Beaverton Church Launches Hispanic Outreach

What does Risk Taking Mission look like? In Beaverton it is the church reaching out to the Hispanic community and saying, “We are here. How can we help?”

November 23rd marked the launch of the Beaverton Hispanic Resource Center, a ministry of the Beaverton United Methodist Church. The center is coordinated by Juanita Villarreal, and receives support and guidance from an advisory board of church members and funding from the Gilhousen Family Foundation and other donations. Villarreal also received training from the United Methodist Churches national Hispanic plan.

Even as the Center continues to organize itself, set goals, and establish processes to track assistance, they are reaching out in love. In the first five weeks after opening, they had helped 81 people with assistance; and since the beginning of the year an additional 219 people have been assisted.

One challenge has been to determine the right assistance to offer. Villarreal shares, “I took a good look at the needs of the Hispanic community. They are in need of assistance with rental assistance, food, job assistance, and child care, just to name a few. They are getting referred from other organizations, walk-ins, calls, and word of mouth.” Currently the center is offering referral services for many kinds of care, job assistance, translation and paperwork assistance and food support. Board member, Jan Faltyn, is in the process of starting an English-as-a-Second -Language class. ESL is a huge need for the Hispanic community.

Currently the center is open Monday-Wednesday 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and Wednesday evenings 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. They are looking for more volunteers to provide direct services, and office support. And of course they are happy to accept donations.

For more information, or to donate time or gifts, you can contact the Resource Center office at office@beavertonHRC.org or (503) 437-8531.
Click here to download a bi-lingual brochure about the center.