Can Technology Reach the Disconnected? Innovative Mobile App Helps NCLR Serve Latino Immigrants

As the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, our mission at NCLR is to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

With over 55 million Hispanic Americans, it is a daunting task to effectively reach those who need our assistance the most, even with our network of 300 affiliated community-based organizations where thousands of dedicated staff and volunteers work every day.

In the face of this challenge, we agree with the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. That is why NCLR decided to take the incremental but important step of reaching out to and connecting with one recent Hispanic immigrant at a time, to understand challenges in integrating into American society.

To assist our team with this large-scale outreach, we decided to leverage the power of the latest technology to arm those working in the field with the resources they need.

With support from Verizon, we launched an innovative new tool called “Immigo” at the recent NCLR Annual Conference and National Latino Family Expo.

Immigo is a first-of-its-kind mobile app that provides immigrants and case workers alike with easy access to official government forms, the most up-to-date federal and local news, and information about immigration laws, policies and events, as well as community polling.

In addition, the app includes a “Find Legal Help” feature that allows users to input their location to guide them toward a variety of locally available private and public service providers as well as to qualified bilingual immigration attorneys located nearest to them.

By making this app available for free on Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, this handy resource allows the staff and volunteers at hundreds of NCLR Affiliates across the nation to be ready at all times to assist anyone they come into contact with.

Many recent studies have confirmed what we already know: Hispanic Americans rely on their phones and mobile devices for daily needs at a much higher percentage than the general population at large. That is why Immigo makes so much sense to serve our disconnected community members whose primary point of contact is mobile.

And, with nationally respected names like NCLR and Verizon backing up this service, Immigo stands out as a trusted source for some vulnerable Hispanic Americans who may be targeted by others for immigration-related fraud and abuse.

Based on feedback from users and from the field, we are confident that Immigo is making a difference for Hispanic Americans in need, and we look forward to welcoming these disconnected members of our community into mainstream American society.