TULSA, Okla. — From a community closet to temporary childcare and all the needs those in Tulsa's immigrant community might face in their new life, El Centro tries to do it all.
"There's a lot of resources out there, but we also want to make sure that we point people to trusted resources, where we know that they'll receive the adequate attention they deserve with whatever they're dealing with," El Centro Office Manager Jacqueline Meza told 2 News.
Meza knows what's needed from her parents' experiences growing up in order to coordinate clients with free legal help from the University of Tulsa's Immigrant Resource Network.
Executive Director Maria Elena Kuykendall takes from her own experience of moving to Tulsa from her native Bolivia.
"It was a hard process to navigate in this system and this culture," Kuykendall said. "I don't want people to have to go through (that difficult) process."
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Peer educator Magaly Gomez said she's benefited from El Centro's work in the past and decided to take part herself.
"We understand what it's like to be a newly-arrived person in Tulsa as an immigrant," Gomez said via an interpreter. "And so we have the compassion for it and the firsthand experience, so we have a better capacity to support."
El Centro only started in 2021 during the height of the pandemic when much of the immigrant community - especially Hispanics - found themselves at a disadvantage if they didn't have full documentation.
"The main goal of El Centro is how we break these barriers, how we bridge the gap between the service and between the providers, and that to us is a key to our work and collaboration," Kuykendall said.
With more than 4700 helped in the last fiscal year, the organization's staff aims to grow and get the word out.
"And the beauty of the diversity is something we have to appreciate, as Tulsa is growing in that direction," Kuykendall added.
El Centro's staff said it's currently looking for donations and grants that will help find a bigger facility for their services and community English classes in the coming year.
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