Paper, paint, crayons and other art supplies lined a table manned by eager University students ready to care for local Latino children at the Urbana Civic Center Sunday afternoon. In the meantime, their parents and caregivers were becoming familiar with social services in the community while participating in the first-ever Fiesta Latina, sponsored by the Latino Partnership of Greater Champaign County.

Organizations, including Planned Parenthood, the Illinois Employment and Resource Center, Crisis Nursery and other area social service providers, were on hand to distribute information and giveaways as well as to make their services known to the Latino community.

Becca Guyette, vice-chair of the Latino Partnership, said this is the organization’s first event in its two-year existence.

“It’s basically a social service agency showcase for the migrant Latino community,” Guyette said. “This is a population that often gets pushed aside, and we want them to know that there are people that recognize their presence and celebrate it.”

According to Guyette, Latino Partnership brings together groups that provide services to make sure efforts are not repeated. These groups, many of which had booths and information at Fiesta Latina, included Rape Crisis Center, Main Street Bank and Trust, Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance and Mental Health Center of Champaign County.

Although Guyette said the Latino Partnership is still trying to identify the specific needs of the local Latino population, the organization is making progress, which she feels was marked by Sunday’s event.

“We are a resource organization hoping to do more and are taking small steps,” Guyette said. “We don’t want to do too much too soon.”

Along with the various displays and representatives for the attendees to use as recourses, Fiesta Latina also included two sexual education workshops, one for teenagers and another for adults. Tiffanie Bui, a freshman at Parkland College and a member of the Planned Parenthood Teen Awareness Group, facilitated the workshop for teenagers from ages 13 to 20. Bui said the focus of the teen workshops was communication between partners and healthy relationships but also included health information.

“We give them all the information they need about condoms and birth control,” Bui said. “We’re glad Teen Awareness Group is able to reach everybody.”

Alejandra Ramirez, a Spanish-English medical interpreter for Planned Parenthood, said the workshops also explored the issues of HIV, cancer and STI prevention. She said the instance of cervical cancer is 40 percent higher in Latinas than non-Latinas, and there are many more AIDS cases as well. She said she hopes these workshops will not only inform members of the community about high-risk behavior but also about the services available to them.

“We have a great amount of Latino patients, and we want to increase the number of patients we can serve,” Ramirez said.

Teri McCarthy, of the Greater Community AIDS Project in Champaign, said Planned Parenthood provided the facilitators for the workshops because of their bilingual capabilities and the Greater Community AIDS Project supplemented their efforts by providing materials. McCarthy said her organization also was able to obtain funding for the day’s events.

“The Greater Community Aids Project wrote a grant to the Illinois Department of Health because the Latino population is one of the greater populations at risk,” McCarthy said.

Marcos Calderon, an Urbana resident who attended Fiesta Latina, said he thought it was an informative and beneficial event for the Latino community.

“I think it’s important for Latino people to get information about services we can get,” Calderon said. “You never know when you’re going to have some problems, so it’s better to be prepared.”

The students on hand said they found watching over the children whose parents had come to Fiesta Latina a rewarding experience.

“It reminds us of our little brothers and sisters back home,” said Araceli Vasquez, senior in LAS and service chair of the Mexican Student Association.

Mirta Leon, graduate student, said she was asked to help organize the event because of her prior experience with organizing health fairs in the Latino community. She said the Latino Partnership used trusted people in the Latino community to spread the word about Fiesta Latina instead of solely posting fliers.

“It’s a very important event because people feel they have a place and part in the community, and people can get information in their own language,” Leon said.