LATINO COMMUNITY CENTER HISTORY
The Latino Community Center was founded in 1999 and has grown quickly from one small after-school program to a full array of programs serving community members of all ages. Since its inception, funding has increased greatly, from $200,000 in 2002 to $2.2 million in 2008. Attendance has also increased greatly, from 1,250 in 2002 to over 2,637 in 2008. The center has 54 full-time employees, 44 part-time employees (mostly young people hired from the surrounding community) and 13 volunteers. The Center was featured in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article as one of the “Ten Reasons for Hope” for the city of Milwaukee .
Latino Community Center offers programming in the following areas: after school academic enrichment, gang and violence diversion, recreation, youth development, prevention programming, street outreach, summer programming, and healthy girls,. Programs run not only at the Center, but also at six public schools as well as in the streets. Programming is based on best practices in the field of positive youth development to ensure effectiveness. Structured and unstructured, bilingual and bicultural opportunities reach a wide variety of at-risk youth in the area, including gang members, young girls, out-of-school youth and teenaged males. The strength of LCC lies in a strong grassroots community approach. The majority of the staff and volunteers were raised and continue to live in the neighborhood that it serves. The agency is made up of highly competent bicultural/bilingual staff, which is highly committed to the organization and the community.
Youth seek out the Center as a safe place where they can be with positive adult role models and stay away from dangerous situations. Surveys show participants are less likely to get involved in risky behaviors such as violence, substance use, and premarital sex, and more likely to stay connected to their families, their schools and their communities.
