The Center for New North Carolinians
Back to CNNC Research Fellows
| Norma Durán Brown, Latino Outreach Coordinator, Children First of Buncombe County Tel: 828.252.4810 Email: normab@childrenfirstbc.org |
Biographical Information
Norma Durán Brown was born in Concepcion de Tucuman, Argentina. She lived in Buenos Aires until age twenty but moved around a lot during that time. She also lived in Venezuela and the US before returning to Argentina to finish her law studies. After twelve years, she eventually relocated back to the US. Shortly after her second arrival, she founded a Latino women support group called Manos Latinas. The approach was based on her own previous experience of isolation and loneliness in NC during her first stay in 1986. Facilitating the group was a wonderful and rewarding experience, which evolved into building a unique and strong partnership with the African American community and the subsequent founding of the Institute for Human Development of Haywood County (operating under the fiscal sponsorship of Pigeon Community Development Center, a grassroots African American organization). The Institute is conducted exclusively by Latinos, but is in constant partnership with the whole community of Haywood.At the present she is the Latino Outreach Coordinator for Children First/Communities in School of Buncombe County. This position requires a constant interaction with the large Latino community that resides in the area, allowing her to use her native language, as well as the skills developed from her former career as a lawyer. She coordinates a diverse range of educational programs, ESL, computer courses, parenting classes, and mother reading programs as well as training and informative workshops. She enjoys researching the impact of volunteerism as a way of empowerment, especially in immigrant Latino women, in conjunction with the effects of promoting the recuperation of their role as educators and advocates for their children.
Links
Research
Multimedia
- Photo Gallery
- Podcasts