Centro Latino of Iowa was founded on November 5, 2001, in an effort to assist the growing Latino community of Council Bluffs. It serves to educate and empower Hispanic and Latino families in any way they can, in partnership with the United Methodist Churches (UMC) of Council Bluffs.

Centro Latino, first and foremost, provides support towards families to help them be self-sufficient. They work as a bilingual resource to help clients navigate the city and government resources they need. The organization helps clients with job applications and resume creation, as well as housing, rental, and utility assistance. They are also there to assist with applications to Medicaid, SNAP, and Unemployment.

The center pushes for their clients to be engaged with their community, using their group Fuerza y Union, who not only provides training and workshops for the community in Council Bluffs, but also helps with citizenship classes and voter registration. They also have weekly English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for adults to help them with written and spoken English. On top of all of this, in an effort to bridge cultural divides, Centro Latino has an annual Latino Festival every September, which has games and activities for children, musical performances and dancing, and acts as a job fair at the same time.

The Immigrant Legal Center (ILC) based in Omaha works in partnership with Centro Latino by offering legal services specializing in domestic violence, child welfare, and refugee and asylum law. They have office hours at the center’s Council Bluffs location.

Centro Latino also offers interpreting and translation services. Their interpreting work is $50 an hour, charged in fifteen (15) minute increments to cut on cost. Their translation work is based per word, scaled by the length of the document and with pricing adjusted for complexity and delivery, with up to 100 words running at $.12 a word, and over 1000 running at $.07 a word.

If you would like to find out more about Centro Latino, you can go to their website at sucentrolatino.com, or at their Facebook @sucentrolatino. You can also contact them via their phone number at (712) 256-6009, or by email to director@sucentrolatino.com. Centro Latino is open from Monday-Thursday from 9am-5pm, and on Fridays by appointment. If you would like to donate to their organization, you can do so on their website at sucentrolatino.com/donate.