Centro de Apoyo Comunitario (CAC), was founded by local Latina immigrant women. We hope to nurture a strong sense of community within Upper Darby's immigrant community, and to support their families, neighbors, and friends. We are a volunteer driven organization, our board members and volunteers are representative of the diversity of the Latinx community in Upper Darby. We provide services to the immigrant community through educational sessions that include health care, mental health, tax preparation and ITIN’s and legal matters.

CAC became a member of PICC in 2015. Our members have become Community Navitor certified and attended PICC sponsored and supported local, state and national conferences. We are a recipient of PA is Ready! funding which has allowed our organization to expand our work hosting immigration sessions and legal clinics in Upper Darby and other parts of the county. In 2019, we hosted 4 clinics to educate undocumented parents on their parent rights in partnership with with Penn Law-Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic. We are continuing this work by hosting sessions in March and April. Another important program our organization offers is tax preparation and ITIN filing support, a service that has been welcomed by the immigrant and non-immigrant community in Upper Darby and Delaware County for years. We have done this work through our partnership with the Villanova Law Tax Clinic, Community Action Agency of Delaware County and Delaware County Asset Development.

Although the organization is led by the leadership of mostly Latina community members, CAC provides services to all regardless of language, nationality and immigration status. Our doors are always open! To learn more about our organization and upcoming events please follow us on facebook o centrodeapoyocom@gmail.com

For the second year, PICC conducted a questionnaire to understand the experiences of immigrant and refugee students and families in school districts across Pennsylvania. This questionnaire is part of the Welcoming Schools Campaign, an effort to encourage schools to enact policies to ensure that all students, regardless of immigration status, are welcome, safe, and protected in the school environment.

PICC is excited to share the findings from our 2020 Welcoming Schools Report. Findings from the 2019 and 2020 Welcoming Schools Reports provide snapshots of the experiences of immigrant students and parents across Pennsylvania that can help guide educators and school administrators in creating and evaluating policies and practices at their schools. School districts are encouraged to use this report and the Welcoming Schools Toolkit as resources to ensure that they are creating a safe and welcoming environment for all students, regardless of their immigration status.

Learn more about the 2020 Welcoming Schools Report and how to get involved in advocating for welcoming school policies at one of two webinars.

Registration is requred to recieve information on how to join the webinar. Please share this information with community members that may be interested as well!

English Presentation: March 18th from 6:00-7:00pm. Register Now!

Spanish Presentation: March 25th from 7:30-8:30pm. Register Now!

As part of our Youth Organizing Project, PICC hosts two calls with youth leaders each month. All immigrant and youth ages 14-25 are invited to join our open call on the 2nd Wednesday of each month to learn how to get involved with local and state immigrant rights campaigns and learn more about immigration policies. The next call will be March 11, 7-8pm. Please RSVP to recieve the call-in information!

We also host a monthly call with our youth members. This space of for PICC youth leaders to work together to develop their leadership skills, share work they are doing locally, and support each other. All current PICC youth members are invited to join. If you are interested in youth membership, you can join online, or email Yeny Romero, Youth Organizer, at: yenyromero@paimmigrant.org.

At PICC, we’re committed to supporting the leadership development of our immigrant and refugee community members and building the capacity for member organizations and allies to advance immigrant rights by providing trainings and developing community education materials.

The first two Community Navigator trainings of the year are coming up! Community Navigators are trusted community members who receive specialized training to provide quality immigration assistance for their communities in an empowering and effective way. Participants will learn the basics of the immigration system, how to present Know Your Rights information, and gain valuable skills to support their community.

Community Navigator Training with Esperanza Immigration Legal Services

Saturday, March 21st, 10am-3pm
4261 North 5th St. Philadelphia, PA 19140
Register: http://bit.ly/CN-Philadelphia

Community Navigator Training with Project Libertad

Saturday, March 28th, 10am-3pm (this one is a train-the-trainer for young people, but all ages are welcome!)
2100 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Register: http://bit.ly/CN-Philadelphia-PICC

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Please reach out to Kim Dinh at kimdinh@paimmigrant.org for any questions.

Please Donate to PICC!

PICC depends upon your support. Please donate to PICC today to support our advocacy and organizing work to mobilize the immigrant vote, build immigrant leaders, campaign for pro-immigrant policies at the local, state and federal levels, and support the effective implementation of pro-immigrant public policies.