A Norristown nonprofit serves the many needs of Montgomery County’s growing Latino community | Philly Gives

The youngest boys fled the flames without shoes, without jackets, without anything, as a fire raced swiftly through a block of rowhouses on West Lafayette Street in Norristown.

It was cold outside, and scary. Their home was gone. Everything was lost.

Griselda Castillo, a housekeeper, got the call at work and left immediately, joining her family on the street, watching the flames shoot from the windows as firefighters worked to contain the blaze in the growing darkness.

“She saw all the houses were burning, and she also saw all their belongings that they took all the time and effort to get were gone in a second,” said Beatriz Gasiba, senior director of programs at ACLAMO (Accion Comunal Latinoamericana de Montgomery County), a nonprofit organization in Norristown, Pottstown, and Lansdale that assists the growing Latino community in Pennsylvania’s third most populous county.

It was the night before Thanksgiving. And if there is one thing to be thankful for, it is that none of the 39 people — mostly Latinos — affected by the fire were hurt. Not Castillo, her husband, or their three children, aged 14, 7, and 5. But all of them lost their homes.

Many of them, that night, got help from ACLAMO, in partnership with the Red Cross and other organizations.

A week later, Castillo talked about her experiences at one of ACLAMO’s two Norristown buildings as Nelly Jiménez-Arévalo, ACLAMO’s executive director, bustled around, filling shopping bags with food, socks, and shirts.

“They don’t have anything, only the clothes they were wearing,” Castillo said, with Gasiba serving as interpreter. “Thank God, they were not hurt, but we need to start from zero again.”

Get Jiménez-Arévalo talking and she’ll never stop, because the list of programs ACLAMO offers is long.

“We have focused on helping meet the community needs, and that’s what we are going to be doing,” regardless of the political situation, she said.

“If they are hungry, we are going to feed them. If they need housing, we’ll help facilitate that transaction. If there is a violation of human rights, we’ll partner with attorneys and other advocacy groups to advocate for family and children,” she said. “That’s our promise to our community, and that’s what we are going to keep doing.”

Eighty children attend preschool in one building, a former church. Senior citizens meet twice a week to eat, socialize, and forestall the isolation that can be particularly prevalent among the elderly in immigrant communities. There are leadership development programs for youth, digital navigation courses, and employment assistance.

Community health coordinators train volunteer promotoras de salud (health promoters) who spread knowledge about healthy living. They reach out in Spanish to Latinos who face a myriad of particular health challenges. Social workers help with many individual problems, from unemployment to housing to helping folks obtain health insurance for themselves and their children. If there’s a need, ACLAMO tries to meet it, offering food, clothing, and most importantly, a sense of community.

Earlier this month, ACLAMO held a workshop on immigration rights, distributing cards on how to respond if immigration agents show up at home or work. County officials call ACLAMO for help in eviction proceedings and domestic violence cases.

On the night before Thanksgiving, it was the fire chief who called Jiménez-Arévalo at home. Everyone has her cell phone number. By that time, the American Red Cross and fire department had assembled the residents two blocks away at a nearby fire station.

“‘Your people are here, and we need you,’” Jiménez-Arévalo said the chief told her. “I’m on my way,” she responded, calling other staff members to help. She also phoned the Mexican and Guatemalan Consulates, which sent representatives.

“We have been working with the Red Cross to help with translation and case management,” Jiménez-Arévalo said. “We are helping connect them to resources.”

The Red Cross urged those displaced by the fire to spend the night at a temporary shelter set up in a nearby elementary school, but Jiménez-Arévalo said people were frightened by the idea. “I said, ‘I will go with you.’” She settled them in at the shelter. Castillo’s family stayed with her mother — five of them are now crowded into one room.

“We couldn’t have provided as much care without them,” Sean Snyder, Red Cross disaster action team responder, said.

These days, for example, ACLAMO is working with Castillo’s family to help them find housing. It’s a challenge, Gasiba said, but if housing is found, it won’t be a challenge for ACLAMO to round up the necessary furniture and household items.

“ACLAMO helped translate because most of them don’t speak English,” Castillo said. “They are helping us find a place to live.”

Many years ago, ACLAMO also helped Esterbina Alvarez get a home — a twin rancher in Norristown where she raised her family and where she still lives today, nearly 30 years later.

Alvarez, who grew up in Puerto Rico, came to Norristown in 1987 with her husband and two children. “I found ACLAMO. I needed help. I didn’t know anybody. I needed help with my bills,” she said.

By 1992, she and her husband had separated, and Alvarez was working two jobs to make ends meet. ACLAMO’s then-executive director and founder Adamino Ortiz urged her to enter a housing lottery that would help first-time home buyers.

“I never thought I’d be able to buy a house because I was low-income,” she said. “But I had my hopes up.”

More than 900 people entered the lottery, she said, and only about 125 won assistance. Alvarez was among the lucky and moved into her home in 1995.

All these years later, Alvarez is still a regular at ACLAMO. “They keep the seniors from being bored. They don’t want to sit in the house and die and do nothing. They want to have fun.”

As for fun, Alvarez was among about 50 people attending ACLAMO’s holiday party earlier this month for seniors, adults, and anyone who wanted to show up.

Staffers decorated the party room, the former church sanctuary, with balloons and a giant snow scene. Gift boxes of popcorn awaited the bingo winners, and gaily wrapped laundry baskets of food would go to winners of the raffle. Staffers served giant trays of conchas — Mexican sweet bread — and hot chocolate.

In addition to games and Zumba, the gathering included a talk on how to use CareerLink, the state’s employment service, to find work. Tables from organizations, including HealthPartners insurance, the Montgomery County prothonotary’s office, and the county health department, as well as the Victim Services Center of Montgomery County, a nonprofit, lined the perimeter, offering assistance on the spot.

“This is a wonderful organization,” Alvarez said. “They help with low-income people — the young people and the seniors. They help people who don’t speak the language.”

Sitting nearby, Mercedes Duarte, of Norristown, agreed. When she first came here from California 24 years ago, she turned to ACLAMO for help getting health insurance for her daughter, then 4.

She also joined a women’s group “because I was feeling alone, kind of sad and depressed,” Duarte said.

Over the years, her husband has built up his business, Mercy’s Bakery in Norristown, known for its tamales de rajas con queso. Duarte has her own bakery business — high-end custom cakes, like a towering one based on Harry Potter.

“There are a lot of necessities in our community,” Duarte said. “People don’t know where to go for help. ACLAMO helps you to live better, not just the economics part — but to be socially better, to feel better.”

Jane M. Von Bergen spent more than 25 years as a reporter and editor at The Inquirer. janevonbtheater@gmail.com

This article is part of a series about Philly Gives — a community fund to support nonprofits through end-of-year giving. To learn more about Philly Gives, including how to donate, visit phillygives.org.

Mission: To provide educational programs, social services, and access to health and wellness programs to Latinos and other community members to empower them to fully achieve their life potential.

People served: 21,274

Annual spending: $8.03 million in fiscal year 2022-23

Point of pride: Serving a resilient community and working with a group of people who are passionate about serving others. Raised $7 million to create a new community center by buying and renovating the former Calvary Baptist Church in Norristown.

You can help: Volunteers tutor young people, maintain buildings, distribute food from the food pantry, translate, advocate, and collect and organize food and clothing donations. aclamo.org/join-us/volunteer

Support: phillygives.org/philly-gives/

Connect: 512 W. Marshall St., Norristown, PA 19401, or online at aclamo.org

$10 provides one hot, nutritious meal for an older adult at the bilingual senior center

$25 provides a week’s worth of fresh produce for a family from the Safe Haven Food Pantry

$30 provides a box of diapers for a new mom in the First Bonds-Mommy and Me program, ensuring her baby’s basic needs are met

$50 supplies a child with school supplies for the year through the Education Innovation Center

$75 offers bilingual and bicultural application assistance for one family, helping them access critical programs

$150 funds a month of tutoring and enrichment activities for a student in the mentoring program

$400 provides transportation for 40 children/youth to attend a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) experience outside their neighborhood

$800 supports one child to attend six weeks of ACLAMO’s STEAM summer program