Immigration: The Esperanza Center
Important
ATTENTION: The Esperanza Center on S. Broadway is temporarily closed due to a fire in a nearby building. We are providing services at St. Patrick’s Assisi House at 1728 Bank St. Please call 667-600-2900 for additional information.
Please note: we have also updated our hours of service and have resumed immigration legal consults. Please call 667-600-2900 for additional information.
Important Notice:
While Maryland has moved into Stage III reopening plans, Catholic Charities has ongoing discussions about deliberate and thoughtful ways to operate in the safest possible manner for our colleagues, volunteers, communities, and individuals we serve. We continue to ask our wonderful volunteers to stay safer at home. Most of our services are still available via teleconference at the usual phone numbers. Our multilingual COVID-19 triage hotline may be reached at 667-600-2314.
- Soon, we will be updating our Volunteer Portal with ways you can be a virtual volunteer, help from home, deliver goods and items, and more.
- All Esperanza Center programs are closed to in-person services. We are offering teleservices as follows:
- Immigration Legal Services 667-600-2933
- Educational Services 667-600-2943
- Client Services 667-600-2401
- The Health Clinic will be providing telemedicine services at 667-600-2942.
- Multi-lingual health hotline: 667-600-2314
Importante
ATENCIÓN: El Centro Esperanza en S. Broadway está temporalmente cerrado debido a un incendio en un edificio cercano. Estamos brindando servicios en St. Patrick’s Assisi House en 1728 Bank St. Llame al 667-600-2900 para obtener información adicional.
Importante: también hemos cambiado el horario de atención y hemos resumido las consultas legales de inmigración. Llame al 667-600-2900 para obtener información adicional.
Important Notice:
Maryland se mudó a los planes de reapertura de la Etapa III. Catholic Charities tiene discusiones continuas sobre formas deliberadas y reflexivas de operar de la manera más segura posible para nuestros colegas, voluntarios, comunidades e individuos a quienes servimos. Continuamos pidiendo a nuestros maravillosos voluntarios que se mantengan más seguros en casa. La mayoría de nuestros servicios todavía están disponibles por teleconferencia en los números de teléfono habituales. Para nuestra línea directa de triaje COVID-19 multilingüe, marque 667-600-2314.
- Todos los programas del Centro Esperanza están cerrados a servicios en persona, estamos ofreciendo tele servicios, llame a
- Servicios Legales de Inmigración 667-600-2933
- Servicios Educativos 667-600-2943
- Servicios al cliente 667-600-2401
- La Clínica de Salud proporcionará servicios de telemedicina al 667-600-2942.
The Esperanza Center is a comprehensive resource center whose mission is to welcome immigrants by offering hope, compassionate services, and the power to improve their lives. Since 1963, immigrants from all over the world have trusted the Esperanza Center to help them navigate life in a new country. Our dedicated staff and volunteers provide services related to education, healthcare, immigration legal matters, family reunification, anti-trafficking, and general community support to thousands of immigrants each year.
In the early 1960s, a socially-motivated young woman named Nancy Conrad returned to Baltimore from Latin America where she had been serving with the Young Christian Workers.
Ms. Nancy Conrad
Soon after, she began working with the growing Spanish-speaking population in the city. Recognizing a need to help recent immigrants overcome language and cultural barriers, she took her concerns to Cardinal Lawrence Sheehan.
Sharing her concern, the Cardinal approved classroom space on the first floor of St. Ann’s School on Greenmount Avenue and 22nd Street. The building opened on September 16, 1963. For more than 50 years, Esperanza has celebrated a commitment to serving Maryland’s immigrant communities.
The fruit of Ms. Conrad’s vision is today’s Esperanza Center. This progressive idea became a program of Catholic Charities in the early 1980s, continuing to serve thousands of new immigrants each year. At that time, the Hispanic Apostolate (as it was known then) was located in Southeast Baltimore. Esperanza Center occupied various locations over time, eventually relocating to the current location of 430 S Broadway in the late 1990s. In 2008, the Hispanic Apostolate / Immigration Legal Services celebrated its 45th anniversary working with and serving the immigrant community in Baltimore. The organization was rededicated as Esperanza Center.
“The mission of the Esperanza Center is to welcome immigrants by offering hope, compassionate services, and the power to improve their lives.”
Esperanza Center offers services in five areas: healthcare; education (particularly English for Speakers of Other Languages); immigration legal services; family reunification; and community referral and resources. Our Health Clinic Services vary from primary care appointments and walk-in visits to specialized clinics and appointments for immunizations, dental, ophthalmology, and more.
“Every day the Esperanza Center’s different programs strive to empower our clients to overcome the barriers that stand in the way of their full participation in the American experience.”
Our Client Services program handles over 500 client inquiries annually to help immigrants navigate their way through agencies dealing with social services, housing, employment training, and offering assistance with adapting to US culture. Their work includes translations, notarizations, referrals, public health education, and more.
Our English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program provides informal and formal classes in English, computer literacy, and citizenship to over 450 adult students each year. Our Youth ESOL program offers after-school and summer classes for over 60 children each semester, incorporating cultural, historical, and recreational field trips into the summer program as well.
Our Immigration Legal Services (ILS) program offers legal advice and representation from experienced immigration attorneys and fully accredited DOJ representatives in a wide range of immigration matters, including assistance with visas, asylum, residency, citizenship, temporary protected status, and defense against removal. In partnerships with service providers, and with grant funding from the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention and the Vera Institute of Justice, we offer pro-bono legal services unaccompanied children and their sponsor guardians, and to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other crimes.
In 2020, the Esperanza Center will celebrate its 57th anniversary of providing hope and services to the immigrant communities of Baltimore and throughout the region.
Events
Learn about and register for Adult Spanish Classes.
New classes will be announced soon!
Learn English one-on-one!
To participate, you must currently live in Maryland, USA, and be 18 years old or older. These classes take place online via Zoom.
The next course will begin the week of November 2 and end December 3, 2020 (5 weeks).
The registration will end on October 23 or when classes are full, so please register as soon as possible.
In these classes, students have a great opportunity to speak and practice with English, according to their personal goals. Classes are one-on-one with “ESOL partners,” volunteer-teachers. If you take classes on Tuesdays, for example, you will have one ESOL partner, the same person each Tuesday for 5 weeks. If you choose to take class both Tuesday and Thursday, you will have two partners.
Learn together with your children and take your English to the next level with fun, educational activities!
Learning Together is a multigenerational ESOL program for students in grades 5-9 and their adult family members living in Baltimore City.
On Wednesday evenings, youth meet from 7-7:45 p.m. and adults meet from 8-8:45 p.m. On Sunday evenings from 7-8 p.m., the whole family meets together. The fall session will begin Wednesday, November 4 and end Sunday, December 13. The classes will focus on goal setting, emotional learning, nutrition, healthy living, financial literacy, and computer literacy.
To participate, you must:
1. Live in Baltimore City.
2. Youth participants must be enrolled in ESOL in 5-9th grade.
Cost is $25 per adult for the 10-week program. Youth are free. (If you attend both Adult ESOL and Family Literacy, you only need to pay $25 total.)
Schedule:
Fall session: Nov 4 – Dec 13
Winter session: Jan 27 to Feb 28
Classes meet:
Wednesdays, 7-8 p.m.: youth
Wednesdays, 8-8:45 p.m.: adults
Sundays, 7-8 p.m.: all together
Services
Esperanza’s Client Services program provides assistance and information to immigrants with a wide array of needs.
Client Services is often the first place clients visit at the Esperanza Center. Our program handles over 5,000 client inquiries annually to help immigrants navigate their way through agencies dealing with social services, housing, employment training, and offering assistance with adapting to US culture. Our bilingual staff provides information and referrals including translations, assistance with forms, community advocacy, and general orientation, notarizations, referrals, public health education, and more.
Our bilingual staff provides:
- Translations (Spanish/English)
- Letters:
- Income letters, support letters, child care authorization letters, travel consent letters, immigration invitation letters, limited foreign authorization letters, etc.
- Assistance with forms
- Notary Services
- Community Advocacy and Orientation
- Assistance with school enrollment, applications for public benefits, assistance with housing and employment matters, utility service issues, etc.
- Referrals:
- We assist immigrants with referrals to governmental or other non-profit service providers for legal, housing, educational, transportation, and financial issues.
- Employment
- Services for crime victims: Assistance with reporting crime, requesting police reports, and hospital financial assistance, mental health assistance
Contact Client Services:
667-600-2900
esperanzainfo@cc-md.org
The Health Services Clinic (ECHC) provides free medical and dental services to immigrants in the metropolitan Baltimore region who do not qualify for health insurance.
The Esperanza Health Center Health Services Clinic (ECHC) provides free medical and dental services to uninsured immigrants in the metropolitan Baltimore region who do not qualify for government-sponsored health insurance. The clinic offers no-cost quality primary and preventive care for adults and children. Services are provided by dedicated volunteers and staff, in partnership with Johns Hopkins Medical Institute. We offer medical services with appointment only from Monday – Friday.
Patient eligibility
The clinic serves individuals who are unable to enroll in medical insurance programs due to the following circumstances:
- Ineligibility for the Affordable Care Act
- Ineligibility for government medical assistance (Medicare or Medicaid) due to immigration status
For more information regarding patient eligibility, please contact us by phone: 667-600-2942
Our services
- Adult and pediatric primary care
- Adult preventive dental care (services offered only to medical patients)
- Ophthalmology (patients with Eye Diseases only)
- Referrals to other specialists as needed (pending qualification criteria)
- Monthly immunizations through the Baltimore City Health Department
Get involved!
If you are a physician or dentist and would like to provide pro bono services, please contact us at 667-600-2962 or email nolsson@cc-md.org.
For all other volunteer opportunities and information, please visit the Volunteer page by clicking on the button below.
Contact Health Services:
667-600-2942
healthservicesinfo@cc-md.org
Esperanza’s Educational Services program provides free or low-cost ESL, citizenship, computer literacy, and Spanish classes for adults and youth.
Learn more and register for:
Contact Educational Services
667-600-2943
Infoeducationalservices@cc-md.org
Are you interested in volunteering at the Esperanza Center?
For more information for volunteer teachers, click here.
Attention: ILS has resumed consultations for new clients, by appointment only. We are continuing to serve all clients with open cases, and to recruit and train pro bono attorneys. For questions regarding immigration legal services, please call 667-600-2941.
Immigration Legal Services was founded in 1994 to provide low-cost legal counseling and representation in humanitarian and family-based immigration matters.
ILS recruits attorneys, law students, paralegals, and others to volunteer in our office, during business hours, under the supervision of our staff. 667-600-2941.
To learn more about our legal services, click here>>
Contact Legal Services
667-600-2941
Infolegalervices@cc-md.org
If you are an attorney interested in supporting our Pro Bono legal services program, click here to learn more. 667-600-2941.
Immigration Legal Services was founded in 1994 to provide low-cost legal counseling and representation in humanitarian and family-based immigration matters. As one of the largest non-profit immigration legal services providers in the state, we serve individuals from over 150 different countries who reside in Maryland or have immigration cases in Maryland. We assist clients and their family members seeking to obtain, extend, or retain lawful immigration status or citizenship in the United States.
To read about the Archdiocese statements on recent immigration changes, click here.
Over the past year, the Family Reunification Program has helped 932 unaccompanied children reunite with their family member/sponsor
Since the start of the program in the summer of 2013, 2,700 unaccompanied children have been reunited with their sponsor families.
Contact Family Reunification Services:
667-600-2960
accesperanzafamilyreunification@cc-md.org
accesperanzafingerprints@cc-md.org.
About our funder
Our Family Reunification Services are made possible with funding from the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS). Click here to learn more about the work that LIRS does.
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