Carrboro Latino Center plans for rebirth

Before Carrboro’s main resource center for Latinos closed its doors in December, the Triangle community was already discussing ways to save it.

In a town hall meeting tonight, Carrboro officials, former El Centro Latino staff and leaders of a Durham-based Latino nonprofit will meet with community members to discuss exactly how El Centro will be reborn.

Focused on providing social services, El Centro Latino was lauded for its career advice and classes for immigrants. However, a series of eight directors in 10 years and a serious budget shortfall forced it to close its doors.

El Centro Hispano, a Durham-based Latino advocacy nonprofit that offers a wider array of services and opportunities for activism, is set to open a branch in Carrboro in conjunction with El Centro Latino and a new Latino Community Credit Union to maintain resources for Orange County’s Latino population.

“We’re doing this because leaders in the Latino community have asked us and are supporting us,” said Susan Denman, chairwoman of El Centro Hispano’s board of directors. “But we really need the whole community to want this, and we want to be responsive to the needs as much as possible.”

Ilana Dubester, the last interim director at El Centro Latino who came in once it was already losing money, said El Centro Hispano’s support isn’t exactly a bailout.

“I don’t imagine that El Centro Hispano has a gazillion extra resources to put into Orange County, so the process might be slow — one of building of support,” Dubester said.

The support might come in the form of several funding ideas that helped keep El Centro Hispano afloat while its neighbor lagged behind: an advocacy focus, varied programs to attract grants and an optional membership fee.

The tactics are necessary because of an array of problems that have plagued Latino nonprofit organizations across the country.

Dubester said it’s not easy to operate a Latino nonprofit in the Southeast.

Organizations must battle stigmas about undocumented immigrants, support a bilingual staff and fund a building that’s within reach of the Latino community.

“The issue of the ‘illegal alien’ led to a decline in support,” Dubester said.

And with a local focus, the nonprofit draws on a smaller pool of resources.

Durham and Orange counties are some of the more receptive N.C. counties to Latino advocacy, Dubester said. That support comes in the form of public opinion as well as financial contributions.

The center in Durham, where there are about 32,000 Latinos, had an end-of-year fund balance of nearly $1.5 million in 2008, while El Centro Latino’s balance hovered around $100,000, according to tax records. The Carrboro center served a population about one-fourth the size of the Durham center.

While El Centro Hispano received slightly more county funding than El Centro Latino — $35,000 compared to $21,000 — the Carrboro nonprofit was more dependent on the funds.

“Durham County is larger. They have a larger budget. But when a budget breaks down, they have more to fund,” said Torin Martinez, chairman of El Centro Latino’s board.

It’s easier for El Centro Hispano to get funding for specific programs than for the entire organization, said director Pilar Rocha-Goldberg. El Centro Latino had fewer programs.

The Durham nonprofit also has membership fees, a practice Rocha-Goldberg is considering bringing to Carrboro.

“We support each other,” she said of the relationship between Durham and the nonprofit.

Denman said the community is more likely to fund El Centro Hispano because it focuses on advocacy, while El Centro Latino focused more on social services.

“We really benefit from being out there in the community … to identify issues and problems that we can then bring back to resolve,” Denman said.

Martinez said that if Carrboro expresses a desire for more advocacy at tonight’s meeting, then it will become a focus of the new branch.

El Centro Hispano’s influence could extend to a new name, which will be discussed tonight.

While El Centro Latino has had less direct public support financially, Martinez said public opinion has nothing to do with why El Centro Latino had to close.

“Our organization very much had a trusting relationship with the community,” he said. “That’s evidenced in the outcry when we shut down, in the people who wanted it back and wanted it alive again.”



Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.