Centro Campesino Farmworker Center, Inc. (Centro Campesino) was founded in 1972 by farmworkers and farmworker advocates, who had organized for several years to remedy deplorable housing and working conditions experienced by migrant and seasonal farmworkers in South Florida. Although these workers from many countries daily brought an abundance of fruits and vegetables to local dinner tables, the concerns and hardships these families faced relating to housing, fair pay, health care and education, were largely ignored.
Centro Campesino early leaders advocated for farmworker families and sought funding to offer key programs and services to make affordable housing (both rentals and home ownership), legal representation, economic opportunity, access to health care and opportunity for education and training, available to farmworkers in the Florida City/Homestead communities.
As the organization grew, more programs and services were added in Central as well as South Florida and were offered to other low-income residents as well as farmworkers. Centro Campesino remains true to its roots and daily dedicates its resources to achieving, “Equity, Education, and Economic Opportunity: For Everyone!”
Centro Campesino is a chartered member of NeighborWorks America, Inc., an affiliate of The National Council of la Raza and is a partner agency of the United Way of Miami-Dade. The organization is governed by a volunteer board of directors, which includes community residents, leaders with experience in business, education, finance and fiscal accountability, community development, government, marketing, communications and other expertise central to Centro Campesino’s operations.
Centro Campesino has provided continuous operation in Miami-Dade County since 1972, embarking on an expansion of its Education Center and the construction of ten homes to provide affordable rentals to large families of low-income in the southernmost part of the County.
