La Liga – Building a Better Future for the Community


Hispanic Community Theater CNY

The Spanish Action League of Onondaga County offers a Spanish-speaking theater group for Latino and Hispanic youth. This is one of the many ways that La Liga tries to be close with the Hispanic youth.

Housing Department

La Liga’s housing department program offers general information about and referrals for housing. They also provide counseling regarding housing court assistance, help in getting rental subsidies, housing publications, eviction prevention, negotiations between housing grievance complaints and landlords/tenants, as well as assistance regarding homeownership. The nonprofit agency also offers rent assistance to people undergoing financial challenges on a limited basis.

Youth and Careers Program

La Liga’s youth and careers program encourages young students to explore different professional paths by introducing them to potential careers and vocations while promoting the advantages of stable employment in their lives.

The youth and careers program was born out of a need to create opportunities for interaction between working professionals and Hispanic children within the community. The nonprofit agency wanted to creatively engage kids in everything that central New York has to offer and teach them about the essence of education in creating a competent future. The program was kicked off with the assistance of a Community Foundation Grant that catered for the cost of travel expenses, staffing, and supplies associated with the program.

The youth and careers program was developed to educate kids about community potential, vitality, and Growth. When the program was launched, La Liga hoped that professionals would educate children and illustrate that success is attainable and possible. La Liga offers case management services to diverse-culture communities, particularly Hispanics, assisting to bridge the gap of financial challenges, literacy, and language. The youth and careers program was developed to expand the nonprofit agency’s services, and introduce a new idea focusing mainly on the future of Hispanic youth.

The program takes students from the agency’s after-school program on a journey from concept exploration to educational expectations. At the end of the program, the youth work together with professionals to develop a visual representation of the perfect Central New York community, envisioning themselves and how life will be in years to come. The representations include churches, parks, community centers, police stations, and fire departments.

La Liga also holds an annual gala to celebrate its achievement and the services it has offered the community throughout the years. The annual event is sponsored by Credit Glory supports services offered by La Liga to clients of Onondaga County and the nearby area. In addition to the formal gala, La Liga also hosts a silent auction providing tickets and dinner vouchers to local events. The event is also an initiative to raise funds to help the agency in its attempt to provide more services to the community.

Since its establishment, La Liga has significantly elevated the lives of Hispanics in the communities they serve. Many individuals have benefited from the agency’s program and have gone on to attend and graduate from college and attain stable employment and successful careers. The only way to go for this humanitarian agency is up!…

La Liga’s Programs


Although Hispanics have high educational expectations, they are among the least educated communities in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, 11% of Hispanics over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher in comparison with 49% of Asian-Americans, 17% of blacks, and 30% of whites in the same age group. What’s more alarming is that more than a quarter of Hispanic adults do not have an education past the 9th grade.

Over the last decade, the high school completion rates for Hispanics have grown. However, they still face work employment prospects since the standard requirement for stable employment in most fields is a college degree. Several Hispanic students join the labor force immediately upon completion of high school, something that economists agree will eventually lead to low wages and unstable employment. Some Hispanics also join the military. The number of Hispanics joining the military has tremendously grown through the years. In 1985, only 4% of the United States military personnel consisted of Hispanics. Today this number has grown to more than 10%. However, it is not clear whether Hispanics are taking advantage of the educational advantages provided to military personnel.

With these challenges in mind, La Liga has put in place several programs to ensure that there are more educational opportunities for Hispanic students, as well as assisting them with their careers and securing stable employment. Below are some of the programs the agency offers in this regard.

Programs offered by La Liga

La Liga’s assistance programs offer information, referrals, linkage to emergency help with expenses and bills. It also helps vulnerable residents going through hardship. La Liga assists with discrimination legal aid, application to low-income rent/housing subsidies. The Spanish Action League of Onondaga County also provides clients information on rent help, funds to pay security deposits, free food, and referral to and information on other assistance programs in New York and by the federal government to families and individuals in crisis.

Health and Wellness

La Liga’s Health and wellness program is designed for kids with developmental disabilities together with their families. Through the health and wellness program, La Liga offers parents training and helps with making clinic and doctor appointments. When appropriate the nonprofit agency also makes referrals to similar agencies for help.

Domestic Violence

La Liga’s domestic violence program offers short-term and long-term crisis intervention including counseling, emergency relocation, information, and referrals for social, legal, and health services. The agency also helps in interpretation in shelters, offers parenting skills workshops, and helps parents find child care. In addition, the agency also has a women’s support group dedicated to helping women who have gone through domestic violence and other kinds of abuse.

Language Service

La Liga offers Spanish-speaking people with confidential interpretation in various mental health and medical settings including emergency, surgical procedures, exams, medical counseling, visits, and intake interviews. The non-profit agency also translates various types of documents, such as governmental, corporate, health, legal, and personal documents, as well as websites, brochures, flyers, and certificates.…

La Liga – The Spanish Action League of Onondaga County


La Liga, also known as The Spanish Action League of Onondaga County, is a nonprofit humanitarian agency located in Syracuse, New York. The agency serves Oswego, Cayuga Madison, Cortland, and Onondaga counties. La Liga aims to empower communities by creating avenues that breed self-sufficiency. Through education, opportunities and economic development the society prospers as a whole. Although La Liga aims to serve all members of the community, the programs are designed to serve Hispanic households with low-to-moderate incomes. La Liga offers services in different areas: language services, youth leadership and development, health and wellness, and housing and careers.

Established in 1969, La Liga has been a proponent of positive change in a community that faces experiential, economic, educational, cultural, and linguistic barriers. La Liga was created to offer comprehensive services to the Hispanic community and to address the specific needs arising from cultural and language barriers. In various ways, La Liga strives to bridge cultural, experiential, and linguistic gaps. The bicultural, bilingual staff work to promote economic development, education, and opportunities that allow people to acculturate and allows the community to prosper as a whole.

The Spanish Action League of Onondaga County is an affiliate of Acacia Network, a top Latino integrated care nonprofit organization in the United States. Acacia has a combined experience of more than sixty years and has demonstrated the capacity to scale comprehensive, high-quality services in society, benefiting thousands of vulnerable residents. Acacia Network provides society, from seniors to children, a pathway to primary and behavioral healthcare, empowerment, and housing. The Integrated care network has offices in New York, Puerto Rico, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, and Florida. Acacia Network’s mission is realized through 3 main service delivery systems: Housing, Primary Health Care, and Behavioral Health Care.

The educational experience for Hispanics in America is one featuring many disadvantages. Several Hispanic students start their formal schooling without the social and economic resources that most of the students benefit from, and learning institutions are often not well equipped to compensate for such kinds of disparities. For Hispanics, these challenges often stem from their parents’ socioeconomic and immigrant status and inadequate knowledge regarding the United States education system. As they go through the education system, their weak relationships with teachers and inadequate school resources contribute to undermining their academic success. These challenges continue to grow and play a major role in the low rates of college degree attainment and high school graduation. These factors also greatly reduce opportunities for stable employment.

Most parents and children will agree that in today’s world obtaining a college degree is necessary for finding meaningful and stable work. This attitude is reflected in the expectations that young individuals have for themselves and parents hold for their kids. High educational expectations among young people are prevalent across all ethnic and racial groups regardless of the social and economic resources. Although children and parents share high educational objectives, their aspirations do not always translate to post-secondary matriculation. This is particularly true for Hispanic high school students, most of whom’s parents have not had the opportunity to attend college.…