Story by Pam Crabtree | Photos by Lori King
TOLEDO – While the holiday season of giving has past, people of all ages continue to struggle and still need help with securing food, clothes, employment and healthcare. Enter Nuestra Gente (NG), a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization founded in 2008 by Linda Parra.
Parra, originally from Venezuela, aspired to bring a lifelong passion of community service and to help people when she moved to her new home in Lucas County.
She said NG’s goal is to provide services to needy families in Lucas County and to help them become self-sufficient.
With Parra meeting that heady goal, NG is offering a new program, Nuestras Familias (Spanish for Our Families), launched specifically for immigrant, migrant, refugee and low-income families.
“Our mission is to address the gaps in services for the Latino community in Lucas County,” said Parra.
Given the overwhelming need for help for families, Parra launched Nuestras Familias to assist not only families in Lucas County, but as far away as Columbus. The program helps by providing clothing, furniture, food, childcare and school placement. It also offers medical screenings, translations, interpretations, transportation, legal services and help seeking jobs.
“We have more items than Goodwill,” Parra quipped. “People donate to us because we give to people for free.”
One grateful benefactor of NG’s Nuestras Familias program is Mirna. Mirna, originally from Mexico, and her husband Otto are parents of two children. After reading about Nuestra Gente in a local publication, she contacted Parra for help.
“I’m so happy,” she said when asked about the program. “We needed help with food and clothing, and Nuestras Familias was there for us.”
NG strives to improve the lives of Toledo’s underserved communities, focusing on not only the Hispanic/Latino community, but all Ohioans who seek help.
Nuestras Familias is one of the programs and events offered by NG. Others are:
- Holiday Events
- The Art Room
- Health Events
- Fundraisers
- Lupus Awareness
- 419 Food Pantry
Ways to contribute
Monetary donations are tax deductible and always welcome, but there are other ways to contribute, like donating time and energy. One example is the mother-daughter duo, Christina Oyerbides, of Toledo, and her daughter Ester Billups, of Lima, who volunteer their time.
Oyerbides joked that she is “kind of strong, so I go and pick up the donations,” which may consist of furniture, clothing and boxes containing various items. She is also very vocal about spreading the news of the services offered by Nuestra Gente’s Our Families program.
“Whoever hears about it, the doors are open” she said.
Billups enjoys helping families, too. She volunteers on Thanksgiving with packaging and giving supplies out to the community. She also helps organize the items people contribute, such as winter coats, jackets and gloves by size. She said the kids have all their clothes in one room to make it easier for people coming in for assistance.
The Nuestra Gente Community Center is located at 1411 Broadway St. in Toledo.
Email: lindaparra@nuestragentecommunityprojects.org
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