Centre for Spanish Speaking People (AKA The School of People’s Journalism -BASICS Community Program)

The Centre for Spanish-Speaking Peoples is a non-profit, charitable organization serving new immigrants from 22 Spanish-speaking countries as well as members of other communities.

 2141 Jane Street, 2nd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M3M 1A2

 (416) 533-8545

• Local

• Youth

The Centre has a long and complex history. It was founded in 1973 under the leadership of director Gloria Montero, sociologist Ana Alberro, and immigration counselor Rempel Kathi. They and others were the first members of a corporation called “The Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples,” whose main objective was to provide services for immigrants and workers from Spanish-speaking countries and support community activities.

Yet even before this, a group of Spanish women organized the celebration of Christmas in 1972 with women and Spanish-speaking children. That demonstrated the need for an organization to serve the growing Hispanic community in Toronto. Since 1974, the Center has received funding from Immigrant Settlement and Adaption Program (ISAP) of the Canada Employment Insurance Commission (CEIC). At that time, the Centre was located on Dupont Street near Davenport, which included a counseling program. New immigrants from Ecuador and Colombia increased the need for services.

The arrival of refugees from Chile, Uruguay and Argentina during the mid-1970s grew the community even more, and the Centre became the home of additional community development initiatives. The Centre also established a volunteer, legal consultation program with law students from the University of Toronto, not just for the purpose of establishing legal advice for Spanish-speaking workers, but also to establish a relationship between future lawyers of the province and the Hispanic community. This initiative has proved highly beneficial during the history of the Center. In 1978, our Legal Clinic received funding from the Ontario Legal Aid Plan (OLAP), establishing an important precedent for the funding of ethno-specific agencies.

In 1979, the Centre started English as a Second Language (ESL) programs and in 1981, founded the Women’s Program.

Today, the Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples has added youth, volunteer and AIDS prevention programs. It is happy to serve tens of thousands of Spanish speaking peoples in Toronto and throughout Canada each and every year.

magazine

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Our youth program continues to grow.

Every year we organize a very successful summer camp for youth and kids, offering daily recreational and cultural activities for six weeks of the summer.

We offer a project for young Latin@s Against Homophobia with a series of activities designed to give young people the tools and skills to challenge homophobia in schools and other youth spaces.

Our Inter-Community League Soccer, a soccer league run by youth, runs sessions during winter and summer with hundreds of youth. In addition, the program provides training and employment opportunities for young people to officiate in our league and other leagues.

We also have an amazing group of young people who have embarked on a project to create a magazine run by youth for youth Latin @, called ‘Avenida’.

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