Grants & Scholarships
From Presence to Power ~ Estamos Aquí
The question wasn't whether Rhode Island's Latino community existed. By 2002, the numbers were undeniable. The question was whether Rhode Island would support their success, not just their survival.
That year, the Rhode Island Foundation commissioned a study that would become a catalyst. "Rhode Island Latinos: A Scan of Issues Affecting the Latino Population" created awareness and a measure of accountability, sparking engagement across academia, healthcare, philanthropy, and policymaking. The participatory research, led by Miren Uriarte of UMass Boston's Mauricio Gaston Institute, revealed a Latino community that was young, growing, and largely invisible to the institutions that shaped their daily lives.
"The thrust of systems is towards stability," the report noted, "and most resist and delay changes called for by demographic shifts because it most often means transforming organizational cultures and practices."
But resistance, as it turned out, could be met with something more durable than protest: irrefutable data that commanded a response.
The Architecture of Influence
The 2002 Foundation study revealed not just demographic facts but an institutional void. Rhode Island had direct social services organizations serving Latino residents but lacked a credible voice shaping policy on their behalf. When Jorge Elorza and Domingo Morel founded the Latino Policy Institute (LPI) in 2005, they set out to fill that gap—creating not another services agency, but something unique and impossible to ignore: a source of nonpartisan, credible research and data that policymakers couldn’t dismiss – evidence that demonstrated: ‘here’s what's actually happening, and here’s what has to change.'
As the first Latino Chair of the Rhode Island Foundation, Dr. Pablo Rodriguez played a key role in securing early support. Before LPI could advocate, it needed to prove viability.
Through the Foundation's participation in the Hispanics in Philanthropy funding collaborative, Rodriguez championed funding for a feasibility study and business plan that would determine whether Rhode Island could support a policy-focused organization. That initial investment laid the groundwork for a sustained partnership: over two decades, the Foundation has supported LPI with almost $600,000 in grants, including donor-advised contributions, backing the newly formed nonprofit’s journey from fiscal sponsorship to a fully independent organization in 2023.
"It was trust-based philanthropy before it was a thing" recalls Anna Cano Morales, who led LPI as Executive Director from 2013 to 2017 and now serves as the Rhode Island Foundation's Vice President of Equity & Inclusion. "Hispanics in Philanthropy took chances on organizations that were Latino-led and Latino-serving at a time where philanthropy was not necessarily focusing on them."
The Patient Work of Being Taken Seriously
In LPI's early years, the challenge was earning credibility—convincing policymakers to treat its Latino-focused research as seriously as they treated established policy organizations.
"We often compared ourselves to Rhode Island KIDSCOUNT and the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC)," Anna explains, referring to policy organizations whose data was already assisting in shaping legislative and policy conversations. "We got successful with that too, over time, but it did take time. Lots of invitations, meetings, and collaboration."
A breakthrough moment came in 2014, when LPI collaborated with HousingWorks RI to produce a report on homeownership in Rhode Island's Latino community. The findings were striking. The report revealed that seventy-five percent of the state’s Latino residents were renters, cut off from the way most people build wealth – by growing equity in their homes. While Latinos nationwide were driving an increase in homeownership, Rhode Island’s story diverged sharply.
The report’s impact was immediate and far-reaching. Local and national media, including NPR, took notice, and then-US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro traveled to Rhode Island for the report’s release. More importantly, when policymakers and journalists sought to understand what was happening in the state’s Latino community, LPI had become a primary source. By producing research that national outlets found credible, the organization established itself as an authoritative voice on Latino policy in Rhode Island.
"For 20 years, LPI has worked to change how Rhode Island sees and serves its Latino communities. We have shifted narratives. We have moved policy. We have trained leaders. We have produced research that centers real people."
- Marcela Betancur, Executive Director, Latino Policy Institute
Evidence + Advocacy
The organization began in 2005 and evolved into an initiative at Roger Williams University, where it was incubated for 14 years. This academic home provided institutional stability and reinforced LPI's reputation for objective, evidence-based research, essential for an organization that needed to be heard in rooms where Latino voices had historically been absent.
During that time, LPI focused primarily on research—producing data-driven reports that documented the Latino experience in Rhode Island. The organization’s work unfolded in stages, beginning with establishing credibility through rigorous evidence, then building policy influence from that sound foundation.
In 2023, LPI became fully independent from Roger Williams University. That transitional moment marked institutional maturity: the organization now raises its own funds, manages its own operations, and continues to maintain the credibility it has spent many years building.
Under the leadership of Marcela Betancur, the current LPI Executive Director, the organization has undergone a strategic evolution. LPI now operates as what Marcela describes as "a force for state-level advocacy," advancing economic and policy change with the Latino community at its center.
This strategy shift, from a strictly research-based organization to focused research, collaboration, and advocacy, also reflects a growing demographic reality. According to the most recent census data, approximately 18 percent of Rhode Islanders identify as Hispanic or Latino—197,000 people who are integral to every sector of state life. The state’s Latino population has grown five percentage points since 2010, while the white non-Hispanic population has dropped nearly seven points.
Marcela, who came to LPI with experience spanning housing, education, civil liberties, and workforce development—including leadership roles at Providence Housing Authority, NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, and the ACLU of Rhode Island—now leads a staff of three, producing research and advocating for policies that advance equity in education, healthcare, and economic opportunity. The move to independence has allowed LPI to expand beyond reports into more targeted research and activism.
LPI’s legislative priorities include initiatives focused on healthcare affordability, mental health access, paid family leave, immigrant housing rights, and an annual equity review of the state budget. Beyond policy work, LPI focuses on collaboration, currently serving on the Rhode Island Foundation’s Blue Ribbon Commission to strengthen the state’s education funding formula, and regularly hosts “Tertulias,” informal community conversations that foster civic engagement on current issues. The organization also continues its targeted research efforts and has published Latino Pathways to Success, a collaborative report with Rhode Island College that explores challenges and solutions for closing equity gaps, and opportunities associated with being a Hispanic Serving Institution.
Estamos Aquí
At LPI's recent 20th anniversary celebration, Marcela opened the evening with presence, recognition, and gratitude.
“Estamos aquí. We are here,” she proclaimed. “In our full humanity. In our joy. In our struggle. In our complexity. In our power.”
"We are the fabric of this state," she shared with joyful supporters that filled the room. "We are raising families. We are changing laws. We are shaping culture. We are teaching in classrooms, cleaning buildings, building buildings, testifying at the State House, legislating at the State House, growing food, and running businesses."
Rhode Island Foundation CEO David N. Cicilline, speaking at the celebration, framed the moment: "Now more than ever, it is essential to support organizations like LPI that are actively addressing the root causes of inequity and advocating for policies that will level the playing field for all."
Pablo Rodriguez, honored with LPI's Legacy Award that evening, received recognition for decades of commitment to Latino communities and for repeatedly asking the critical question that shapes equitable institutions: 'Who is not in the room?'
Two decades later, the answer is changing. Not because established systems suddenly became welcoming, but because organizations like LPI made Rhode Island’s Latino voices impossible to ignore. That substance—quantified, documented, and now impossible to dismiss—is LPI's legacy and the foundation for what comes next.
"For 20 years, LPI has worked to change how Rhode Island sees and serves its Latino communities,” Marcela reflected. “We have shifted narratives. We have moved policy. We have trained leaders. We have produced research that centers real people.”
That distinction—between occupying space and shaping decisions—defines what LPI has built over twenty years. The organization created the evidence and credibility that make it impossible for policymakers to claim they serve all Rhode Islanders while ignoring Latino communities.
Marcela paused, then offered a final declaration—one that captured two decades of work and the unwavering resolve to continue.
"We are not alone. We are not new to this. We are not leaving. Estamos aquí."
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