DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAMS AND SERVICES

The Council is organized by departments and programs. These include: Adult Education and Workforce Development, Youth Education, Head Start Programs, Housing, and Social Services.

Over the years the Council has offered a wide array of programs including medical and dental services (in cooperation with other agencies and colleges), summer camps, and opportunities to participate in recreational and cultural activities. It offered a consumer advocacy center; immigrant legal advocacy services; energy education programs; health education; and preventive drug and alcohol abuse education. For years it sponsored a community grassroots Latino newspaper (El Universal). From 1966 to 1980, it operated a credit union, staffed by bilingual personnel.

In spite of significant budgetary cuts over the past decade, the Council continues to provide a healthy mix of bilingual services and programs in the area of education, family support, social and human services, immigration, subsidized housing and related support services for the aging. Most important, the organization continues its advocacy on behalf of the people it serves.

Council staff and board members also take the lead organizing major annual events that support and celebrate Latino children and families. Since 1969, the Council holds its annual Thanksgiving Food Drive, which impacted over 3,200 families and their children 2007. In 2007 it began Clothing Drive that serves the same group of families, although the weather reduced the impact in 2007 to approximately 1,100. The Council also coordinates El día de los Niños (Children’s Day), an event celebrating children, attended by some 1, 800 individuals in 2007. Participating families enjoy educational activities, dance, music and other cultural presentations, and receive important information on educational, health and human services offered by the Council, other community-based organizations, and public institutions.

The September 2000 and 2004 issues of the National Hispanic Business Magazine included the Council among the top 25 Hispanic community-based, non-profit agencies in the United States, based on a nation-wide survey.