Casa Latina is a Seattle-based non-profit that exists to serve Latino seasonal workers in the Seattle area. By providing educational and economic opportunities to immigrants, Casa Latina empowers them to get the skills and jobs they need to get themselves and their families out of poverty. They do a great job of providing these resources to the many people who utilize them; a tribute to their success so far is that even though the organization was founded in 1994 they’ve already outgrown their space. In order to better serve the community, Casa Latina is expanding; Monday marked the groundbreaking ceremony for their new space in the Central District, at 1620 S. Jackson. At project completion, this will give Casa Latina 10,000 square feet of facility, including a 6,000 sq. ft. space to house their classroom space and a function hall. The project has two phases; phase 1 is what’s just now underway and this is renovating the site’s exisiting 3,000 sq ft space with a 1,000 sq ft addition. This will serve as the long-term home for the Day Worker’s Center which currently operates out of a trailer and two temporary shelters with no indoor heating, plumbing or phone services.

Casa Latina anticipates having phase I complete and ready for occupation by December of this year. Project design is by Johnson Architects; the general contractor is M.A.D. Construction, a local family and minority owned business who have agreed to work with Casa Latina and the local union to provide training opportunities for Casa Latina members.

Great community projects like Casa Latina provide a real value to our city – not just to the people directly affected (the laborers whose increased education and experience allow them to provide better lives for their families and the employers who get hard-working, highly-motivated employees), but to all of us and I’m really excited about their expansion. The new Casa Latina home will be the first day labor center in the US that’s been built from the ground up and I hope it will serve as an inspirational model to other cities.