This presentation provides an overview for Chica Project, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to closing the opportunity divide for Latinas by empowering them with the skills, confidence, and network necessary to thrive personally and professionally. We believe in a future where every Latina will have access to the education, experiences, and guidance required to realize her true potential through concerted leadership development and a pipeline of intergenerational Latina mentors. We are helping create that vision of the future by expanding the relational, geographic, and professional horizons of young, urban Latinas living in Gateway Cities across Massachusetts through an empowerment program that includes mentorship, travel, and preparation for future success. We provide our mentors with our signature mentor training, which ensures our mentors are prepared to support their mentees as they develop and pursue their personal and professional goals. Our traveling mentorship program, "La Caminata", brings together Chicas from Boston, Holyoke, Lawrence, Springfield, and other Gateway Cities on monthly trips between these locations, creating opportunities for collective mentoring and storytelling that bridge intergenerational and geographic distinctions and significantly increases our Chica’s self-efficacy and ownership of their future. We are also expanding summer internships for our participants that expose them to the private, public, and nonprofit sector through our employer partners.

1. Opportunity. Mentoring. The Strength to Lead.

2. Why Chica Project?

3. What do we want to achieve?
Chica Project’s mission is to close the opportunity divide for
Latinas by empowering them with the skills, confidence, and
network necessary to thrive personally and professionally.
We envision a future where every Latina will have access to the
education, experiences, and guidance required to realize her
true potential through concerted leadership development and a
pipeline of intergenerational Latina mentors.

4. How do we work?
Chica Project expands the
relational, geographic, and
professional horizons of
young, urban Latinas living
MA’s Gateway Cities,
through:
1. Mentorship
2. Travel
3. Preparation for
Future Success
(Leadership Training)

5. What have we accomplished?
Through our program model, Chicas have:
● Graduated from Next Generation Chica at a 90%
rate
● Traveled over 800 miles across Massachusetts to
create new relationships in different cities
● Participated in 60 hours of leadership
development training
● Engaged in 50 hours of workplace experience
with 100% employer satisfaction
● Graduated and enrolled at colleges &
universities (St. John’s University, UMass
Amherst, Westfield State)
● Been matched with over 15 recruited and
trained mentors for young Latinas

6. Where are we going?
1. Hiring great people.
○ Program Director
○ Site Leaders in Boston, Lawrence, Western MA
2. Doubling our program participants.
3. Deepening our mentor pool’s experience and training.
4. Developing our core youth leadership curriculum.
5. Expanding workplace experience.
○ Creating new internships
○ Developing specific professional skills that match growing sectors in
the regional economy

7. www.chicaproject.org
info@chicaproject.org
@Chica_Project