2007 Family Strengthening Awards Winners

2006 Family Strengthening Award Photo Strip

2007 Award Winner El Programa Hispano
Catholic Charities of Oregon
Archdiocese of Portland, OR

Offering holistic, wraparound services that aid families in multiple areas—including social, spiritual, psychological, and economic—El Programa Hispano has provided services to low-income Latino immigrant families in the greater Portland area since 1982. Its mission is threefold: to increase self-sufficiency within the Latino community, to empower individuals to achieve a better quality of life, and to promote mutual understanding and respect among cultures.

One of the most common reasons that Latino families seek services from El Programa Hispano is because they are experiencing a poverty-related crisis. Whether working to address a short-term crisis or providing longer-term services – such as evening community education classes and workshops on topics like English as a Second Language (ESL), parenting skills, basic computer skills, how to apply for a job in the United States, or how to become a U.S. citizen – El Programa Hispano works to meet emerging challenges for the Latino community in Oregon.

"Among Latino immigrants – in which extended family living arrangements and mutual interdependence are common cultural norms – El Programa Hispano’s service model recognizes that improving the economic opportunities of one or two family members is often an effective strategy to improve the economic conditions of the entire family," said Gloria Wiggins, Latino services division manager for Catholic Charities of Oregon.

Many of the families El Programa Hispano serves are very low income, with over 90 percent of their clients reporting an income less than 30 percent of area median family income. The agency currently offers a wide range of services to help families become more self-sufficient. These services include information and referrals, short-term intervention and long-term case management, emergency access to food, utility or rent assistance, assistance to survivors of domestic violence, mental health counseling, gang prevention, youth services, health promotion, and community adult education.

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Making Money Count

With many of the agency’s families coming from poor, rural areas of Latin America where banks are uncommon and the economy is run on a cash-and-barter basis, El Programa Hispano conducts six times a year Your Money Counts—a Spanish-language financial literacy curriculum from North America-HSBC bank

The intensive day-long workshops provide families knowledge about modern financial institutions in the United States so that they can better manage their money and avoid common pitfalls in immigrant communities such as high-interest payday loans, check cashing and money order fees, and identity theft. All clients that receive economic assistance from the agency must participate in the financial literacy training and incorporate money management and budgeting into their service plan with a case manager.

In addition to the one-day workshops, once a year the El Programa Hispano offers a six-week course in the evenings to help participants develop an extensive family budget. The course also goes in-depth into many financial education topics, including savings, banking, family budgeting, asset development, and identity theft.