Northpinellas: YWCA, police team up to reach Hispanics

CLEARWATER -- It's called the Hispanic Outreach Center. Located in a one-story, peach-colored building at 612 Franklin St., the small center is overshadowed by the police and fire department buildings that surround it.

Though it looks like a typical office building from outside, the center's creation, its organizers and its programs are anything but the norm.

The center, scheduled to open Nov.1, is the brainchild of the leaders of the YWCA of Tampa Bay. They wanted a place where members of Clearwater's Hispanic community, both legal U.S. citizens and undocumented residents, could go for child care, English classes and answers to immigration and citizenship questions from officials of the Mexican government.

This idea made sense but wasn't particularly ground-breaking. Cities across the nation are establishing similar community centers as a way to reach out to a growing Hispanic population. Hispanics make up 9 percent of Clearwater's population, and the number is on the rise.

What is so unusual about the YWCA's project is its partner: the Clearwater Police Department.

"Chief (Sid) Klein called one day and told us about the open building," said Peggy Sanchez Mills, CEO of the YWCA of Tampa Bay. "We had no doubt at all they were the partner we wanted to be engaged with."

Deputy Chief Dewey Williams said the department had taken an interest in the center because it was trying to find ways to prevent crimes before they start.

"The center will be like a big classroom," he said. "We want to hire more bilingual officers and to educate more of our officers about the Hispanic culture, as well as reach the children."

Chief Klein agreed.

"Policemen are not social workers," he said. "But we're finding that the police role is changing. We're now the people plugged into what's happening. We're becoming a catalyst for social change."

So the groups started meeting. They hashed out their hopes for the center. The groups agreed to focus on a program that would provide interpretation services, immigration information, victim advocacy programs and affordable, bilingual child care. A high priority was placed on affordable child care, and the groups decided to open the center to children of city employees of any race as well as Hispanic clients because they wanted to encourage all local children to become bilingual at an early age.

Pinellas County Commissioner Calvin Harris said he was encouraged to hear of the child care center. Harris, a member of the executive board of UNO, a nonprofit group of Pinellas County residents that advocates the inclusion of Hispanics into mainstream culture, said the center bodes well for future county racial relations.

"These kids in the center are going to be our future leaders," he said. "They're going to have to understand each other's cultures and languages. Sometimes we don't do a good job of teaching what other ethnic groups have provided to the history of mankind.

"I think it's great that we've started something like this in Pinellas County," he said.

The groups received funding from the city of Clearwater and the Allegany Franciscan Foundation, a Catholic foundation that provides funding to promote cultural well-being in communities. The foundation pledged to provide financial support to the outreach center for at least the first three years of operation.

The YWCA and police department also sought input from other community and city organizations.

UNO Chairman Edward Quinones said he was confident that Hispanics would respond well to the center.

"We see the center in very positive terms," he said. "Any move by any institution to better relations between the Hispanic culture and everyone else is a very positive development in our community. We basically started with nothing."

Citing a recent Pinellas County Fair Housing study that showed degrees of differential treatment against Hispanics in the area, Quinones emphasized the need to fight racism and inequality in the county.

"Discrimination is alive and well in this county," he said.

Quinones also cautioned that many Hispanics who don't have proper residency documentation may be hesitant to come to a facility sponsored largely by a law enforcement agency. Trouble is, these are the very people the YWCA and police department think often need the most protection.

"It's a very thorny situation," Quinones said. "Obviously, if they're here illegally, they're going to be hesitant to go. Unfortunately, this particular group needs specific attention and care."

He said time was the only solution to making illegal immigrants comfortable enough totake their children to the center for care or to attend English as a Second Language classes.

"It's going to be a mixed thing, and it's probably going to take a little time and some special handling and consideration," he said.

But Lynn Peggs Nunez, coordinator of Hispanic services for the YWCA, said many of her clients had expressed interest in the center, particularly the child care center.

"We're letting the parents know they can learn English, and someone will be right on site to watch their children," she said. "The child care classes will also allow many unemployed single mothers to go out and get a job. There will be someone to stay with their children now."

Linda Santos, 25, owner of the Mexico Lindo Market, 812 Court St., said she thought the center would lift a huge burden from working mothers.

"It's a good idea to have a bilingual center," said Santos, who has a 3-year-old daughter also named Linda. "Children now need to grow up knowing both Spanish and English. It will make the future easier."

-- Abbie VanSickle can be reached at (727) 445-4224 or at vansickle@sptimes.com.

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