Learning & Loving Center Celebrates 21 Years Of Service
THE LEARNING AND LOVING EDUCATION CENTER WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1994 TO TEACH SKILLS , FOSTER HOPES , AND PROVIDE DIRECTION TO ADULT IMMIGRANT WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN LIVING IN THE SURROUNDING LOW AND EXTREMELY LOW-INCOME AREAS OF OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY , WHICH ARE HOME TO A HIGH CONCENTRATION OF ISOLATED , MARGINALIZED , ILLITERATE AND UNDERSERVED WOMEN AND CHILDREN .
By Kelly Barbazette
Christa Hanson , Executive Director
Daisy Arguello joins her classmates twice a week to learn computer skills at the Learning and Loving Education Center in Morgan Hill . It is not an ordinary classroom . For Arguello and her classmates , the Center not only offers literacy , computer skills , and job training , but also provides support and a stepping stone to a better life for low-income immigrant women and their children .
“ I feel like they are my family ,” said Arguello , who is originally from Nicaragua .
The Center celebrates its 20th anniversary this year . The nonprofit organization has served about 3,000 immigrant women since it opened its doors on March 25 , 1994 in the former parish hall of St . Catherine Church on Dunne Avenue in Morgan Hill . Sr . Pat Davis founded the Center to teach reading , writing and life skills to immigrant women while offering free childcare .
After moving three times , the Center is now permanently housed on Church Avenue in Morgan Hill , where it relocated 11 ½ years ago .
Here , more than 150 women from Morgan Hill , San Martin , Gilroy and San Jose - with more enrolling each day - gather to learn pre-literacy and reading , writing , basic math , and computer programs like Microsoft Excel and Word . The Center also offers classes in early childhood education , job skills training , health , parenting , high school equivalency training , sewing , knitting , nutrition , yoga , art , and music . Women also may make appointments to talk with an on-site therapist . The Center , which is partially sponsored by the Sisters of the Presentation , operates on the same calendar as the Morgan Hill Unified School District .
The majority of the women who come to the Center are Spanish speaking and hail from Central America and South America while others have migrated from Cameroon , India , China and the Middle East .
“ The Center creates community . Many of these women are isolated at home and don ’ t know other people . So when they come here they become support for one another ,” said Christa Hanson , executive director of the Center .
Education and support are the key to the women ’ s success , Hanson said . Educating one woman , she said , creates a ripple effect - improving not only her life , but also her family ’ s life and her community .
“ We see education , but we also see empowerment . We are empowering the women to be the best they can be . We try to tap all of their talents ,” Hanson said .
The annual cost to each student is $ 150 , but if a woman is unable to pay , she can still attend . No one is left out , Hanson said .
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