Valley Settlement is a Carbondale-based non-profit with a mission to help the immigrant community in the Roaring Fork Valley.
The organization recently hired a new executive director, Alex Sanchez.
Valley Settlement has many programs, from mobile preschools, to English language classes. Sanchez says, in addition to these services, he wants to make sure the Latino voice is being heard by local policymakers.
"To ensure that the interest and the opinions and the voices of Latinos are also considered," he said.
Sanchez was born in the U.S., then moved to Mexico, then back to the U.S., to Basalt, where he went to middle and high school.
He says he has first-hand experience with the kinds of lives many immigrants here live.