Un Nuevo Despertar - A New Awakening (UND-ANA) is a non-profit organization located in the heart of Little Village that focuses on supporting domestic violence survivors and the empowerment of the community through health workshops and job training to expand their abilities and quality of life.
Our mission is to assist every survivor of domestic violence through intervention and prevention programs, advocacy, counseling, training and education.
Our bilingual, certified volunteers, support women, men and LGBT domestic violence survivors in a) breaking abusive life cycles, b)achieving safety, stability and self-sufficiency, and c) improving their mental, emotional and financial health so that they can integrate into the community with a better quality of life. By comprehensively addressing the needs of survivors, we can build healthy families and communities.
Our mission is to assist every survivor of domestic violence through intervention and prevention programs, advocacy, counseling, training and education.
Our bilingual, certified volunteers, support women, men and LGBT domestic violence survivors in a) breaking abusive life cycles, b)achieving safety, stability and self-sufficiency, and c) improving their mental, emotional and financial health so that they can integrate into the community with a better quality of life. By comprehensively addressing the needs of survivors, we can build healthy families and communities.
In response to COVID -19 Un Nuevo Despertar has been working along World Vision and Rainbow Push Coalition and grateful for the support of Chicago Region Food System Fund & Chicago Foundation for Women as well as other groups that support the consumption of healthy and nutritious foods by distributing food boxes, hot meals, and sanitary items (masks, shampoo, diapers, etc). Our main focus was Little Village and latinx community but we do not discriminate based on zipcode, gender, status, color, or anything.
Just from May to November 2020 Un Nuevo Despertar - A New Awakening distributed:
2934 food boxes benefiting 9109 people
Also distributed 1,835 hot meals
and 2,308 gallons of milk
Plus sanitary items like masks, hand sanitizer, shampoo, soap, menstrual pads, etc.
Just from May to November 2020 Un Nuevo Despertar - A New Awakening distributed:
2934 food boxes benefiting 9109 people
Also distributed 1,835 hot meals
and 2,308 gallons of milk
Plus sanitary items like masks, hand sanitizer, shampoo, soap, menstrual pads, etc.
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Click to learn more about the Mercado de Colores de La Villita
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Also, UND has been connecting volunteers to organizations that do activities related to gardening, urban agriculture, healthy cooking and handcraft workshops, as part of a program to reduce postraumatic stress, anxiety and depression caused by domestic violence and other types of structural violence. Also by connecting people to local farmers and fostering environmental consciousness.
Our Community: COVID-19 has had a severe impact on the Little Village neighborhood, which is 84% Latinx (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). For the past several weeks, the Little Village zip code 60623 has had one of the highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases of any zip code in the state of Illinois (Illinois Department of Public Health, 2020). Many of those who contracted the virus were essential workers who got sick at their workplace and then unknowingly spread it to their families at home (Chicago Department of Public Health, 2020). The neighborhood has also been hit hard economically during the pandemic. While there are a large number of essential workers living in the community, most of whom are still low-wage earners, many others in Little Village have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced. Furthermore, with an estimated 25% of community residents being undocumented and many more being in mixed immigration status families, these individuals and families were excluded from receiving the federal government’s economic relief checks. Little Village experiences a lot of health-related challenges, which have also negatively impacted Little Village families during the pandemic. Many residents lack access to healthcare; 28% of Little Village residents are uninsured, including 44% of those between the ages of 18 and 64 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). As a result of these difficulties accessing care, 44% of adults report fair or poor health (Sinai Urban Health Institute [SUHI], 2017). Prior to the pandemic, 45% of households in Little Village were food insecure (SUHI, 2017), with many residents lacking sufficient income to adequately feed themselves and their families. This challenge has been exacerbated by the pandemic since many families have since experienced a loss in income. The high levels of food insecurity limit Little Village families’ access to healthy food, increasing their risk for a wide range of chronic diseases, which also increases their risk for complications or death if they become ill with COVID-19.