Since late March, the beginning of the COVID-19 health crisis, El Centro Hispano has been working tirelessly to support our community. 

Shortly after the state locked down, we created the El Centro Hispano COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to assist our community members affected by COVID-19 to meet their needs. Thanks to the great support of our donors and allies we have raised $116,104 through our fund, and have worked with another $166,036 in partnership with local governments and funders. Those funds have all been distributed to the community; $155,650 in rent/utilities assistance and $126,490 in food and COVID-19 related supplies.  

Knowing the need was larger than what our fund could support, we created new partnerships to enable us to give out 21,434 boxes of food to our community. We have also administered 79 free COVID-19 tests, distributed 714 packages of diapers, assisted 1,091 people through our mobile unit, and distributed 42,867 masks.

We at El Centro Hispano are proud to be a resource our community relies on.  As of last month our staff has received calls and assisted 4,745 people in our offices in Durham, Carrboro/Chapel Hill and Raleigh, as well 9,905 through our Ventanilla de Salud out of the Mexican Consulate. 

To increase our reach and response we hired 40 new community health promotores who work to provide information, distribute masks and assist our community everyday. We have also partnered with Duke University Health System (DUHS) to participate in the COVID-19 Support Services Program. This program will assist community members in Durham, Granville, and Vance Counties who have been affected by COVID-19 to observe quarantine by delivering food and supplies such as face masks, hand sanitizer, and thermometers.  

We continue collaborating with Orange County’s Emergency Housing Assistance program to aid the Spanish-speaking community in gathering documents and filling out the required application material to receive rent and utility assistance. Our staff has helped 278 families receive this aid so far and we are constantly working on new cases. 

As the largest Latinx lead and Latinx serving non-profit organization in North Carolina, El Centro Hispano is committed to providing services needed by our community.  We continue to serve the community with support groups for LGBTQ Latinx people, legal clinics, education courses, economic development, election and census information, resource navigation and more on top of our COVID-19 related efforts. 

While COVID-19 continues to be a great threat to our community, we will continue to do all in our power to be a resource to our community.  To all who have been our partner in the fight against this pandemic, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We ask you to continue to support our work in this battle by visiting our website, following us on social media and, if you can, consider making a donation so we can continue to provide this much needed help. 

“We can overcome this pandemic\and help our community, but it will take all of us working towards that goal. Please wear a mask, stay socially distant and wash your hands frequently.  Together we can and will beat this virus, but above all protect our community.” — Pilar Rocha-Goldberg President and CEO.