{"id":274988,"date":"2025-12-10T09:27:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/?p=274988"},"modified":"2025-12-10T09:27:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:27:26","slug":"providing-support-for-everyday-needs-how-hica-advances-economic-equity-in-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/providing-support-for-everyday-needs-how-hica-advances-economic-equity-in-alabama\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cProviding support for everyday needs\u201d: How \u00a1HICA! advances economic equity in Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Immigrant households often face significant challenges in their pursuit of financial stability, from learning a new language to better their chances of finding work to navigating their new country\u2019s court system. It was these challenges that inspired advocates in Birmingham, Alabama to create the Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama (\u00a1HICA!).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a1HICA! was founded in 1999 to provide direct services to Hispanic and Latine immigrants in Alabama. It also supports community development activities and advocates for economic equity. \u00a1HICA! has <\/span>five major programs<\/span><\/a> that serve Alabama\u2019s immigrant community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe function almost as five nonprofits in one,\u201d said \u00a1HICA!\u2019s CEO Carlos Aleman. \u201cThere are several others that are dedicated to these singular things, but \u00a1HICA! is doing that all here, and we are a one-stop shop providing support for everyday needs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of \u00a1HICA!\u2019s most popular programs is a low-cost legal services clinic for people with immigration issues. \u00a1HICA!\u2019s citizenship and immigration program provides classes to help with the English and civics components of the US naturalization exam, as well as conducting mock interviews. The program also helps families with their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) paperwork and filing for humanitarian visas. Overall, about 1,000 people use these services each year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also a slate of programs at \u00a1HICA! that help people with legal immigration status grow roots in their new communities. For instance, \u00a1HICA! launched a $1 million CFDI loan fund called the <\/span>Camino Loan Fund<\/span><\/a> in 2019 to help entrepreneurs access the capital they need to grow their businesses. The fund gives out loans between $5,000 and $100,000 to qualified participants, with the average loan amount being $15,000.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a1HICA!\u2019s Education and Career Pathways and Strong Families programs are also critical for building economic stability in communities. Their small business development program has helped launch more than 300 businesses in Alabama, including construction companies, restaurants and import-export businesses. The Strong Families program provides direct assistance to 2,000 households through case management, legal assistance and bilingual family court advocacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joining NCRC has helped \u00a1HICA! further its programmatic reach extensively. For instance, NCRC helped \u00a1HICA! establish its policy arm, which it now uses to advocate for better economic policies at the state and local governmental levels. NCRC\u2019s technical assistance and training have also been critical in developing \u00a1HICA!\u2019s congressional advocacy strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we learned was that we were good at providing services and we got better at collecting data, but the opportunity to be able to talk to legislators so that other folks are aware of the work that we’re doing\u2026that gives us even more leverage to talk to our partners locally,\u201d Aleman said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Financial stability is not just a pathway out of poverty, but is also a way for immigrants to build financially sustainable communities. \u00a1HICA!\u2019s advocacy and supportive services help immigrants feel welcome in their new homes and find the financial security they deserve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Robert Davis is a Contributing Writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of \u00a1HICA! Alabama.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immigrant households often face significant challenges in their pursuit of financial stability, from learning a new language to better their chances of finding work to navigating their new country\u2019s court system. It was these challenges that inspired advocates in Birmingham, Alabama to create the Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama (\u00a1HICA!).\u00a0 \u00a1HICA! was founded in 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Davis","author_link":"https:\/\/www.robertdaviswrites.com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Immigrant households often face significant challenges in their pursuit of financial stability, from learning a new language to better their chances of finding work to navigating their new country\u2019s court system. It was these challenges that inspired advocates in Birmingham, Alabama to create the Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama (\u00a1HICA!).\u00a0 \u00a1HICA! was founded in…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncrc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}