The Indiana Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs (ICHLA), a nonpartisan state agency, is holding statewide listening sessions to identify the issues and concerns faced by the Hispanic and Latino communities.

The goal of these listening sessions, called “Make your voice heard! ¡Queremos Escuchar Tu Voz!” is to create recommendations for lawmakers to better serve this community.

These listening sessions focus in the areas of education, health, workforce, public safety, and civil rights.

Director of ICHLA Dolly Serrant says so far they have identified two major issues of concern.

“Specially in the health area, for example, there’s not so much Spanish speakers providers and that is a big issue – the language barrier,” Serrant says. “Another situation that we are founding in these listening sessions is a lot of low self esteem.”

Sessions have been held in the northern and southern areas of the state. The next listening session will be at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis Oct. 12.

Contact Paola at pmarizan@wnin.org or follow her on Twitter at @pmarizan.