June 6, 2012

EAST HARTFORD RESOURCE CENTER MARKS ITS FIRST YEAR

By Melissa Traynor, Hartford Courant

EAST HARTFORD — What began as an idea from parents seven years ago to reach out to the local Latino community has become the Community Resource Center, now in business for over a year and helping hundreds of families.

The center, led by Lisa McMahon, celebrated its first anniversary during ceremonies Wednesday, and both those who benefited directly as well as residents said they were grateful for its services.

After being approached by Superintendent Mark Zito about organizing and leading the center, McMahon said she saw it as an opportunity to support the school system and community.

"This has been much more than a great opportunity; it has been an incredible journey," McMahon said.

She pointed out that 2,559 referrals and other help had been provided over the last year by the center, which connects people with services they need, such as arranging meetings between parents and teachers, arranging interpretation services and applying for energy assistance.

About 461 families have received help from the center, McMahon said. She credited her two staff members, Cynthia Lopez and Olga Casanova, for ensuring that families' needs were met and that their information was organized and tracked.

McMahon also thanked Donna Kehoe, executive director of the local ChildPlan social services group, for her guidance and role in the center's creation.

State Rep Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said that the center is a good example of the ways that boards of education can work from the bottom up to address needs.

"Almost every time we pass a law, inevitably there are things that we are going to miss and we just can't take into account some of the realities that exist at the ground level and that's what so important about this community center is that it happened organically… instead of the top down," he said.

The resource center and its connections may also be a tool to help close the student achievement gap, said board of education Chairman Jeffrey Currey.

"The collaboration that Lisa has started between the resource center and the school provides parents of all languages a chance to really to become a part of their child's educational process," he said.

Lopez and Casanova formally recognized McMahon during Wednesday ceremonie marking her leadership during the center's infancy.