The LIBRE Initiative Expands to Charlotte, North Carolina

Grassroots organization to engage rapidly growing Latino community on education, economy, and health care

CHARLOTTE, NC—The LIBRE Initiative (LIBRE), a national grassroots organization committed to empowering the Hispanic community, announces its expansion to Charlotte, North Carolina. The LIBRE Initiative has chapters in 10 states across the country, including a chapter in Raleigh, NC.

Jeffrey Baldwin, The LIBRE Initiative-North Carolina Charlotte (LIBRE-NC) Grassroots Engagement Director, released the following statement:

“Charlotte’s rapidly growing Latino population is an undeniable force fueling our flourishing job market. I am excited to reengage the Latino community in Charlotte around freedom-minded principles and solutions to create more prosperity in the areas we care about most—economy, education and health care.”

Background:

North Carolina is home to over one million Latinos, making up 9.8% of the state’s population. In the last decade, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that North Carolina’s Hispanic population increased by 28.3%, growing at a much faster rate than the Hispanic population nationwide (19.6%).

Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic population in Mecklenburg County, which encompasses Charlotte, and have grown 52% in the past decade. The Hispanic community in Mecklenburg County (153K) and Wake County (116K) comprise more than one quarter of the Hispanic population statewide.

Jeffrey Baldwin

In 1999, Jeffrey Baldwin fled the devastation of 30 years of Socialism and Civil War in Guatemala. He has focused his education and career on advancing the principles of freedom.

Jeffrey has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina since 2007. Prior to joining LIBRE, he served as the Statewide Bankruptcy Administrator of the Economic Justice Initiative Project of Legal Aid of North Carolina for over a decade. He continues to serve on the Board of Directors for the Carter G. Woodson School in Winston-Salem, a charter school serving inner-city African-American and Latino children.

Jeffery received a BS in Management Information Systems from East Carolina University, a Masters in Business Administration from University Francisco Marroquin (UFM) in Guatemala, a Masters in Management from Tulane University in Louisiana. This spring, he will complete his Masters in Economics and Public Economy at OMMA Business School in Madrid, Spain and apply for his PhD in Economics, Finance, and Investment at UFM and OMMA.