The CPCU Credit Union and the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS) are joining forces to help Portuguese community members build self-sufficiency by improving their English skills, according to leaders of the two organizations.
MAPS Executive Director Paulo Pinto, MPA , and Rui Domingos, Chief Executive Officer of CPCU, announced that MAPS will offer a free 12-week course in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) this fall for CPCU members, supported by a CPCU grant. The course will likely begin in early November 2008 at the MAPS Cambridge office, located at 1046 Cambridge St., and will take place two evenings per week at two hours per class for a total of four hours per week.
“MAPS is very grateful to receive this grant from CPCU,” said Pinto. “It’s really exciting to see our local businesses become interested in empowering the Portuguese community members and helping them to become more self-sufficient. We’re honored to collaborate with the CPCU and look forward to working with them on future projects.”
Domingos, an immigrant himself, realizes the value and benefit being bilingual and has this to say. “This partnership represents our strong and continued interest in the Portuguese-speaking community, not only as a banking resource, but as a way of helping our members navigate linguistically in this country. We look forward to working with MAPS to provide our members with the opportunity to improve their language skills and succeed in this country.”
Any CPCU member interested in taking the ESOL class should register this October by contacting Julia Evora, program coordinator, at (617) 864-7600.
MAPS has served the Portuguese-speaking community of Massachusetts since 1970, by providing a variety of culturally and linguistically competent programs for thousands of Brazilians, Cape Verdeans, Portuguese and others each year. Offices are located in Cambridge, Somerville, Allston, Dorchester, Lowell, and Framingham. For more information, please visit www.maps-inc.org.
CPCU is a non-for-profit financial institution, celebrating 80 years of serving the Portuguese speaking community, with locations in both Somerville and Cambridge, MA. Membership in the credit union is open to Massachusetts residents of Portuguese descent, heritage or extraction by birth or marriage, and their immediate family members, which is defined by blood, marriage, domestic partner or other recognized family relationships in the same household (under the same roof), or if not in the same household, as grandparent, parent, spouse, sibling, child or grandchild, as well as individuals who reside, work or attend any elementary school, secondary school or school of higher education in Middlesex and Suffolk counties, and the municipalities of Peabody, Lynn, Salem, Nahant, Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Marblehead in Essex county in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, their immediate family members, and organizations of CPCU members. For more information, please contact CPCU at (617) 547-3144 or visit www.cpcu.org.
Contact:
Lois Josimovich/Elsa Gomes
Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers
617.864.7600
or
Valerie Hetzel
Cambridge Portuguese Credit Union
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