The majority of Hispanics are not able to use the city-provided services of employment training centers, because few know of them, because they don't speak English, or because they are not documented, according to a study published yesterday.

The study, executed by the Hispanic Federation and the Ford Foundation in 2009, showed that the centers do not adequately fill the needs of the community.

"The vast majority of the community does not even know that they exist (the centers) and the Latinos who access the system are mistreated because they don't speak English, or for being Hispanics, and they find themselves within an unbelievable bureaucracy," explained José Calderón of the Hispanic Federation, a co-author of the study.

Guadalupe González, the other author of the study, explained that 20% of Hispanics that utilize the services feel frustrated, because after sacrificing hours that could be used to generate income for job-training, they end up working in low-wage positions.

"I remember one woman who had been trained as an office administrator and ended up in McDonalds," explained González.

To reverse this situation, the Federation proposes that the community organizations be integrated in the process, as they can inform the Hispanics who are in need of the programs' existence, and train the centers in how to best help Latinos.

City Comptroller John Liu, Council Members Rosie Méndez and Robert Jackson, and Assemblyman Peter Rivera attended the presentation of the study.

"For the first time, we have grounds for saying that the Hispanic community use their relatives to find work and that the existing systems do not serve our community," declared Rivera.