RESILIENCE OF EL CENTRO DE ACCION SOCIAL – 41 YEARS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
El Centro de Accion Social (The Center for Social Action) was founded in 1968 in Pasadena.
It was founded with the intent to empower the low income Latino community of Pasadena, that was small, yet growing in 1968. Mexican American parents wanted to provide after school tutoring services to young Latino students and they began to offer tutoring in the back yards of the homes of individuals such as Emilio Cervera.
Mr. Cervera was a tough, committed, community activist who helped build El Centro – along with countless other individuals who dedicated their lives to improve the Pasadena community. They focused on education as a top issue.
The three original founders were Anthony Ruiz, Martin Delgado, and Steve Sierra. In 1967, they began to discuss the need for a community based organization that would serve the Latino community.
A few years later – they approached the City of Pasadena and expressed the great need for such an organization and the City provided a small building in Central Park to be used to offer translation services, referrals to various aid agencies, and any other type of help that the Latino community needed in the late 1960s.
The organization continued to expand their programs and assistance to the community, and in the 1970s “Summer School in the Park” was developed. This after school program offered summer classes, breakfast and lunch, and field trips for low -income students from the Pasadena Unified School District.
El Centro began to tackle issues that were controversial but ultimately El Centro’s actions have improved the lives of countless individuals.
The small yellow building, with Aztec and Mayan murals, seems small – yet it is a powerful community based organization that has stood the test of time and is now 41 years old.
In the 1990s it expanded its services to serve students with additional youth education programs and began serving low income senior citizens in 1999.
Now it has grown to provide youth education programs at John Muir High School, Washington Middle School, and Jefferson Elementary School. We continue to offer Summer School in the Park and we aid over 150 low income senior citizens at our satellite location, Villa Parke Community Center. Many community members are strong supporter of El Centro de Accion Social. El Centro will continue to be a strong advocate for the needs of the Latino and non Latino community of Pasadena/Altadena. Many, many other important individuals have also contributed in making El Centro a powerful community based organization.
El Centro continues to promote the history and culture of the Latino community through our Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), Three Kings Day, Cesar Chavez Commemoration Day, and our El Centro Scholarship Fund for our graduating high school seniors who are eligible and apply. The Pasadena Latino community is now more diverse and includes individuals from many countries in Latin America.
We continue to tackle issues that are of critical importance such as race relations, quality and equitable education, helping low income senior citizens with health care access and housing needs, and we recently have obtained significant grants to promote peace and non violence in our schools and community.
El Centro de Accion Social remains a vibrant and powerful community based organization that receives funding from the Federal Government, Foundations, Corporations, Individual donors, and we continue to have strong partnerships with the City of Pasadena, Pasadena Unified School District, Pasadena Police Department and the Pasadena Fire Department.
We continue to develop key partnerships and collaboration on issues. Let’s celebrate El Centro’s forty one years of existence, perseverance, and positive contributions that it has made to improve the Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley area. Let’s continue the positive legacy of El Centro de Accion Social.
Randy Jurado Ertll, executive director of El Centro de Accion Social. www.elcentropasadena.org