For Immediate Release
July 14, 2006

The Comcast Foundation Awards Second $50,000 Grant in Two Years to the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) To Help Mobilize Latino Voters

SVREP Celebrates Its 32nd Anniversary at Latino Vote 2006 Banquet on July 14

Los Angeles, CA (July 13, 2006) –The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), a national, nonprofit, non-partisan organization committed to the political empowerment of Latino communities, celebrates its 32 nd anniversary at the SVREP Latino Vote 2006 Banquet in Los Angeles with a generous grant of $50,000 from the Comcast Foundation, for a total of $100,000 in grants over the last two years.

The SVREP Latino Vote 2006 Banquet will be held on July 14, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. at the Sheraton Universal Hotel, 333 Universal Hollywood Drive, Universal City, California. The Latino Vote 2006 Banquet serves as a gathering point for California’s Latino political leadership to celebrate the gains of the Latino community’s participation in the electoral process.

“The financial support from Comcast will help us meet our ambitious goal to mobilize thousands of Latino voters for this important election cycle,” said Antonio González, President of Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. “We are especially delighted that the Comcast Foundation has agreed to provide a $50,000 donation to SVREP for the second year in a row. Comcast’s continued dedication to diversity and support for the non-profit sector is commendable.”

Comcast will join California’s top Latino elected officials in honoring the accomplishments of SVREP’s 32 years of service as the nation’s leading Latino organization in voter registration, voter education and voter participation. California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, California Secretary of State Bruce McPhearson, Lieutenant Governor Cruz M. Bustamante, U.S . Representative Loretta Sanchez, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, and L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina are among the confirmed speakers at the event.

“California’s political landscape has evolved considerably in the past few years and SVREP has stayed true to its mission of being committed to the political empowerment of the Latino community,” said González.

SVREP Voter Initiatives

SVREP’s Latino Vote LA 2006 Campaign will roll out its latest two initiatives: the Youth Campaign to register 100,000 sons and daughters of immigrants and the Latina Vote Campaign to register 1,000,000 Latinas in preparation for the 2008 election cycle.

In keeping with its tradition SVREP will once again conduct it traditional voter registration and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns in preparation for the 2006 general elections. SVREP will build on its recent Los Angeles mayoral election, its single largest local effort, propelling Latino voter registration and participation in the mayoral race to record numbers. In an unprecedented GOTV and voter registration effort, SVREP launched an aggressive campaign that increased voter registration among Latinos by nearly 13,000 voters and turned out an estimated 25,000 new Latino voters who had never before voted in an election.

About SVREP

SVREP is a national nonprofit nonpartisan organization committed solely to the political empowerment of Latino and other minority communities through voter registration, voter education and voter participation. SVREP was established in 1974 by the late Willie Velásquez to encourage civic and political participation in Latino and other underrepresented communities. Since its inception, SVREP has registered over 2.3 million Latino voters throughout the U.S. SVREP has offices in San Antonio, Texas; Los Angeles, California ; and Miami, Florida. Visit www.svrep.org for more information.

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