Maclay Middle School in Pacoima opened the doors this week to its new Dream Center — only the second Dream Center in the San Fernando Valley and the first in the Valley to be built from the ground up by a school and its community partners.

The Dream Center was an outgrowth of the collaborative relationships Maclay has built as a Community School with Cal State Northridge, Urban Visionaries, the Asian Youth Center, and LAANE.

“Our school community has been highly impacted by the inhumane federal raids, with a Home Depot right down the street,” Maclay Community School Coordinator George Felix said. “We started having conversations with our partners on new ways to address needs in the community as well as support the large number of newcomer students we have.”

They developed a vision for a Dream Center that provides immigration resources and support to undocumented students and offers a safe space for all. The center will house the La Raza Club and the new Black Student Union, which was created in reflection of a rise in the number of Black students at Maclay.

The Dream Center is located strategically close to where students eat lunch to make it easy for students to drop in.

“We envision this as a space open to everyone,” Felix says. “It’s a place to have more conversations with students and parents, to learn more about their families and how we can match them with the resources we offer as a Community School. It’s about safety and connection for our whole school community.”