start a voter registration effort, and how to engage with local and national elected officials. The project also expects to reach millions of potential new citizens and voters through a public service announcement (PSA) campaign beginning next week and running through November 2006 which will air on both national English-language and Spanish-language channels, such as SíTV, aimed at the Latino population.

One such initiative is a voter registration and education drive spearheaded by the San Diego Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, a coalition of the leading Latino CBOs in San Diego, which will kick off with a National Day of Civic Engagement candlelight vigil on May 1. “After making history with the April 9 march in which tens of thousands of San Diegans marched in support of immigrants, we now need to make our voices heard in Congress,” noted Elvira Diaz of the MAAC Project, an NCLR Affiliate.

The “LEAP to Action” project will place special emphasis on encouraging civic participation among younger Latinos. “One of the most inspirational sights at these events has been the level of participation by young people. We are working to catapult that interest and energy not only into greater participation but also into developing a new generation of leaders for the Latino community,” stated David Lubell, State Director, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC).

“Our goal is to foster a ‘culture of participation.’ We are providing the necessary tools for those organizations with the closest ties to our community – Latino CBOs – to assist them in helping to turn legal immigrants into citizens, citizens into registered voters, registered voters into actual voters on Election Day, and today’s activists into tomorrow’s advocates,” concluded Murguía.

For more information on "LEAP to Action," please visit http://act.nclr.org.

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