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Services sought for growing Latino population

By JAMES MCGINNIS
Bucks County Courier Times

The Latino Leadership Alliance of Bucks County met Friday with educators and social workers from Bensalem to discuss needed programs for that community's growing Latino population.

The nonprofit alliance runs after-school and summer camp programs for Latinos and seminars for recent immigrants seeking citizenship in Warminster and Bristol, both home to the largest percentage of Latinos in the county.

But Bensalem is catching up fast with those towns and the need for local services is growing, said Gladys Mendieta, who co-founded the alliance 15 years ago.

Four percent of Bensalem was Latino as of the 2000 U.S. Census. Nearly half of the 2,505 registered Latinos were Mexicans. The community was home to 739 Puerto Ricans, 99 Guatemalans and 87 Ecuadorians, Census figures show. (Those numbers do not include undocumented immigrants.)

Bensalem schools Superintendent James Lombardo attended the meeting, hoping the alliance could help to improve communications with the growing number of school parents who don't speak English.

The number of kids who primarily spoke Spanish, Russian or Indian has more than tripled — from about 80 eight years ago to 400 this school year — Lombardo estimated. In response, the district will begin a world language program next year with all students in the third grade learning Spanish.

The kids are learning. But some worry that parents aren't able to understand school report cards and district mailings. Lombardo wanted the alliance's help in reaching parents who wouldn't come out to school events, possibly due to the language or cultural barrier.

The new director of the Bensalem public library, Lisa Kern, also expressed frustration in being unable to reach out to the Latino community. Kern discussed plans to expand the libraries and foreign language books and event host an “international film festivalâ€