El Centro del Cardenal provides Latino adults 18 and over with intensive English classes, computer literacy, life skills, workshops, career exploration and enhancement. The program hours are from 9:00 A.M to 1:00 P.M., Monday thru Thursday.

Program History

Since the 1980′s, there has been a growing national awareness of the need for adult literacy education. In 1983, El Centro del Cardenal joined a consortium of Boston community-based organizations in a citywide collaboration, the Adult Literacy Initiative (ALI). The consortium was led, and partially funded, by the Mayor’s Office of Jobs and Community Services. Project HABLE (Hispanic Adults Basic Literacy and English for Education and Employment) program was formed in response to the need for a more extensive collection of services to overcome barriers to successful workforce development. ALI member organizations, the State Department of Education, and private foundations, began working together to alleviate obstacles to economic self-sufficiency brought about by increasing numbers of school dropouts, single parent families, an expanding immigrant base, and a shrinking job market for low skilled workers.

In 1993, El Centro del Cardenal expanded its educational services by providing basic computer instruction to our learners, in light of the new skill needs of the immigrant Latino population of this city in an increasingly technological society.

Today, the ESOL Adult Literacy Program at El Centro del Cardenal responds to the expanded needs of the Latino community by providing academic, family literacy, as well as a continuing mission of addressing the workforce development needs of this population. The program enrolls between 120 and 150 Latino and other linguistic minority adults annually in an intensive daytime program.