Dominican Women’s Development Center

Programs & Services offered:

Community based health advocacy, empowerment and education services:

Workshops, HIV/STI testing events and safer sex parties to address HIV in the community
Health Promoters or “Promotoras” to engage the community through street outreach and distribute condoms and informational materials on HIV and STDs.
Domestic violence crisis intervention, counseling, advocacy and support

The Dominican Women’s Development Center also known as “El Centro” was founded in 1988 by a group of Dominican women who identified the need to create a membership organization in the Washington heights/Inwood community that would help organize Dominican and other Latina women to seek solutions to the problems affecting us in our daily lives and to provide culturally competent social services. El Centro has also contributed to the creation of El Centro de la Mujer in Puerto Rico and El Centro de Apoyo a la Mujer in the Dominican Republic.

With the support of funding from Uptown Health Link, Seamos Realistas/Let's Get Real! is a program working with the Latin@ population in efforts to reduce and prevent the number of HIV/AIDS infections in the Latin@ community. Through our health promotion program we provide culturally and linguistically appropriate information and resources. Based in Washington Heights, Seamos Realistas/Let's Get Real! seeks to empower community members, particularly women, to take control of their sexuality through the capacity building and leadership development, training community residents to become health promoters or “Promotoras”.

Our community health promotion team or the "Promotoras" establish relationships with businesses in the Washington Heights/Inwood area providing safer sex supplies, informational materials and resources.