El Centro Hispano finds new home in Carrboro

Day laborers in Carrboro might have a place of their own by the end of the year.

El Centro Hispano, which offers services for Hispanic people in Durham, Carrboro and Chapel Hill, is in talks to move into a new location in December.

The potential location is at 201 W. Weaver St., the current home of Carrboro’s PTA Thrift Shop.

In an email to Carrboro town staff, Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, the president and CEO of El Centro Hispano, said while the Weaver Street site is small, it has five offices.

The space will also serve as a day laborers’ workers’ center, a place where day laborers can wait to be picked up for work.

The organization has met with the day laborers to start planning the structure for the workers’ center, Rocha-Goldberg said in the email.

El Centro plans to continue to offer its current programs, including ESL classes, leadership training and legal clinic services, at the new location.

“They wanted to be able to have a location that would allow for multiple uses and this space does that,” said Carrboro Alderman Randee Haven-O’Donnell.

Natalia Lenis, community special and organizer for El Centro, said local organizations Justice United and the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Human Rights Center will also be involved in the workers’ center.

She said it will offer more than just a safe place for day laborers to be picked up.

“They’re going to have a space where it will be more organized for them to find work,” Lenis said. “They also benefit from services we already have that we offer to the Latino community.”

El Centro’s lease at its current Carrboro Plaza location expires Thursday. The organization has operated at the same place since it opened in Carrboro in 2010, but wanted to find a cheaper location where it could open a workers’ center.

“I am hoping that more people will know where we are,” she said. “It’s more in the downtown area.”

Until it moves into the Weaver Street space, El Centro will run out of a business incubator, the Midway Business Center at 109 N. Graham St., in Chapel Hill.

Lenis said all programs will run normally at the temporary location.

She said there are other ideas being considered for the center, but they haven’t been finalized.

“Most of the planning is still in progress,” she said.

And she said though many programs are aimed at Latinos, everyone in the community can take advantage of its services.

“Anyone can benefit,” she said. “We’re not going to discriminate if you’re Latino or not.”

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