Our History

Mano a Mano (Spanish for, “Hand in Hand”) was originally established in the summer of 1988, in response to the needs of farmworkers and their families, during a particularly difficult harvest season.

• Established in 1988 to support migrant farmworkers
• First employee and office on State Street in Salem
• Causa (later known as Causa Oregon) fiscally sponsored by Mano a Mano in mid-1990s, defending against constant anti-immigrant laws and rules across Oregon
• Latinos Unidos Siempre (LUS) Youth Organization established in the mid-1990s, in response of large migrations to Salem from SW USA
• The Gang Intervention Project (GIP), Zero Tolerance, Measure 11, and other punitive measures in response to the increase of gang activity, and an increase in the young Latino/a/x and Black population of the Salem-Keizer area
• Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality fiscally sponsored by Mano a Mano in 1999, when as much as 12% of the student population identified as Latiino/a/x
• Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) established in 2000 to provide mentoring and case management to youth
• Partnered with other organizations to establish the CAPACES leadership network in 2003
• Collocated with Farmworker Housing Development Corporation (FHDC) at their Colonia Libertad site in SE Salem in 2005
• Was part of the launch of the Fostering Hope Initiative (FHI) in 2008
• La Casita (The Little House) was founded as part of the FHI, as a partnership with Holy Cross Lutheran Church and the Salem Leadership Foundation (via their former Neighborhood Lightning rod, Carrie Mahieu)
• In 2015, Mano a Mano Family Center and Catholic Community Services became the first nonprofits in the Salem-Keizer area to employed a certified Community Heatlh Worker (CHW), Maria Lemus.
• In 2017, the Capaces Leadership Network became the Alianza Poder (the Power Alliance), with the Capaces Leadership Instititute (CLI) as its backbone organization
• In 2018, toxic algae infested the water supply to Salem, triggering a city-wide crisis
• Mano a Mano operated a total of four sites across Marion and Polk counties, three in East Salem and an outreach satellite in Independence
• Radio Movimiento, our sister organization PCUN’s low-power radio station ended operations after nearly a decade in 2018
• On September 15, 2019, KTUP Radio Poder 98.3 FM started broadcasting as a full power FM station, in partnership with CC Media and with KMUZ
• Statewide crisis was declared by then-Governor Kate Brown in response to the growing spread of the Covid-19 virus, in March of 2020
• An ice-storm, wild fires, and a heat storm affected the state of Oregon between late-2020 and mid-2021, along with the continuing Covid-19 pandemic
• About 51% of the student population in the Salem-Keizer School District identified as non-White
• The Salem-Keizer School District elected its first ever directors in May of 2021 — Osvaldo Avila, Karina Guzman-Ortiz, Maria Cecilia Hinojos-Pressey
• The Covid-19 pandemic was largely agreed to have ended by mid to late-2022
• The Alianza Poder, through the CLI with Mano a Mano, began working on a project to increase the number of bilingual and bicultural Latino/a/x CHWs working in Latino/a/x-led community based organizations in the Mid-Willamette Valley