Centro de Cultura Arte Trabajo y Educacion
Every program at CCATE is designed with the families who use it, and every class is taught by someone from our community — a parent, a teenager, an artist, a university student or a neighbor with something to share. We don’t charge tuition. Families contribute time, skills and what they can.
Every afternoon begins with a family circle, then students choose from 20+ weekly classes — painting, mural design, analog photography, filmmaking, guitar and electronic music, environmental science, gardening, coding, Spanish and English literacy. University mentors from Penn, Villanova, Temple, Bryn Mawr, Haverford and more work alongside our own instructors.
Fridays are for grades 9–12: 25 students a semester working toward college and career with one-on-one mentoring, FAFSA and essay support, college road trips (Boston 2026: Harvard, MIT, Boston College), the week-long Summer High School Leadership Institute at Penn, and youth participatory research.
Built around a theme students help choose — 2025 was Creciendo en Solidaridad. 75 students, 23 workshops in art, cooking, film, herbalism and environmental science, six pool days and field trips to Valley Forge, the Berman Museum and PHS Farm Park.
Around 60 adults each semester take English at two levels, a conversation club, Zumba, yoga, herbalism, weaving and embroidery, and analog photography — because that’s when the community asked for them. Every instructor is a community member or volunteer. Walk-in career and employment counseling is available at 1246 W. Main Street without an appointment.
Learn more
About a dozen core members meeting biweekly since 2020. Their work — on migration, identity and the body — has won six prizes at the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Mexican Consulate, and filled the Audubon Center’s 2025 Community Day exhibition.
Learn more
Monthly assemblies for all CCATE families on the questions that matter that month — ICE protocols, mental health, media literacy, school equity — plus Familias Fuertes, a small-cohort program for 5–8 families a semester.
Community & Research
Browse the full catalog — visual arts, mural arts, music, photography, filmmaking, STEAM, garden and cooking, soccer, reading circles.
Browse the catalog
Norristown’s first dedicated art gallery, opened in 2023 inside our building. Student and community exhibitions, photography tertulias, and the annual Noche de Arte.
Exhibitions
Our community-run media project: Diálogos de la Villa Inmigrante, a bilingual podcast reaching about 2,000 listeners a week with immigration attorneys, legislators and the Norristown police chief as guests; the REVARTE e-magazine with 180+ community contributions; and a low-power FM radio station in construction.
Media & ArtCommunity members and students as researchers, not subjects. Since 2015, with the University of Pennsylvania: parent and youth focus groups on schooling, a joint 2026 report with HealthSpark Foundation on how immigration enforcement is reshaping daily life, and presentations at AERA and Penn GSE.
Learn moreSince 2018: an annual Health Week with vaccination clinics, Spanish-language Mental Health First Aid training, and weekly legal-preparedness appointments that served 40 families in Spring 2026.
Learn moreCommunity assemblies that fill our building — 400 people in January 2025 with the Mexican Consul, members of Congress and immigration attorneys. Know Your Rights workshops, Friday legal consultations, and a business owners’ assembly representing 480 jobs across seven municipalities.
Community & Research100 trees planted in Norristown since 2022, 15 community Tree Tenders certified, 16 garden beds tended year-round, a weekly produce despensa with PHS, community lead testing with Villanova, and a shared-bike program with Valley Forge National Park.
Garden & environment classesRegistration asks for two volunteer hours a month and whatever contribution your family can make — never tuition.