On March 28th, we gathered at City Hall to launch One Hundred Organizations United to Get Out the Vote! a campaign for non-partisan voter engagement to take us through this year's general elections and the pivotal local elections of 2013. Together with other allies in the initiative, we've committed to registering, educating, and mobilizing 50,000 New Yorkers to get involved and exercise their right to vote! For a full list of the community-based organizations, religious congregations,  student groups, and labor partners involved in this initiative, click here. Right after the launch, we led two intense trainings for group leaders to learn to coordinate voter registration drives at our offices in Manhattan. Coming up this month, we have voter registration drives at 10 different community colleges during the third week of April and a Citizenship Fair in the Bronx on April 21st. For more information or to sign your group up to be part of the campaign, email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

We are excited to be part of the diverse coalition that is organizing this year's festivities for International Workers Day on May 1st! For the first time, labor unions, community-based organizations, the May 1st coalition, and Occupy Wall Street are coming together in solidarity to support a broad platform for economic and social justice. Our Labor-Community Collaborative, consisting of La Fuente, Domestic Workers United, El Centro del Inmigrante, Mothers on the Move, National Institute for Latino Policy, and New York Taxi Workers Alliance, will gather at 25 West 18th Street, 5th Floor at 3pm then walk together to Union Square for the unified rally and march to Wall Street.  We hope you can join us!  For more information, contact Carlos at the .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

We are happy to welcome new staff to La Fuente! Leandra Requena will be serving as our Manhattan Organizer. Leandra comes from a strong background of worker and immigrant organizing through 32BJ SEIU and Make the Road. Osman Canales, Long Island Organizer, is a dedicated activist, student leader, and co-founder of the Long Island Immigrant Student Association. He has volunteered with a number of organizations across Long Island and we're happy to have him join our team.  Contact Leandra at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and Osman at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). 

On February 20th, staffers Angeline Echeverria and Lucia Gomez-Jimenez joined with volunteer Joel Diaz to deliver a workshop on conflict resolution to approximately 150 youth at Operation Pride's 2012 Lock-In. Youth from different programs throughout Nassau County and Queens came to event, organized by Freeport Pride, to enjoy games and sports at the Freeport Recreation Center, which was open for them from 8 pm to 7 am the next day. In the workshop, youth discussed and identified different techniques for dealing with conflicts involving bullying, stereotypes, homophobia, and other issues. Although everyone was eager to get to the games and music, most of the youth said they would sign up for a future workshop and many were surprised that the workshop turned out to be fun!

On February 10th, we traveled to DC with United NY to protest outside of the Conservative Political Action Conference. While conservative politicians gave speeches defending corporate interests, we marched down the streets of Washington and shared stories with folks from all over the country who are fed up with high unemployment and cuts to public services. We're targeting companies who aren't paying their fair share of taxes and proposing a positive economic development model to benefit our communities. To get involved in this important work, contact Estevan at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Over 100 community members joined with us, Make the Road NY, the NAACP, Common Cause NY, DAS, and NICE to learn about how proposed electoral maps will affect Queens. They looked at proposed maps for State Senate and Assembly districts and analyzed the impact the maps would have, specifically on immigrant communities of color. The forum, which was held in English and Spanish, helped community members to understand clearly the proposed maps and gave them tools to fight for fair political representation in their neighborhoods.