Centro Presente CONTACT:17 Inner Belt Road Somerville, MA 02143 www.cpresente.orgPatricia Montes, Program and Organization Director
DESCRIPTION:In 1981 Sister Rose Marie Cummins, a Dominican
nun, noticed an increase at St. Mary’s Church in
Cambridge, of refugees from the Salvadoran and
Guatemalan civil wars. She also noticed that they
needed social and legal services. So with a few legal
and religious community members, she founded
Centro Presente, “dedicated to the self-determination
and self-sufficiency of the Latin American immigrant
community.” After 25 years, CP is Massachusetts’
oldest Latino-led immigrant rights organization. Its
members and constituents are dispersed throughout
Greater Boston, as far as Framingham, Everett, Revere
and beyond. Its Legal Immigration Services help over
2,500 Latino immigrants annually. Its adult education
program, “Education for Empowerment,” offers to
another 400 students basic literacy courses in Spanish,
English, and computers; as well as Civics and Citizenship.
CP has organized its 1,200 members into five
working groups in Community-Building, Education,
and Political Advocacy. By integrating basic services
with community organizing and leadership development,
Centro Presente shepherds the integration of
Latino immigrants into fully participatory American
citizenship, and strives to give its members voice and
build community power. The needs are greater now
than they were 25 years ago, and so is the value to the
Commonwealth of their success. Will you help? (2007: HUMAN SERVICES: Well-Being)
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