Latino Policy Day 2026: Building Systems for the New Normal: Data-Driven Solutions When Crisis Becomes Constant
Description: Southern California’s Latino communities no longer face isolated emergencies; they navigate compounding crises that reveal how our systems were never designed for their resilience. From the wildfires to immigration enforcement, these communities have experienced the destabilization of entire service delivery systems and labor markets. Researchers have worked tirelessly to gather evidence on how the collapse of small business corridors, family separation, and the strain on community health and food security networks has impacted communities. At LPPI, we convene influential policymakers, researchers, community leaders, and philanthropy to envision new infrastructure built for Latino communities facing perpetual disruption.
This year’s theme frames LPPI’s research as essential civic infrastructure: evidence that protects community health, strengthens economic stability, and supports institutions in responding effectively during disruption and recovery. By centering health and community stability, the program highlights the interconnected nature of environmental shocks, labor conditions, housing security, immigration policy, and service delivery systems. It underscores that safeguarding community well-being requires more than emergency response; it demands sustained, community-grounded data that informs policy before, during, and after periods of disruption.
Featured Panels:
Beyond Recovery: Redesigning Economic Infrastructure for Climate Disruption Description: Wildfires tore through Altadena and Pacific Palisades and exposed how fragile small business ecosystems really are. When neighborhood anchors close, workers lose income and entire commercial corridors face collapse. This session asks how to stop treating environmental disasters as exceptional events and start building economic systems designed for recurring disruption. Panelists will explore how environmental disruption impacts local business and economies and discuss how to create protective infrastructure such as emergency capital pools, flexible procurement policies and community-controlled recovery funds that keep small businesses and workers stable when the next disaster strikes. It isn’t about bouncing back, but about building forward.
Who Rebuilds While the Cameras Leave? Protecting Immigrant Workers in Disaster Zone
Description: After every disaster immigrant workers show up to rebuild, from clearing debris, to repairing homes and restoring infrastructure. Yet research from the Eaton Canyon fire reveals a brutal irony, that these workers are experiencing exploitation such as wage theft and unsafe conditions and lack basic protections. This session examines worker protections and gaps in disaster recovery for immigrant laborers. Panelists will discuss concrete policy interventions that recognize immigrant workers as essential infrastructure and ask what would it look like if labor protections, occupational health standards, and worker organizing were embedded into disaster response from day one?
Community Health at the Frontlines: Immigrant Services in a Time of Enforcement
Description: This session examines how the current political moment is shaping the experiences of nonprofit service providers delivering social services like health care, mental health support, housing, food assistance, and employment support to immigrant communities. Drawing on provider perspectives, the panelists will discuss how changes in immigration enforcement affects access to care, the wellbeing of the nonprofit workforce, and overall community health.
