Su Casa

The highlight of the day. Winding through the construction laden streets and finally finding a place to park, I looked up at the building. This was a school building. The Healing Center is a great environment. A great resource for people in the community. This was my type of place. Three stories of brick and wooden doors. Small hallways, rooms and the sound of children laughing and having a great time are noticed as soon as you enter.
The tour of Su Casa was quick and to the point. We were informed that Su Casa is a community resource center that offers educational, health and social work for the local Latino/ Latina community. It is open an amazing seven days per week! Caseworkers are available to help with domestic violence issues and questions surrounding the Dream Act. We also learned that they offer translation services; ESL and GED classes. The director also explained that there were referral services and employment assistance available as well.
Then there was the Vacaciones Utiles program. This service is offered to students in pre- K through second grade and is designed to help them stay caught up over the summer months. They are given a free breakfast, lunch and food to take home over the weekend. Working with these students was awesome. I have not worked with second graders since my student teaching and they were just as busy and inquisitive as ever. We ended up reading 3 different stories in the short time I was there. The students were amazing as they demonstrated how they could read in both Spanish and English with no problems. They were extremely forthcoming and two quickly offered up the fact that they would not be back after the end of the week, due to changing camps and going to Florida to live in "the biggest house!" We spoke about fruits, vegetables, gardens and what we could and could not grow. They also pulled me to see the sunflowers they had just planted as well.Working with these students was the highlight of the day for me. I am just curious as to whether they are looking to expand the services and help older elementary students as well during the summer months.