Press Coverage
'It feels amazing': Pirates' younger Latin players relish chance to help, grow on Roberto Clemente Day
As six Pirates players stood together in the middle of the Latino Community Center in Friendship on Friday morning, Endy Rodriguez turned to Liover Peguero and teased his fellow rookie by flipping the hat off his head.
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Community Advocate Born of Resistance
When a member of the COVID-19 outreach team for the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Latino Community Center contacted a single mother of four about the COVID-19 vaccine, the mother was extremely resistant.
Making an impact by giving back
The Steelers commitment to giving back continued through the most recent donations by players, along with a matching commitment from the organization, to the Steelers Social Justice Fund to help support community efforts.
The most recent donations to the Steelers Social Justice Fund are going to the Best of the Batch Foundation and the Latino Community Center.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Rosamaria Cristello knows the importance of providing Latino families in the Pittsburgh region the equal and equitable resources they need to thrive.
That’s why in 2017 Ms. Cristello founded the Latino Community Center.
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CBS Pittsburgh
KD Sunday Spotlight: East Liberty Latino Community Center empowers and celebrates
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - in this week's KD Sunday Spotlight, we're recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month and honoring the culture and contributions made by Latinx people nationwide and right here in Pittsburgh.
Next Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s Latino Community Center settles into its new home in East Liberty
This month the center is settling into its new home, which totals just under 10,000 square feet. At its prior location Downtown, the nonprofit leased 1,500 square feet from Catholic Charities and had enough room for only five employees to work on site.
“The whole vision is for the space to be vibrant, uplifting, joyful and welcoming,” says the artist from Aspinwall
AP News
Foundations aim to persuade Americans to get vaccinated
For months, Maria Cristina was hesitant about getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Her fears came from social media, where she heard ample amounts of misinformation about what was in the vaccine and what it could do to her.
The 35-year-old Guatemalan immigrant was confused until the day she called the local Latino Community Center in Pittsburgh to ask how she could better protect herself and her four kids, one of whom has cancer.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Campaign aims to overcome vaccine hesitancy in Pittsburgh's Latino community
With many in its target population wary about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, the Latino Community Center is ramping up efforts to raise awareness about the benefits of receiving the shot as a major step toward ending the global pandemic.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
With help from the Latino Community Center, this family has managed to keep going
Lucy Aviles leaves her home to shop for groceries but those are the only times she’s ventured out since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived last year bringing job loss and disruption to her family.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PPG commits $20 million to diversity and inclusion efforts over next 5 years
PPG is committing $20 million over five years to diversity initiatives that the paints- and coatings-maker says will address systemic racism and boost STEM and other education opportunities for minorities.
Trib Live
Arconic donates more than $80K to local nonprofits for sustainability and social equity
Pittsburgh-area nonprofits were among organizations worldwide benefiting from $360,000 in grants from the Arconic Foundation promoting environmental sustainability and social equity.
Presente Magazine
Navidad in Pittsburgh needs your support!
There are less than 60 days remaining until Christmas, and the Latino Community Center’s Navidad in Pittsburgh Holiday Gift Drive is officially underway!
Pittsburgh Current
English As Second Language Students In Pittsburgh Public Schools ‘Left Out Of The Equation’ For Online Learning
In a Beechview living room-turned-classroom, a Spanish-speaking first grader sits at his district-issued computer from 8 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. each day and tries to make his way through the online lessons provided by the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
In normal times, he would attend Beechwood PreK-5. But the first nine weeks of school in Pittsburgh has been fully online. The district is expected to move to a hybrid model — that will offer students two days of in-classroom learning each week — on Nov. 9.
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Food Podcast: Greater Pittsburgh food bank partnering with Latino Community Center
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank will partner with the Latino Community Center the week of Oct. 12 to raise awareness for the organization’s mission to empower, advocate with and celebrate Latinos in Allegheny County.
Presente Magazine
Latino Community Center Hosting Back-to-school Bash Celebration
Each year, the Latino Community Center hosts an annual Back-to-School Bash for Latino children in Pittsburgh. In past years this event has served over 200 students featuring a day of fun, family-oriented activities designed to get our children and youth excited to start the upcoming school year. Backpacks filled with new school supplies are handed out to children during the day. Additionally, LCC’s partner organizations come together to table at the event and talk to families about their services, ensuring they have everything they need to support their children during the school year.
Pittsburgh Business Times
Pittsburgh Pirates to promote six small businesses throughout season as part of its 'Family Forever' campaign
The Pirates said it relied on the North Side Chamber of Commerce and the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western PA to select the six small businesses and six nonprofit organizations to be featured during the season.
Next Pittsburgh
New hotline will provide much-needed support to Pittsburgh families in the age of COVID-19
The Pittsburgh Learning Collaborative is throwing a lifeline to parents wading through a sea of information about academics in the age of COVID-19.
To address questions and provide support, a family hotline will launch on July 27 and operate 24/7 through September 30. The service is a group effort between A+ Schools, Alliance for Refugee Youth Support and Education (ARYSE), Circles of Greater Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Center for Urban Education (CUE), Latino Community Center, Lawrenceville United and Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania.
Governor Tom Wolf
Wolf Administration Awards $9.6 million in Grants to Help the Charitable Food System
The Wolf Administration will be awarding more than $9 million to non-profit entities for projects to fight hunger and prevent food waste. The awards come from the expanded Food Recovery Infrastructure grant program announced in April.
Grants will allow food banks, shelters and soup kitchens to cover the costs of equipment purchases necessary to prepare, transport and store food acquired from retailers, wholesalers, farms, processors and cooperatives. Examples of eligible equipment that will be funded include refrigerated or non-refrigerated box trucks, industrial-sized refrigerators, pallet jacks and/or dollies. Installation and shipping costs were also eligible for support.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Latinos coping with COVID-19 challenges get food, rent and other supports from community center
Darwin Molina left his native Honduras two years ago to escape people close to him who he feared were entrenched in a dangerous drug culture.
Now the 40-year-old has a new set of worries: how to pay his rent and support his son as he waits to return to the construction job he lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Heinz Endowments approves $7 million to address racial inequity, criminal justice reform
The Heinz Endowments has approved nearly $7 million in grants focused on equity issues including criminal justice reform and a range of initiatives that support blacks and other minorities.
KDKA Radio - Lynne Hayes Freeland Show
Rosamaria Cristello, the Executive Director of the Latino Community Center (LCC), joins Lynne to talk about the issue of how US citizens who are married to immigrants are blocked from receiving stimulus checks, and how the coronavirus has affected the local Latino community.
Public Source
For Pittsburgh’s immigrants, COVID-19 amplifies language barriers, food scarcity and limited work
As Pittsburgh-area residents filled grocery carts in preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic, language barriers and a lack of information left many local immigrants unable to stock up before shelves emptied.
Pittsburgh Current
The Work Of Pittsburgh’s Latino Community Center Is Different But Even More Vital During COVID-19 Pandemic
Before the COVID-19 pandemic required residents to sequester themselves at home, like many organizations the Latino Community Center’s work looked very different.
Founder Rosamaria Cristello recalls less turbulent times when the three-year-old non-profit spent its days helping immigrant families navigate matters ranging from the school system to helping children embrace their culture through afterschool programs.
KDKA CBSN Pittsburgh
Coronavirus In Pittsburgh: Local Organizations Partnering Together To Provide 9,000 Meals To Families In Need
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — After a successful trial run, local caterers, nonprofits and officials are teaming up to provide 9,000 meals to students in need in three days.
Organizers will be going to bus stops in Pittsburgh’s Hilltop/South, Hill District/East, and West Pittsburgh neighborhoods to reach students there.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The bus stops here to bring lunches to underserved children in pilot program driven by nonprofits
Not everyone can safely or easily access the reduced and free lunch program meals for Pittsburgh Public Schools children. That’s where three nonprofits stepped in Friday morning.
412 Food Rescue, A+Schools and the Latino Community Center tried out a pilot “Bus Stop Problem” initiative at lunchtime. Realizing that some students could not travel to their schools for meals, the three groups brought food to six school bus stops throughout the city.
Sparkt
Hundreds of Free Lunches Delivered to Kids Along School Bus Route
Schools across the country are closed because of the coronavirus, putting extra strain on family budgets where children normally receive breakfast and lunch at school.
Pittsburgh Public Schools are among them. For the first time since the schools shut down, a school bus made its way down the typical bus route. Young students and their guardians waited at their usual bus stops, but they weren't waiting for a ride to school - this bus was bringing them relief in the form of school lunches that the students had been lacking.
Pittsburgh City Paper
Michael Keaton helps Pittsburgh nonprofits make sure local children are fed
Three local nonprofits are making sure local students are getting fed through a special food distribution program supported in part by Pittsburgh-born actor Michael Keaton.
412 Food Rescue, A+ Schools, and the Latino Community Center launched a pilot program that would deliver meals to students at their former bus stops. Beginning today, recipients will receive robocalls alerting them when the meals will be distributed at stops near their homes. Latino Community Center volunteers will be present at the bus stops to oversee the process (with social distancing rules observed).
Next Pittsburgh
With help from Michael Keaton, Pittsburgh nonprofits distribute meals to kids at bus stops
During these uncertain times, Pittsburgh needs a hero. Today, Batman and a team of do-gooders heeded the call.
Actor Michael Keaton, a native of Robinson Township who played the caped crusader on the big screen in 1989, provided financial support for a bus stop meal distribution. The project is a collaboration between local nonprofits 412 Food Rescue, A+ Schools and the Latino Community Center.
Public Source - First Person
I, too, was a child separated from my mother by the broken U.S. immigration system.
Fear is what I feel as I’m typing up this piece of my personal story amid the most recent outrage over the Trump administration’s stance on separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border. But that is exactly what the government wants me to feel.
We — the children of parents who at one point made the difficult decision to leave our home countries due to crime, poverty and abuse — are humans and we have a voice.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
fROM THE BORDER TO PITTSBURGH: THE JOURNEYS OF TWO UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN
Surrounded by loved ones in June, Bartolo Garcia, 21, and Andrea Mendez Peraza, 19, moved their tassels to the left side of their mortarboards to become high school graduates in Pittsburgh in a ceremonial rite of passage.
But a few years ago, life brought them to a different vital crossroads — the U.S.-Mexico border — all by themselves.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
New scholarship meant to help women develop key leadership skills
Rosamaria Cristello was handling a crisis at the Latino Family Center in Hazelwood when the phone rang one day last August.
Because she was expecting a call from a detective involved in the case she was working on, Ms. Cristello, site director of the center, didn’t hesitate to answer.