A central Esperanza strategy is the fostering of networking among social, economic, environmental justice, and community-based arts organisations. Esperanza promotes this kind of exchange by providing places for grassroots activists to meet and work together. The organisation also provides individualised assistance and group workshops on grant writing, board and membership development, fundraising, faciliation and leadership, and alliance building. Esperanza acts as fiscal sponsor for groups who have not yet attained non-profit status. Consultation on conference or workshop development is also available.

Esperanza sponsors pláticas - lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and community gatherings with local, national and international activists, artists, and intellectuals. Through these pláticas, Esperanza works to lay the groundwork for multicultural, multiracial, and bicultural alliances.

La Voz de Esperanza is a journal published ten times each year. Past issues are available for download in PDF format on the Esperanza site (click on "La Voz").

Esperanza also runs a number of community-based advocacy projects. For instance, launched in 1995, MujerARTES is a cooperative at which women make art together while exploring creative skills and developing oral histories. While carrying out projects involving sculpting, drawing, painting, or pottery, women talk about community issues (child care, family, unfair labour practices, welfare, discrimination). These women also explore the erasure of "nuestra cultura".

Building on Esperanza's 1988 children's mural project and the 1995-97 Visiones de Esperanza Youth Media Project, Esperanza launched a programme in 1999 called "Artescuela: A Youth Community Cultural Arts School." Weekly classes are held for youth ages 12-22 to teach storytelling, photography, poetry, drawing, videomaking, writing, music, performance, painting, drumming, oral history, papel picado, digital imaging, and the like. These projects focus on exploring creativity, difference and diversity, cultural pride, community, and respect for individuals and for self. For example, Esperanza is, as of this writing, designing a series of intensive talleres (workshops) to address the issues of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and the interconnections between these oppressions. The school will be organised into small groups that meet for several months. Each group is the same so that people get to know and trust each other, fostering the telling of community- and individual-centred stories.

Formed to address the psychological impact of cultural domination, the Arte Es Vida project empowers local communities and assists them in recovering their history, art, culture, language, stories, and traditions. Activities include cultural dialogues; documentation of histories and stories; and exploration of the social, historical, political, and economic contexts that affect their lives. The programme connects academics and theoreticians to the communities who inform their work and hopes to create accessible archives for both community members and academics who wish to further their understanding of the cultural history of San Antonio, Texas. Arte Es Vida participants include youth in the Esperanza's ArtEscuela program and women in MujerArtes. Participants develop skills like writing, video-taping, and photo documentation so they can preserve these histories. The Arte Es Vida collection is available for use by all community members.

In 1998, Esperanza launched the Arte es Vida campaign in response to the citywide attack on the cultural arts and public funding of arts programmes. In partnership with arts organisations throughout San Antonio, Esperanza worked to create public discussion of the arts and cultural expression in its many forms. Examples of such advocacy efforts include the provision of bumper stickers urging support for the arts, marching and handing out flyers (January 1998 - Martin Luther King, Jr. march), and asking people of all ages to sign postcards supporting the arts (at the 1998 annual International Woman's Day March and Rally, the César Chávez March, the Lowrider Festival, and the Conjunto Festival). In June 1998, hundreds of supporters of the arts rallied at City Council to present the collected postcards and to speak about the importance of public funding for the arts and culture of San Antonio.

The Environmental Justice Project furthers networking and collaboration for environmental justice organising in San Antonio. This project conducts health surveys, organises communities to fight landfills, holds informational summits about the local electrical company and air pollution, and the like. The project documented some of its efforts in two "State of the Neighborhood Reports." The Project's San Antonio partners include the Eastside based Neighborhoods First Alliance (NFA), the San Antonio Coalition For Environmental & Economic Justice (SACCEJ), United Homeowners Improvement Association (UHIA), and the Martínez Environmental Group. Austin partners include the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition (SEED).

Cultural Identity, Rights, Environment, Women, Children, Youth.