Having served on Governor Pritzker’s transition staff and been appointed by earlier governors to advisory boards and state councils, Puente already had loads of identify recognition when the coronavirus began devastating Latin American neighborhoods — 11 of the 15 worst-hit ZIP codes within the metro space are majority-Latino — and he or she used that visibility to get assets the place they had been wanted most. She painstakingly compiled a listing of dozens of organizations, a lot of them little identified outdoors their communities, for the Chicago Group COVID-19 Response Fund. So far, 71 of these organizations have acquired greater than $5 million for hire and utility help and different packages.
