The Journey So Far
Caminar Latino Begins in Atlanta
Caminar Latino was founded in 1990 after Sister Barbara Harrington, who ran health clinics serving Atlanta’s Latine community, began seeing Latinas arrive with signs of domestic violence and nowhere to turn for culturally responsive support. She called on Dr. Julia Perilla for help, resulting in a program guided by listening, trust, and community wisdom. What began as a local response in Atlanta grew into a nationally recognized, whole-family healing approach to addressing domestic violence.
Families Inspire a Youth Program
Women participating in Caminar Latino asked for support for their children, who had experienced and witnessed violence at home. The children attended support groups with them, often sitting in the middle of circles, listening to all that was being shared. But they needed their own space. In response, Caminar Latino created a youth program where children and teens could process their experiences, build connection, and rebuild their self-confidence.
Accountability Becomes Part of the Approach
While the women and children were attending these support groups simultaneously, their partners were waiting for them in the parking lot. So, the women asked Caminar Latino if it was possible for a program to be created for these partners that had used violence. They argued that their partners needed help in learning new ways to behave non-violently, and that the women’s newly-acquired understanding of the nature and dynamics of domestic violence needed to be understood by the men as well. By listening to survivors, Caminar Latino expanded its whole-family approach and launched a state-certified family violence intervention program focused on accountability and behavior change, the only bilingual program of its kind in the state of Georgia.
Mano a Mano Strengthens Community Connection
Caminar Latino helped create Mano a Mano (MAM), a community connection space for Atlanta-based organizations working alongside Latine families and communities. Built around relationships, trust, and shared learning, Mano a Mano continues today as a place where community leaders, organizers, and practitioners exchange resources, strengthen collaboration, and build more connected systems of care and support.
Community Leadership Becomes Central
As participants moved through Caminar Latino’s programs, many began looking for ways to give back, share what they had learned, and help prevent violence in their communities. In response, Caminar Latino expanded beyond direct services to create more spaces for families and community partners to lead. Programs like Líderes Comunitarias, La Voz Juvenil, and Mano a Mano helped participants recognize their strengths, share their wisdom, build collective power, and transform their communities from within.
Local Roots and National Reach Come Together
After years of sharing lessons learned from Latine families in Atlanta through training and technical assistance, Caminar Latino joined with Latinos United for Peace and Equity to launch the National Center to Advance Peace for Children, Youth, and Families. This brought local community wisdom into a broader national movement, expanding Caminar Latino’s ability to elevate survivor and community voices, advance public policy, and support organizations working to create more community-led and culturally responsive systems.
¡Vamos Juguemos! Brings Healing Through Play
Caminar Latino launched ¡Vamos Juguemos!, a family enrichment program that creates space for survivor families to strengthen communication, deepen connection, and heal together. Through shared experiences like movie nights, baking, sporting events, camping trips, joint safety planning, and family therapy, families build positive memories while practicing new ways of relating to one another. Children often help shape the experience, honoring the healing power of play and the wisdom young people bring to their families.
THRIVE Helps Organizations Grow Stronger
With funding from the Office on Violence Against Women, Caminar Latino launched THRIVE to support grantee organizations across the country. Through training, technical assistance, and relationship-centered guidance, THRIVE helps organizations strengthen culturally responsive approaches to safety, healing, and support for survivors, families, and communities impacted by violence. The Children and Youth and Engaging Men programs also support men and boys working as allies to prevent violence against women and girls. The program was re-awarded in 2026, allowing this national work to continue.
¡Vamos Juguemos! Receives Statewide Recognition
¡Vamos Juguemos! received the Moving the Work Forward Award from the Georgia Commission on Family Violence, recognizing Caminar Latino’s innovative approach to supporting survivor families through culturally rooted connection, healing, and play.
Today
Returning to Our Roots and Creating the Path Forward
Today, Caminar Latino is returning to its roots by centering the name, identity, and community wisdom that shaped the organization from the beginning. As we continue walking alongside Latine families in Atlanta, we also elevate this work nationally through training, technical assistance, consulting, research, policy, and partnerships that help strengthen the field. More than 35 years in, our path continues to be shaped by the families and communities who lead the way.
The Road Ahead
As we look ahead, our commitment remains the same: to create pathways toward safety, healing, accountability, and a future where families thrive. The following Horizon Story was developed by our team to imagine what becomes possible when this work continues across generations: a future we may not see in our lifetime, but one we continue walking toward together.
Caminar Latino’s Thriving Horizon Story
In the world we’ve co-created, children roam the parks and streets freely, laughing in many languages, unafraid and unburdened. They belong not just to their parents, but to the whole community. The children belong to all of us. Elders and neighbors swap stories nearby, unworried, because safety is collective and constant. Mango trees planted by ancestors now bloom in the yards of great-grandchildren, and berry bushes grow wild where laughter echoes. An ode to energy as a lifeforce.
There are no borders here.
Only histories and names to remember where we’ve come from. People move freely, welcomed with gifts and kindness. We live in vibrant collectives: birth families, chosen families, friends sharing homes, multigenerational households where care is shared and joy is multiplied. Everyone has a home. Everyone belongs.
Our schools no longer test but nurture. Children grow gardens, learn by story, and discover their gifts without pressure. They dream of being artists, farmers, healers, valued for how they serve their communities, not for how much they earn. Work is an act of love, aligned with personal purpose and planetary care. Technology heals, not harms. AI is used to restore ecosystems and protect life.
La salud comienza con el cuidado y la prevención: alimentos reales, movimiento con alegría, espacios naturales para el descanso. La medicina es holística, accesible y enraizada en la sabiduría ancestral. Honramos los ritmos de la Tierra, tomamos sólo lo que necesitamos y devolvemos más de lo que recibimos. El agua, el refugio y los alimentos están garantizados. La justicia no habita en las prisiones, sino en el cuidado comunitario. Cuando ocurre un daño, restauramos el equilibrio juntos. Todas las personas participan en la sanación, porque todas se ven afectadas por esta.
We are spiritually connected, present, and awake. We sing, write letters, and dance under open skies. The internet has quieted, and social media is gone—replaced by conversation, art, and ceremony. Our elders and children guide us. We remember our histories honestly and use their lessons to shape a liberated now.
From the kitchen window, I hear birdsong and children’s laughter. The city hums with soft beginnings. I brew cafecito and pick up a favorite book, knowing that later I’ll walk down streets filled with neighbors and kin, to breakfast, to music, to another shared day in this abundant, sacred life.
See Where the Journey Leads
For more than 35 years, Caminar Latino’s work has been shaped by community wisdom. Explore the impact of our approach in Atlanta and across the country.
See Our Impact