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La
Casa de la Amistad
Also located at our Washington Street
facility,
is La Casa de la Amistad. Funded by the
Berks County Office of Aging,
it is a linguistically and culturally
appropriate Latino Senior Center
program for individuals over 58 years old
It operates from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. It provides social,
cultural, recreational, and educational activities,
which include weekly English classes. Seniors
are also provided with meals that are culturally
appropriate and consistent with their lifelong diet.
A social services component tends to
socioeconomic needs. These include
case management, transportation,
translation/interpretation, and filling out
forms for Social Security, welfare, SSI, PACE,
rent rebate, and housing. Recreational activities
at the Center include dominoes, bingo, music, exercise,
arts and crafts, traveling to other centers, field trips, and meeting
with
other community organizations.
Representatives
from other organizations make presentations
on issues relevant to the health, welfare and
special interests of the seniors. The center
celebrates anniversaries, birthdays, Easter,
Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's Day.
La Casa de la Amistad was established
March 22, 1988, in response to a group
of concerned citizens who approached
the Center expressing a need for this
service. Many Latino senior citizens felt
physically and emotionally isolated
with little contact outside their homes.
While they were welcome at existing senior
centers, these facilities lacked the bilingual personnel
and cultural competency to understand
and serve the needs of Latino seniors.
The program at La Casa de la Amistad is
one of the most successful and important components
of the group of services provided by
the Hispanic Center. It has
met and
exceeded all original program expectations
and in recent years has grown to be one
of the most successful and widely used
senior centers in Berks County. It currently
serves a daily clientele of 65-70 persons.
For more information contact us at:
Hispanic
Center of Reading and Berks
501
Washington Street
Reading,
Pa 19601
610-376-3748
www.centrohispano.org
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