Adelante Workforce Program

EMPOWERING OUR COMMUNITY: UPSKILLING, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT and LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Adelante Youth Summer Fellowships

Our Adelante Youth Fellowship Program places local youth and young adult students from historically marginalized communities with organizations and business host sites throughout the community. Over the course of two summer months, participants receive hands-on professional development training at their host site. They also participate in fieldtrips and weekly seminars as a cohort, receive wellness support and mindfulness training, and they are assisted with a need-based grant for household expenses so they can concentrate their time on learning opportunities they wouldn’t normally have access to.

Read about the program from the experience of one of this year’s host sites, Poudre Libraries!

Adelante Adult Training and Upskill Grants

The Adelante Program is an intergenerational program that recognizes that in immigrant and refugee families, in particular, the finances of all the generations are tied together, and different support must exist for the unique positions and experiences of the 1st, 2nd and 1.5 generation family members. Our Adelante Adult program includes scholarship funds for anyone interested in gaining mobility in the job force through training, certifications, exams, English language classes, and work authorization (and renewal).

The program also pays for DHS work permission applications and renewals, including DACA, and provides scholarship funds to community members wishing to upskill or apply for business startup funds. We also connect people to critical resources such as the Larimer County Economic and Workforce bilingual navigation team, the Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center, Towards Justice (for workplace rights support), and immigration legal support.

Leadership and Funding

This program is developed and coordinated by leaders who share the identities and experiences of the youth they work with, such as our amazing Adelante Director, Jesús Castro. Prior students, like Ivan Mendoza — now part of CSU’s Impact Business program — have graduated from Adelante and gone on to assist leading and teaching new cohorts the following year(s).