2024 Lemuel Shattuck Award

Helena DaSilva Hughes immigrated with her family to New Bedford, Massachusetts from Madeira Islands, Portugal when she was 10 years old. That transformative experience shaped her outlook on human rights and informed her career and passion for public policy and advocacy on behalf of all immigrants. DaSilva Hughes joined the staff of the Immigrants’ Assistance Center, Inc. (IAC) in 1984 and today serves as its President and CEO. 

Under DaSilva Hughes’ leadership, IAC has expanded its portfolio of services, the languages collectively spoken by staff, and its list of partners.  IAC offers a range of services from fulfilling basic needs such as food and shelter, offering economic empowerment programs including financial literacy and job search, and supporting the citizenship application process. 

The AMIGOS (A Multicultural International Guidance Outreach Service) Program is one example of the innovative approaches she has helped establish to meet the specific needs of undocumented immigrant youth, especially those unaccompanied by adults, coming to the area from Central America. AMIGOS addresses both the culturalization issues as well as mental health and trauma challenges these youth face by offering personalized guidance, cross-cultural language learning, citizenship and civic involvement programs for middle school and high school students, as well as educating law enforcement about risks unique to these students. 

When COVID struck, DaSilva Hughes had the community, institutional, and political connections and credibility to help lead a response that centered those who were at greatest risk of infection and death in New Bedford. As an active member of the Vaccine Equity Now coalition, she helped shape the analysis and recommendations to hold systems accountable to equity benchmarks, transparency in resource allocation, and language access and cultural competence in vaccine outreach and distribution.  

DaSilva Hughes has been a vocal and staunch advocate for asylum and citizenship pathways for immigrants, police reform, housing access, and health equity at the state and local levels. In 2006 DaSilva Hughes developed and implemented the first information exchange on forcibly repatriated Portuguese citizens between the governments of the US and Portugal, expanding the program in 2008 to include the Cape Verdean government. Currently the IAC is taking a leading role as a coalition builder to secure housing for Afghan Refugees and services in the New Bedford region.  

DaSilva Hughes serves on several boards and councils including the trustee of Southcoast Health System, New Bedford Economic Development Council, the New Bedford Workforce Investment Board, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Immigrants and Refugees, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.  She has won numerous awards for her dedication, commitment, and passion for the immigrant community including the Standard Times Woman of the Year and the Order of Merit, Commander Level, by the President of Portugal.  DaSilva Hughes is a graduate of New Bedford High School, holds a BS in Business Administration with a minor in Law from Newbury College, and is a graduate of UMass Dartmouth Leadership SouthCoast.