St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) Launches Centro Rendu in South King County

SEATTLE - Oct. 11, 2013 - PRLog -- St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) Launches Centro Rendu in South King County

SEATTLE---St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle|King County is launching Centro Rendu, a new service designed to help Hispanic adults and their children break the cycle of poverty through education, computer literacy, counseling and navigation of the labyrinth of services from other social service agencies.

The core component says SVdP is an “educational resource center for the Latino community” in South King County. This service, which is just getting underway, will celebrate its official grand opening on Monday, October 14 with a special set of activities between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

“Our Centro Rendu program is an integral part of our strategy for a new service model for delivering services in King County. Our plan is to build upon the trusting relationships we establish in our home visits, and extend that help into more integrated case management services offered in our five neighborhood-based store front locations. We call them Community Social Service Centers,” said Ned Delmore, Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul.

“We have started with education because we know it is the key way to help the Hispanic community overcome barriers associated with poverty,” noted Ms. Mirya Muñoz Roach. She says “since we opened our doors in mid-July of 2013 we have served close to 250 people with Spanish Literacy, Primary and Secondary Education, GED preparation, Conversational English, Computer Literacy, Case Management, immigration counseling (twice a month), and a detail assessment process for relevant referrals to other service agencies.”

Centro Rendu has also referred needy individuals to other social service agencies that help Hispanic neighbors find housing, job connections, support for domestic violence victims and more.

Ms. Muñoz-Roach says “we are pleased with our work to date, but much more work needs to be done. The need is huge and this set of services gets to the core of supporting individuals in their journey to self-independence and their ability to develop the skills needed for positive community engagement.”

“The needs are widespread for education support, especially for adults and school parents. The community leaders I have engaged with and agencies we are communicating with believe education is the key for people to get out of poverty, and the research supports it,” says Muñoz Roach.

Centro Rendu is engaged in outreach and partnership building in South King County. The organization participates in the South King County Human Services Committee and recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kent School District. Centro Rendu is also in conversations with Green River Community College, Highline Community College and Seattle University regarding internship student programs.

Centro Rendu has created a Hispanic Advisory Team (HAT) to help the program explore ways to respond to the needs, barriers and hopes of Hispanic individuals and families. This includes representatives from a wide range of community service organizations. The group meets once a month to share resources and to support partnerships for more effective means of serving Latinos in King County.

About St. Vincent de Paul

SVdP started in Seattle in 1920. The agency now has over 1,100 volunteers at over 50 neighborhood conferences. They made close to 12,000 home visits last year, serving thousands of people with emergency survival assistance. Last year all SVdP programs served over 200,000 people in King County. Over 90 cents of every dollar donated to St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle|King County goes to our programs to help people.

SVdP also has five thrift stores and recycles close to 2,000,000 pounds per year. The SVdP Help Line Call Center receives over 44,000 calls for help annually, including over 25,000 referrals from the King County Crisis 2-1-1 line, more than any of the 1,700 social service agencies in King County.


Contact:
Jim McFarland P: 206.909.0839 | E: jimm@svdpseattle.org
Mirya Muñoz Roach P: 253-499-4245 | E: miryar@svdpseattle.org

To find out more go to: www.svdpseattle.org or call Centro Rendu at 253.499.4245.