The mission of La Paz is to empower and engage Chattanooga's Latino population through advocacy, education and inclusion.

The high rates of Latino immigration into the United States have been newsworthy for many years. Chattanooga has been a relatively recent destination, but in the last few years thousands of Latinos have come to work in our region. This population has many immediate needs: housing, employment, education, healthcare, language training, and an understanding of how to live and work in our culture. Our community has many resources to meet those needs, but somehow the needs and the resources need to be linked. Providing this linkage is the work of La Paz Chattanooga.

In its brief history, La Paz, as the organization is widely known in the city, has become an agency that is trusted by Latinos and by the organizations that try to serve them. In fact, there are few, if any, other agencies that provide the services offered by La Paz to Latinos and Chattanooga organizations.

La Paz meets its mission, first by attending to any immediate humanitarian needs a person or family may have, such as food, clothing or shelter. But the bulk of the organization's work is in linking Latinos to the resources that are available in Chattanooga and in linking those resources and agencies to Latinos. La Paz attempts to educate Latinos about American institutions, while at the same time attempting to educate non-Latino Americans about life as an immigrant, addressing the prejudices that may exist in one group about the other.

The office of La Paz is housed in the St. Andrew's Center in the heart of Chattanooga’s inner-city where Latinos have tended to take residence. Coming to be known almost entirely by word of mouth, calls for assistance arrive either by foot traffic or by phone.

Call (423) 624-8414 today to learn more about La Paz or to make an appointment.  Click here to meet the La Paz family.