El Centro De Las Americas

El Centro, originally known as the Hispanic Community Center (HCC), was founded in 1982 and became a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1983.

El Centro’s mission
is empowering Latino families to achieve self-sufficiency and personal growth through the provision of bilingual educational, social, and health services.

For decades the HCC, and now El Centro, has provided Lincoln’s Latino community with a broad range of vital services designed to enhance each individual’s capacity to become an integrated and engaged member of local
society. Services were initially designed to help newly-arrived, low-income Latinos to become more aware of opportunities available to them in terms of education, advocacy, and support. Our program is basically comprised of three levels.

First, we connect our clients with basic needs (food, housing, employment assistance, etc.).

Second, we provide them with the educational tools
they need to become self-sufficient (ESL, GED, computer literacy, etc.)..

Finally, we connect our clients with additional supportive services to assist them in achieving inter- and intra-personal health (mental health services, physical health services, anger management, etc.) to help them build a firm foundation in the community.