For more than 20 years, the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF) has served as Mercer County’s primary resource hub for low-income immigrants – and for the last five years, it has done so under a period of significant growth and renewed vision. In April 2021, Ms. Cecy Jimenez-Weeast officially joined the LALDEF team as our Executive Director. Today, as we celebrate the last five years of her innovative leadership, the organization has ascended to new heights, ushering in an era of transformative growth.

When her tenure with LALDEF first began, our community was in the midst of the pandemic. Despite the uncertainty of that time, Ms. Jimenez-Weeast rose to the challenge, choosing to seize the moment as an opportunity to grow. Since then, LALDEF has achieved a number of vital milestones under her guidance, including:

• Creating full-time staffing capacity for our Adult Education and FUTURO Youth Mentoring programs
• Hiring LALDEF’s first full-time Director of Development and Communications, fulfilling a goal of our last two strategic plans
• Authoring and adopting LALDEF’s 2025-2028 Strategic Plan
• Brought Latinas Unidas, our support group for Latina women, under the LALDEF umbrella
• …and much more

As LALDEF continues to navigate the challenges of the current climate, we stand firm and ready, with leadership prepared to respond no matter what the day may bring. In the five years since Ms. Jimenez-Weeast joined LALDEF, much has changed. However, our commitment to serving and uplifting the low-income immigrant community of Mercer County remains just the same.

As we look forward to the next five years and beyond, we hope you will join us in this fight to empower all those who call our communities home. If you would like to consider supporting this important work, donations can be made here: Donate Here – LALDEF.

Thank you for being a part of this remarkable journey, and we hope you will be with us for all that is to come!

Best,
The LALDEF Team