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Congreso president Nicholas Torres helps Latino students bridge the gap between school and home.

By Wilson Boyd (Philadelphia '05)

A fter two years as a child therapist, Nicholas Torres (N.Y.C. ’93) was frustrated. From the corps in the South Bronx, he had gone on to the University of Texas, earned a master’s in counseling, and opened a private practice in Philadelphia. Yet at the end of each day, his original intention of breaking through to the hardest-to-reach kids seemed misdirected.

“From my perspective, most [of my patients] didn’t have a clinical disorder,” says Torres. “They didn’t need to be seeing a therapist—they needed family support, stuff to do after school.” Fostering those support networks was precisely what Torres determined he would do. In 1999, after closing his practice, he became head of the Division of Children and Youth Services at Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a nonprofit social services agency in North Philadelphia focused on strengthening Latino communities by providing economic, education, and health services.

At the time he started, Congreso offered just three after-school programs serving 80 children. Eight years later, as president, Torres oversees a $17.5 million budget and a dramatically expanded organization—one with a greater emphasis on serving youth. Approximately 1,500 students participate in one of 10 summer or after-school youth programs that range from leadership development to tutoring. Beyond these programs, Congreso helps address a broad array of student needs by offering English classes, workforce training, and free or low-cost services such as health care and counseling.

One person whose life has been changed by the organization is Julio Rodriguez, who joined Congreso’s youth programs while in grade school to stay off the streets. “I always [joke that] I’m Congreso’s son because I’ve been with them since I was 8 years old,” he says.

As a teen, Rodriguez volunteered with Congreso’s after-school programs and sharpened what he calls his street smarts about avoiding violence and drugs, earning his diploma in 2000. “As I developed, I wanted to do more,” says Rodriguez, who worked side by side with Torres on various projects. When he was 22, Torres hired him as a case manager in a program that provided support for teen fathers.

“It was a two-sided adventure for me,” says Rodriguez, 25, now an occupational skills therapist with E3, a satellite branch of Congreso. “I was 22 and had my firstborn, so I felt like I was a teen, but I knew more about my options and what to do. I was able to pass that knowledge to teens who were lost and thought they couldn’t do anything.”

“Julio is really able to be a role model as someone who is still in the lives of his children,” says Torres. “The benefits we gave him are being repaid tenfold to the community.”

Rodriguez helped teams accept responsibility for child support, connected them with professional opportunities, and at times even provided diapers, formula, and clothes. “Most cases, they stayed out of jail, off the streets, got a job, settled down and felt comfortable raising their child, got their GED or graduated,” he says. “Even though you’re young, you have to separate yourself from your childhood and think of yourself as a man, woman, father, mother. [I told them] ‘I’m not always going to be here, but these are things you can do on your own.’ ”

While Torres believes that intervention and support in the lives of troubled youth continues to be essential work, his vision for Congreso is to do more proactively in the areas of prevention and education.

“When you help someone get their diploma or help them get a job, that changes their lives for all the years to come. The more we can make that kind of impact, the more we can change the legacy of this community.”