Somos un árbol.
“I think of CCATE as almost like a tree. Rooted in the community and drawing strength from everybody around it.”
CCATE — Centro de Cultura, Arte, Trabajo y Educación — is a community center in Norristown, Pennsylvania, founded by Latinx immigrant families in 2011. Everything on this page grew from the same ground: the conviction that the dreams of the immigrant community are achievable when the community develops itself, whole.
Our mission is to ignite social transformation by developing the talents of and empowering the Latinx community through culture, art, career development, and education. Our vision is that, through the holistic development of the community, the dreams of the Latinx community can be achieved.
Four branchesLas cuatro ramas del nombre
The four strokes of our logo are the four words in our name. They are the first branches that grew from the trunk, and every class we teach hangs from one of them.
- Culturaculture
Keeping our languages, memories and roots alive — from Día de Muertos and Noche de Arte to piñatas that have hung in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
- Arteart
Painting, photography, film, music and murals through which the community tells its own story — shown from Norristown to the Annenberg Center and the Organization of American States.
- Trabajowork & training
Mentoring, college road trips, internships with our partners and leadership institutes that open doors to college and careers for first-generation students.
- Educacióneducation
After-school, high school and adult programs designed with families, where children and parents are students and teachers at the same time.
As the mission took root, new shoots appeared: health (the Health Circle and weekly legal support for families), science and technology (robotics, coding, architecture), environmental care (a community garden with sixteen beds in year-round production), participatory research (families and youth publishing their own studies) and media (the REVARTE magazine, the Diálogos de la Villa Inmigrante podcast and Radio REVARTE).
How we growEl tronco: cómo aprendemos juntos
CCATE follows the dialogic pedagogy of Paulo Freire: education in which everyone learns and everyone teaches, everyone reflects and everyone shares. It is the trunk that carries everything else.
“Todo el conocimiento del mundo, desde todos y para todos.”
All the knowledge of the world, from everyone and for everyone — the phrase the community chose to describe how CCATE works.
“Un talento que no se comparte es un talento desperdiciado.”
A talent not shared is a talent wasted — one of the mottos that emerged from inside the community.
Everyone teaches, everyone learns
Our students include children and family members; our teachers include children and family members. A volunteer may teach a class on Tuesday and take one on Thursday.
Designed with the community
Classes are created from the interests and talents of families, students and faculty. Adult programs begin when parents say what they want to learn, teach or change.
Collective leadership
We affirm the value of each voice, from children to adults of all backgrounds, and foster leadership among community members so that the community’s voice is amplified.
Love as the guide
From the beginning we decided that love would guide every effort, every word and every action — and that at CCATE love would always be greater than any other resource.
Our rootsLas raíces: de dónde venimos
One winter afternoon in 2006, a recently arrived father pointed at an abandoned building and told his two daughters that one day the community would found a cultural center there, so that as immigrants they could exist and achieve their dreams. Five years later the doors opened.
CCATE opens in Norristown, founded by the immigrant community. It starts with three programs: after-school, art and English.
The filmmaking class produces its first award-winning film; the first mural, Abrazo de dos realidades, is painted. University partners begin presenting with CCATE families at Penn’s Ethnography Forum.
CCATE becomes a 21st Century Community Learning Center with the Norristown Area School District; the Participatory Research Circle first presents its work.
Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs awards CCATE the Ohtli Award — the tenth organization in the world to receive it. Thirty-two weekly classes now reach 275 families.
CCATE buys its own building at 1246 W. Main Street and moves programs online during the pandemic, delivering 2,850 food baskets with student volunteers.
REVARTE, the community’s bilingual e-magazine, is launched; forty high school students are trained in podcast production.
The CCATE Art Gallery opens with more than thirty pieces of community-made art.
An LPFM radio permit is granted: Radio REVARTE, the first community radio station for Montgomery County’s Latino and immigrant communities.
CCATE receives the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification and the Penn Netter Center Faculty-Community Partnership Award, fifteen years after opening.
TodayLa tierra que compartimos hoy
Fifteen years on, the tree is still rooted in Norristown. This is what grows on it each year.
¡Viva la comunidad!Long live the community — the words we end every gathering with.