Walking With Those We Serve: Meet Jessica Nunan and Caminar Latino
Jessica Nunan
On this episode of Community Possibilities, I speak with Jessica Nunan, Co-CEO of Caminar Latino — Latinos United for Peace and Equity, a national social change organization that addresses domestic violence at the individual, community and systematic level. Jessica has been involved with Caminar Latino for the past 28 years, of which she spent 11 as a volunteer in the youth program. Her mother, Dr. Julia Perilla, was a cofounder of Caminar Latino, and a classmate of Ann's at Georgia State.
In this episode, Jessica Nunan shares how Caminar Latino helped to reshaped the approach to serving victims and their families of domestic violence. It all started when Sister Barbara Harringtion asked Julia if she would help lead a support group for women in the local Hispanic community. Julia said yes and the journey began. Soon the women asked for help for their children, then eventually their husbands.
From the beginning, Caminar Latino was determined to listen to the community they served. At that time, the typical solution was separation from the violent partner which meant the dissolution of the family. This was not acceptable for the women served by the program. In this episode, Jessica relates the pushback from local and national organizations about the way they have provided care to the families they served.
Caminar Latino – Latinos United for Peace and Equity is a national trailblazer that carries out its mission by creating safe spaces for each family member to begin their journey towards non-violence and by centering the Latino experience into social change efforts nationally that will transform the social conditions that give rise to violence. Caminar Latino operates in Atlanta and it is Georgia’s first and only comprehensive domestic violence intervention program for Latino families. Latinos United for Peace and Equity, Caminar Latino’s national counterpart, engages in public policy, systems change, and research at the intersection of gender-based violence and Latino identity. In addition, LUPE offers capacity building, training, and technical assistance to other nonprofit organizations, advocates in the field, government agencies, and businesses.
Find out more about Caminar Latino here.
Listen to the episode here.
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