Voto Latino’s 2014 Power Summits

I’m heading to New York this weekend to help launch Voto Latino‘s Power Summit (#VLPowerSummit). Hundreds of young Latinos will further develop their leadership, advocacy, and media & technology skills this Saturday. There will be three additional Power Summits over the course of 2014, in San Jose, San Antonio, and Miami. And in addition to the impressive speaker lineup and training schedule, the Summit includes a couple of other interactive components I’m excited to follow.

First, Voto Latino has partnered with Achievery to introduce digital badges to workshop sessions. The hope is that unlocking achievement badges will provide additional incentive for attendees to begin practicing the skills taught at the Summit, with an emphasis on continuing skill development after the Summit has concluded. I first came across skills badging via Mozilla and DIY.org and Willow Brugh, et al.’s Community Aid Badging (video explanation), and I’m excited to see Achievery’s platform at work.

Another exciting component is that Voto Latino has partnered with the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC to launch the Innovators Challenge. They’ve put up $500,000 in grants to support 10-15 Millennial-led technology projects to improve life for Latino communities.

Photo by Steve Alfaro