Grant funding from Warehime, Santander, York County Community Foundation enables CPC to add bilingual housing counselor position
Community Progress Council is pleased to announce it has added a bilingual housing counselor position to its Housing and Financial Education team, thanks to grant funding from a series of partners.
Community Progress Council’s housing and financial counselors work with individuals of all income levels to help them meet their housing and financial goals and move toward economic self-sufficiency. 62% of CPC’s program participants live in York City, where the population of individuals who identify as Hispanic in the US Census has grown by nearly 40% over the last 15 years.
Generous grants from Santander Bank; the Memorial Health Fund, an affiliate of the York County Community Foundation; the J. William Warehime Foundation; and other funders have allowed Community Progress Council to meet this community need by covering the start-up costs to add a third position to the Housing and Financial Education team. This bilingual role is now serving Spanish-speaking individuals and families in their native language, in line with CPC’s commitment to hiring bilingual and bicultural staff to support this effort whenever possible.
Strong partner support allowed Community Progress Council to use private philanthropy to fund the housing counselor position during the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s certification process, while the position was ineligible for the public funds that will sustain it in perpetuity.
Ericka Stewart joined Community Progress Council in January 2025. Now HUD-certified, she is eligible to bill for services delivered, ensuring the position is sustainable without additional private funding.
“We are grateful that funders and partners across the board have recognized the need for offering and promoting housing counseling services to our Latinx neighbors, who have disproportionately been excluded from the housing market, a key method for building wealth in our community,” said Robin Rohrbaugh, President/CEO, Community Progress Council. “These one-time investments will provide a bridge to federal funding that will ensure this position provides a long-term, sustainable resource for Spanish-speaking York County families working toward self-sufficiency in our community.”
Ericka has already begun seeing Spanish-speaking participants for one-on-one counseling. Community Progress Council will begin offering Spanish-language housing and financial education workshops in August, and a full calendar is available online at https://www.yorkcpc.org/upcoming-events. Interested participants can call 717-846-4600 to register.
This project was funded in part by a grant from the Memorial Health Fund, an affiliate of the York County Community Foundation.
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About Community Progress Council
Founded in 1965, Community Progress Council is York County’s nonprofit community action agency, whose mission is to empower individuals and families to move toward self-sufficiency and advocate for change to promote community growth. Celebrating 60 years in 2025, Community Progress Council goes beyond emergency stopgaps to provide comprehensive, integrated services for low- and moderate-income people of all ages. Connected by client-centered coaching, programs include early childhood education through Head Start, Early Head Start and Pre-K Counts; housing and financial education; nutrition support and education via the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program; York City Community of Hope at Hannah Penn K-8; and the agency’s Self-Sufficiency Program that helps residents of York County reach financial stability. Learn more at www.YorkCPC.org.