AURORA | The Aurora Welcome Center, a multi-purpose service hub for the city’s burgeoning refugee and immigrant community, is teaming up with a recently formed nonprofit organization to better serve many of Aurora’s newest residents, the city announced late Wednesday.
The majority of tenants and service providers currently operating at the Aurora Welcome Center, which has operated at 1085 Peoria St. for nearly three years, will be moving to the former St. Matthew Lutheran Church building at 1609 Havana St., according to a press release.
The recently formed Village Exchange Center, a new nonprofit organization also focused on providing a slew of services to immigrants and refugees, began operating out of the old church on Havana Street last month, Westword reported June 6.
The Aurora Welcome Center will be one of several entities using the donated religious facility, which boasts about 15,000 square feet of space, according to the city. Multiple religious groups will also continue to hold services there.
A handful of Aurora Welcome Center providers “with a strong focus on the children of Aurora Public Schools,” will remain at the Peoria Street location, which doubles as the headquarters for the local school district, according to the city’s press release.
Both the Village Exchange Center and the Aurora Welcome Center offer language classes, legal assistance, some health services and a bevy of other programs to immigrants and refugees who have relocated to the metro area.
“We are very excited about the merger with the Village Exchange Center and the possibility of expanding our services with a bigger location,” Diana Higuera, executive director of the Aurora Welcome Center, said in a statement. “The combination of both of our teams will make an even stronger organization with the right expertise to keep serving immigrants and refugees. Our visions for the future are very much aligned, and this is a natural fit for both.”
All corporate assets tied to the Aurora Welcome Center will soon transfer to the Village Exchange Center as a stipulation of the merger, according to the city’s statement. A pair of Welcome Center board members will also join Village Exchange’s governing board.
“We are proud and honored to inherit the hard work and perseverance that the city of Aurora and Diana Higuera and her team have put in over the years on behalf of the refugees and immigrants of Aurora,” Amanda Blaurock, executive director of Village Exchange Center, said in a statement. “We plan to honor the legacy of the Aurora Welcome Center and the natural helpers program by expanding the current offerings and furthering their vision of creating a ‘one-stop shop’ service and community center celebrating cultural diversity.”
Sponsored by the city’s office of international and immigrant affairs, the natural helpers program pairs local volunteers with recently arrived immigrants and refugees to help them better integrate into the community. That program will soon operate out of the former St. Matthew facility.
“The Village Exchange Center offers so much space and so much expertise in dealing with the international community,” Ricardo Gambetta, head of the city’s office of international and immigrant affairs, said in a statement. “And we believe this merger will do much to benefit the 20 percent of Aurora residents who were born outside the United States.”