Leadership and Identity at MUA
About Us
MUA is an organization of Latina immigrant women. Our identity is not only expressed through our language, culture, boards, policies but also through our values and goals as an organization. The experiences of Latina immigrant women coincide with our leadership; it is a key part of the development of social justice strategies. Our voice is capable of creating a vision of justice, equality and inclusion for all of society. Our organization attempts to build a space that values immigrant women's leadership by supporting and developing it.
Focus of Our Services
MUA's doors are open to anyone who identifies as a Latina immigrant woman. MUA has a priority of developing the leadership of those who do not receive support or resources from other organizations due to challenges in language, their socioeconomic status, level of education or immigration status. We provide referrals to our partner organizations for each person we are unable to help.
Leadership Development
MUA is committed to developing the leadership skills of Latina immigrant women by empowering our members through workshops and campaigns. MUA dedicates our resources to leadership development that begins when a woman joins our organization. This allows immigrant women to develop as volunteer leaders of committees or the Board of Directors and with the opportunity to apply for and obtain staff positions within MUA and/or with other organizations.
We recognize the skills and strengths of Latina immigrant women as key and important to our organization. We value life experience as well as formal education. We believe that Latina immigrant women can fill organizational positions whether in the areas of program administration, direct services, outreach, administration or fundraising. We prioritize filling paid positions in the organization with Latina immigrant women who have the necessary skills and commitment to carry out the work. MUA allows each person to self-define whether or not they are a Latina immigrant.
Professional development
MUA is committed to providing the professional development support necessary to enable each staff member to perform their job. We encourage our staff, Board and committee members to learn what they need to be able to improve and serve the community by connecting with other services, communities or sources of support, engaging politically with our allies, and developing relationships with donors and foundations.
Since we value the voice, experience and leadership of immigrant women, MUA prioritizes immigrant women from our base representing us in the media and our political alliances. We dedicate specific resources to prepare them to do this important work.
Language
MUA's primary language is Spanish, although we also offer some programs in Mam, an indigenous Mayan language of Guatemala. MUA values all the languages that a woman speaks or wants to learn, respecting her level and pace of learning. MUA remains committed to developing the self-esteem and leadership of immigrant women, regardless of their language abilities. MUA plans activities to eliminate language barriers faced by immigrant women and offers support to women trying to improve their English or Spanish.
Solidarity
We recognize that there are specific connections and perspectives that non-Latina immigrant women bring to our organization. Furthermore, we recognize that we live in a very diverse society. We value solidarity between people of different races, cultures, genders and diverse sexual orientations, we know that we can and should learn from each other and we respect the importance of relating to others. For this reason, we have decided to continue being an organization whose staff, Board of Directors, volunteers and donors are immigrant women and non-immigrant or Latina women as long as they demonstrate respect for immigrant women.
Leadership Structure
We recognize that MUA has a leadership structure within which there are different levels of responsibility and commitment. Within our structure, we practice our value of shared leadership. MUA also recognizes that there are different leadership styles and different strengths of each leader. We believe that our organization is strengthened by a shared leadership model in which we complement our capabilities and share the work. We promote this model through our Leadership Team, task forces, and our leadership committees within the membership.