Community

Unitus Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with Brand New Services and Support

Posada Milagro Craft Table

This article is available in Spanish. To read it in Spanish, click here.

With Hispanic Heritage Month ending today, we wanted to reflect on how we’ve celebrated the culture, contributions, and accomplishments of our Hispanic and Latino communities. Further, we wanted to look forwarded to plenty more Hispanic-focused products and community support to come.

For over 80 years, we’ve been dedicated to making our communities stronger places to live, work, and raise families. Whether it’s helping people take control of their financial future, find the right loan, or giving back through nonprofit partnerships, at Unitus we’re passionate about improving the quality of life for all people. That includes the Hispanic and Latino communities.

In action, this means meeting our community where they are by providing support and services that set our members up for success, like our partnership with Propio (formally Telelanguage). Propio provides translation services over the phone for people whose first language is not English.

“Propio is committed to helping our clients best serve their communities, families, patients, and clients,” said Manuela Villa, Propio Account Executive. “It has been a pleasure to work with Unitus to implement greater language access that allows their products and services to be equally attainable by all members of the community regardless of their fluency in English.”

We also have bilingual team members taking private appointments in our branches throughout Portland Metro, Salem, and Vancouver who are ready to help our Spanish-speaking members find the right fit for their financial needs.

Setting our members up for success also means finding more inclusive ways to expand the products and services we offer. That’s why we introduced  our new Immigration Loan, a small dollar ($1,200) loan that helps members of the immigrant community attain citizenship and work authorization. The Immigration Loan also sets the borrower up with a Unitus prime share account, which can be used for attorney fees and legal/filing expenses. When borrowers make six monthly payments on time, they receive a credit card offer with a minimum limit of $1,000! Interested readers can click here to get started.

Creating opportunities like the Immigration Loan is just one of the ways we’re committed to helping our Hispanic and Latino members achieve economic stability and success. Unitus is also an ITIN lending financial institution, which means we can offer our products and services—such as ITIN home mortgages—to immigrants and other members of the community currently ineligible to receive a social security number. Because we understand the value of family, we also offer the Remitly service to our members, which helps families set up and send transfers to other countries. Remitly is a trustworthy and secure money transfer provider and a registered Money Services Business with the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

While products and services are the foundation of our credit union, community giving is the backbone. It’s our duty to give back by supporting the nonprofits and organizations that work tirelessly day in and out to uplift our Hispanic and Latino neighbors. We’re proud to partner with nonprofits such as Milagro, Latino Network, and Centro Cultural by sponsoring programs that help resolve food scarcity, housing, and school-based needs for Hispanic/Latino individuals and families as well as bring Hispanic and Latino-focused arts and culture education to local schools. We’re also proud business members and supporters of organizations like the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber that are dedicated to making entrepreneurial and educational opportunities more accessible.

In addition to Unitus’ support of Hispanic- and Latino-based nonprofits, Unitus will give away hundreds of dollars in gift cards from Hispanic and Latino-owned businesses as part of their #PDXUnites social media series during Hispanic Heritage Month. For your chance to win, follow @unitusccu on Facebook and Instagram.

“We’re thrilled to deepen our commitment to the Hispanic and Latino communities,” said Steve Stapp, Unitus President/CEO. “By growing our Hispanic-focused community partnerships and products and strengthening our commitment to Hispanic and Latino owned businesses, we can better understand and serve the community’s needs. We’re grateful to Latino Network, Milagro, Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber, and all of the amazing organizations that work toward creating an inclusive, prosperous future for Hispanic individuals and families. We stand behind their work and are honored to contribute to their success.”

To learn more about our commitment to personally walking our members toward bigger and brighter personal goals, visit unitusccu.com or make an appointment today! You. Us. Unitus.


About the Author: Born and raised in Oregon, Ashlee Jacobson Dunbar joined Unitus as Community Development Officer in February 2020. Her experience has taken her across the fields of administration, marketing, and community development, where her professional and personal passions intersect. When Ashlee isn’t developing community initiatives and partnerships for Unitus, she’s taking on new craft projects, exploring the outdoors, and spending quality time with her husband, friends/family, and three cats.

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