Latin American House (LAH) was founded in 1983 as the Latin America Association. Since then, in a building of its own, it has served as a community centre for both Latin Americans in London and for the local people of Kilburn (Camden) and surrounding areas. Nowadays, though its ties to these communities remain strong, LAH also aims to be a source of support and information for the Latin American population throughout the UK. LAH is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee, and houses one of the oldest Spanish-speaking nurseries in London. It offers legal and social welfare (including specialist immigration) advice in relation to benefits, housing, and employment law, as well as opportunities to acquire life-long skills and a place to meet people, share ideas and enjoy the rich culture of Latin America.

The House in Kilburn functions both as a headquarters for the charity and as a location for LAH's many services and events. This includes Latin American House’s Menchú Bilingual Nursery, which offers high-quality bilingual childcare and education. Through its diverse and welcoming atmosphere, the Nursery aims for each child to develop their own personality at their own pace, encouraging their self-expression, social confidence, natural curiosity and awareness of the needs of others. LAH also offers community learning programmes, a Spanish Saturday School, Communities and Cultures programmes and, perhaps most importantly, free legal and social welfare advice on everything from the EU Settlement Scheme to Benefits, Housing, Immigration and Employment.

Latin American House's governance structure ensures that it meets its requirements to ensure probity, good governance and outstanding performance.

The Board is comprised of the Trustees. They meet regularly as a Trust Board, which has a sub committee and convenes, as needed, a number of working groups. Trustees focus on the three core functions of governance:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
2. Holding executive leaders to account for the performance of the organisation, and the performance management of staff
3. Overseeing and ensuring effective financial performance

As it continues to grow, Latin American House seeks a new Trustee with a strong background in property and / or estates management to add to the expertise of the Board.

Applicants will have experience of operating at a senior level on large projects as an architect, surveyor or developer, or will have strategic-level experience managing estates. This individual does not need to be a chartered surveyor, but will be able to advise LAH on its asset and its potential. The successful candidate will be able to provide advice, guidance and appropriate challenge to the Board on how the organisation can best maintain and develop its building in Kilburn.

Latin American House is interested in hearing from any individuals who have a personal connection to Latin America and, ideally, family ties to Latin America. Candidates must be able to speak Spanish, as Board meetings are frequently held in Spanish.

A list of existing Trustees can be found here.

There are four Board meetings per year, which tend to take place on Saturday mornings, online, and last for 3 hours. Additionally, there will be ad hoc communication with the Board, which will amount to no more than c. 10 hrs per month. The role is unremunerated, but reasonable, pre-agreed domestic expenses will be reimbursed. The appointment is for a renewable three-year term.

Whilst meetings are currently virtual, the Board expects Trustees to be active members of the LAH community and, as such, will ideally be London-based or willing to travel to London for in-person events.

Latin American House welcomes applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability. It is committed to equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practices and it positively encourages applications from all sectors of the community. As women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds (Brazilian heritage particularly) and individuals from the LGBTQI+ community are currently under-represented on the Board, applications from those candidates would be particularly encouraged to reflect the diversity of the Latin American community. All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process.