La Casa Community Center

For the past 61 years, La Casa has served as a family resource center for its multi-cultural community in the West San Gabriel Valley. Located in the City of San Gabriel (a suburb of Los Angeles and the city with a MISSION). La Casa serves approximately 6000 clients per year, ranging from infants to the elderly. The Center works primarily to help its disadvantaged Hispanic and Native American neighbors in their efforts to overcome the barriers of limited education, underemployment, poverty, language, inadequate housing and lack of medical care.

The Center was founded by the regional Presbyterian Church, which retains ownership but does not charge rent. The Church headquarters also provides a monthly allocation that covers the cost of utilities. La Casa is a (501) C3 organization.

The purpose of La Casa is to encourage and support individuals and families in neEducation By providing direct human services, advocacy and referrals, La Casa seeks to enhance the educational and economic well-being of the people it serves.

Programs and services offered at La Casa include:

• A multi-cultural Preschool serving fifty-two children
  *High school-based violence reduction counseling for abused teen girls and teen boys
  *Parenting classes in Spanish
  *Food and clothing distribution
  *FolklorICO dance instruction for all ages
  *Health screenings
  *Social Services
  *Resource and Referral in all areas
  *Guitar Classes

To expand delivery of needed services, La Casa has formed partnerships with other community agencies. These include: Los Angeles County Department of Education, Los Angeles County Department of Health, American Red Cross, East Los Angeles Womens Center, Kaiser Permanente, MAHEC, Santa Anita Family Services, San Gabriel Coordinating Council, San Gabriel Valley Medical Center, Alhambra Hospital, Hispanic Bilingual Ministries, San Gabriel Unified School District, San Gabriel Rotary Club and Vecinos de Marengo.

Volunteers are vitally involved in all aspects of La Casa’s programs. The nursery school aides are all volunteers. All English as a Second Language and Spanish Literacy tutoring is done by bilingual seniors who have been trained to work with adults who are of limited educational background. Local contractors and construction workers have renovated an unused gymnasium into a multi-purpose room which greatly enhances service delivery.

La Casa also houses Spanish Language Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon. La Casa is headquarters for the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribal Council and houses its service center. In this way La Casa has centralized many vital services at one location.

Licenses & Accreditations:

California Department of Social Services: Community Care Licensing Division