Corazón Latino Picks Up Top-Tier Award for Digital Youth Voter Mobilization

Washington, D.C. – Corazón Latino, a Latino-led conservation and advocacy group working nationally and in Arizona, garnered a prestigious Reed Award for civic engagement mobilization during the 2020 election cycle. Its Soy Latinx, Sí Voto campaign, a multilevel grassroots campaign has been named the 2021 Best GOTV Campaign to Mobilize Young Voters by Campaigns & Elections.

According to Campaigns & Elections, the 2021 Reed Award winners “represent the very best the political campaign and advocacy industries have to offer.” The awards, announced in May, honor winners across 19 distinct category groups.

In October, Corazón Latino launched its bilingual Soy Latinx, Sí Voto peer-to-peer online civic engagement campaign with the goal to connect with 50,000 voters leading up to election day, while helping communities to overcome in-person voting challenges brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic. In total, Corazón Latino’s Soy Latinx, Sí Voto reached more than 150,000 voters.

The campaign was hyper-focused in Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico and expanded its engagement to include Michigan, by ensuring issues that affect Latino communities in the United States, including climate justice and environmental protection were core to their outreach. With nearly 32 million eligible Latino voters in 2020 – 13 percent of eligible voters in the United States – Corazón Latino, engaged youth and multi-generational audiences with inclusive language and cultural appeal on the issues they care about most, to inspire them to get their all-important voices and votes to the ballot box. The election had the highest Latino participation rate in U.S. history, with 65 percent turnout among registered voters.

“We are proud of our team’s efforts to engage and mobilize Latino youth voters during an historic election cycle. It was also important that we bring awareness to elected officials that our communities care deeply about protecting the environment – our Madre Tierra. We are deeply honored to receive this recognition,” said Felipe Benitez, Executive Director of Corazón Latino, a national non-profit organization that seeks to generate social, environmental, and conservation initiatives that foster natural resource stewardship.

With a team of advocates, activists and strategists, including Corazón Latino staffers Felipe Benitez, Joz Sida, Nicole Randall, Jolie Abreu, Pablo Noriega, Laura Prado, Leigh Ellen Sontheimer, and its board members Ben Monterroso, Roberto Alcázar, Roberto Trad, and Adrianna Quintero, in consultation with López-Wagner Strategies + ALRAS Digital, and in partnership with a coalition of Latino leaders and allies from Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Moms Clean Air Force, EcoMadres, Vote Like a Madre, Front Page Live, and The Hip Hop Caucus, the Soy Latino Sí Voto campaign was a success, while also named a finalist for Best GOTV Campaign to Mobilize Diverse Communities in the 2021 Reed Awards. The campaign included three virtual concerts produced by Sancre Productions featuring LA-based Latino urban, hip-hop and rock band Ozomatli, Grammy-winning artist Lila Downs and New Mexico rising star Gabriella Salazar.

Contacts: Betsy López-Wagner, López-Wagner Strategies, blopezwagner@gmail.com (English, Español) Alfredo Ramirez, ALRAS Digital, alfredo@alrasdigital.com (English, Español)

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Corazón Latino is a national non-profit organization that seeks to generate social, environmental, and conservation initiatives that foster natural resource stewardship. Corazón Latino mobilizes the passion, love, unity, solidarity, and resources of individuals, communities, organizations, and government entities to advance the common good. Visit us at http://www.corazonlatino.us.