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OCCHA marks 43 years of service to community
BOARDMAN
The Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana culminated its National Hispanic Heritage Month activities by celebrating 43 years of service in the Mahoning Valley with its annual fundraiser and scholarship gala.
Fittingly, with its focus on youth education, OCCHA awarded $26,500 in scholarships to area students at the gala Friday at Antone’s Banquet Center on Market Street.
National Hispanic Heritage Month is Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
OCCHA opened its doors in 1972 in a former doctor’s office at the corner of Fruit Street and Himrod Avenue on Youngstown’s East Side, to provide services to the growing Hispanic community in the Mahoning Valley.
In 2001, the social-services organization moved to 3660 Shirley Road, which formerly housed Poulakos Bakery, to get more room for its programs, said Elba Navarro, who with her husband, Shorty, donated the building to OCCHA.
“Shorty wanted a more central location and more room for the programs and a larger space for seniors to gather,” Mrs. Navarro said.
The organization is financially sound, said Mrs. Navarro, its financial officer, and is focusing its efforts on education.
“Our theme is ‘changing lives through education,’” she said.
The organization’s overall mission is to “improve the quality of life for Hispanics and others in this multicultural community by providing social, economic, cultural and educational programs.”
Programs, all of which are offered in a bilingual English/Spanish format, include social services/family support, including emergency food and clothing assistance; work experience training and job referrals and resume assistance; teaching English as a second language and computer and Internet technology; after-school tutoring and homework assistance and summer day camp; health screenings; and workshops and social activities for seniors.
“We are enhancing programs and creating new ones,” said Mary Lou Reyes, OCCHA executive director.
Reyes, who retired after 30 years as an executive with the Girl Scouts’ Lake to River Council, became executive director of OCCHA effective Jan. 1 this year.
A Youngstown native, Reyes, a graduate of The Rayen School and Case Western Reserve University, said she is a product of OCCHA.
She explained that as a 16-year-old she worked at OCCHA in the summer going door to door documenting census statistics.
With the continuing influx of immigrants from Hispanic nations such as Peru, the Dominican Republic and Cuba and the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, which represents the largest Latino group in the Youngstown area, Reyes said she sees OCCHA growing in the future.