St. Vincent de Paul Launches Centro Rendu in South King County
On October 14th, St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle|King County launched Centro Rendu, a new service designed to help Hispanic adults and their children break the cycle of poverty through education, computer literacy, counseling and navigation of the labyrinth of services from other social service agencies. 
“Our Centro Rendu program is an integral part of our strategy for a new service model for delivering services in King County. Our plan is to build upon the trusting relationships we establish in our home visits, and extend that help into more integrated case management services offered in our five neighborhood-based store front locations. We call them Community Social Service Centers,” said Ned Delmore, Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul.
“We have started with education because we know it is the key way to help the Hispanic community overcome barriers associated with poverty,” noted Ms. Mirya Muñoz Roach. She says “since we opened our doors in mid-July of 2013 we have served close to 250 people with Spanish Literacy, Primary and Secondary Education, GED preparation, Conversational English, Computer Literacy, Case Management, immigration counseling (twice a month), and a detail assessment process for relevant referrals to other service agencies.”
Centro Rendu has also referred needy individuals to other social service agencies that help Hispanic neighbors find housing, job connections, support for domestic violence victims and more.
Ms. Muñoz-Roach says “we are pleased with our work to date, but much more work needs to be done. The need is huge and this set of services gets to the core of supporting individuals in their journey to self-independence and their ability to develop the skills needed for positive community engagement.”
“The needs are widespread for education support, especially for adults and school parents. The community leaders I have engaged with and agencies we are communicating with believe education is the key for people to get out of poverty, and the research supports it,” says Muñoz Roach.
Centro Rendu is engaged in outreach and partnership building in South King County. The organization participates in the South King County Human Services Committee and recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kent School District. Centro Rendu is also in conversations with Green River Community College, Highline Community College and Seattle University regarding internship student programs.