El Centro Humanitario has offered aid to immigrants in need with the same humanitarian spirit of the American Red Cross. While the Red Cross focuses on shelter and nourishment, Centro Humanitario donates its time to serve immigrants’ social needs and to help them find work.
The staff at El Centro Humanitario strive to support and empower immigrants by teaching them about workers’ rights, mental health and community organization. In March, El Centro Humanitario and its Executive Director Mayra Juarez Denis will be celebrated by the American Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming at the American Red Cross Rocky Mountain Heroes Soirée for helping immigrants integrate into our community. A job that the organization has been doing for 20 years.
The nomination to the Heroes Soirée, written by Elisa Davis, the daughter of Mayra, highlighted the efforts and wholehearted contributions this non-profit serves to our community. She says, “All the staff and people who attend meetings work so hard to keep the organization going, including my mom, who works late at night and weekends and nobody sees that but me, how hard she works to keep El Centro growing.”
Mayra has lived in Mexico, the U.S., Spain and Belgium. The experience from living abroad, in addition to a background in multicultural communication, immigration advocacy, institutional civic engagement and local politics, serves her in her role as Executive Director for El Centro Humanitario. Mayra is also trilingual in English, Spanish and French, which allows her to interact with migrants from different parts of the world.
In the past few months, Colorado, El Centro Humanitario and the Red Cross have all faced the complexities of helping thousands of migrants arriving in the state. During this time, El Centro Humanitario and Mayra aided the migrants in searching for a job and integrating into the U.S. In an article from December by Denver7, Mayra was optimistic about our community’s ability to address the migrants. “Yes, it is a challenge. But I think we have resources. I think the Denver community is a very generous community,” Mayra said.
El Centro Humanitario takes accountability under challenging times and has done so for 20 years. The American Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming wants to celebrate that accomplishment and the responsibility assumed in the past year and since initiated. Over 2,000 people have passed through their programs over the years.
Mayra Juarez Denis’s engagement with the community is transparent through her role at El Centro Humanitario and her experiences of non-profit work abroad and in Texas. Outside of her non-profit career, Mayra is an entrepreneur. In 2022 she started Juarez & Fernandez Consulting with her business partner Maria Fernandez.
The Red Cross proudly welcomes El Centro Humanitario and Mayra Juarez Denis to receive our Community Hero Award for 2022.