Ricketts Community Center

The Latin American Community Center in Wilmington, Del., has provided more than 35 years of service to the community. It was established in 1969 by a group of young Latinos whose parents came to the United States seeking greater opportunity to provide for their families. Its focus is to assist with the assimilation of Latinos from varying cultures into an English-speaking community. Help provided consisted of learning English as a second language, after-school tutoring and other children and youth programs, as well as family service programs to deal with the challenge of maintaining cultural pride while adapting to cultural change. The Latin American Community Center serves an average of 6,500 individuals with a staff of more than 50 bilingual employees that provide services in programs. Clients served come from Cuban, Mexican, Guatemalan, Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Central American countries.