Communities nationwide celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month every fall, highlighting the history, achievements, and contributions of Hispanic and Latinx individuals while recognizing the challenges they face. As President John Williams previously emphasized, diversity and inclusion is a priority at the New York Fed. This year, the New York Fed celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month through events, work products, and social media campaigns.
Resource Networks
Over the course of Hispanic Heritage Month, the New York Fed’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, in partnership with two employee resource networks — AALMA (African-American and Latino Men’s Alliance) and MOSAIC (Mentoring Opportunities, Support, Advancement, Inspiration and Chance for African-American and Latina Women) — hosted a series of events highlighting and celebrating the experiences of Latinx people.
This series, titled “A Seat at La Mesa” featured discussions with leading Hispanic researchers, educators, and executives, who spoke about their career paths and the life experiences that shaped who they are today. Participants shared how their heritage and culture influenced their perspectives, and spoke on their experiences being Latinx in today’s world.
Educational Comic Book
As part of continuing efforts to increase financial literacy, the New York Fed released Había una Vez un Banco, the Spanish translation of Once Upon A Dime, one of the New York Fed’s educational comic books. The comic book tells the story of a growing economy on Planet Novus and focuses on concepts of barter, currency, and banking.
Había una Vez un Banco and the accompanying lesson plans are intended for Spanish-speaking classrooms and communities across the Second District, serving as a resource for educators to teach students about basic economic principles and the role of the Federal Reserve.
Investment Connection
The New York Fed also kicked off the first phase of its Investment Connection program in Puerto Rico. This Community Development Finance (CoDeFi) program is designed to boost investments in community development financing by connecting local stakeholders to banks and other capital providers.
In this first stage of the program, the CoDeFi team will assist and advise local nonprofit organizations on their economic development proposals. This phase is the first step toward the program’s long-term goal of increasing the funding to these organizations and subsequently their capacity, by connecting them to mainland financial institutions.
Medium posts about the Investment Connection program are available in Spanish and English.
#HispanicHeritageMonth Social Profiles
To mark Hispanic Heritage Month, the New York Fed highlighted several employees on Twitter and LinkedIn. In these profiles, employees shared their stories, reflected on their accomplishments, and expressed what their Hispanic heritage means to them.
A few examples:
This article was originally published by the New York Fed on Medium.
The views expressed in this article are those of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the New York Fed or the Federal Reserve System.
