Program Trains Immigrants

When Luis G. DaCosta moved to Cambridge from the Cape Verde Islands, it may have seemed at first that his knowledge of Portuguese, Spanish and French would do him little good.

But as a high school intern with City Links, DaCosta worked as an assistant to the public information officer at the Harvard Police Department, where his language skills were vital.

There, he sometimes offered directions over the phone to often-bewildered foreigners who spoke no English.

DaCosta, a former Cambridge Rindge and Latin School student who now attends the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is typical of high schoolers who enroll in the program.

City Links, which was established in 1993 by the non-profit group Cambridge Community Services, recruits Rindge and Latin students who are recent immigrants and arranges internships for them in the public service sector. In police precincts, city hall and the Cambridge Hospital, the bilingual students use their language skills to help the city deal with its growing population of foreigners.

Students in City Links work eight hours per week and receive salaries.

Organizers say City Links has been positive experience for its interns. DaCosta says he liked it so much that his sister, Neusa E. DaCosta, 16, is now working in the program.

Sandra M. Canas, the program's coordinator, said City Links fills a need for more bilingual minorities in the public service sector. The growing Cambridge immigrant population has heightened this need, Canas said.

"The goal of this program is to create leaders within these communities," Canas said. "We want them to be able to speak up for their communities."

Cambridge Police Lt. Frank T. Pasquarello, who has worked with City Links interns, said the youths do as well as regular workers.

"The kids are doing a great job," Pasquarello says. "They're excellent workers."