For years, Latinos have been a small and scattered population in Allegheny County, hardly a community at all. But longtime advocates have jump-started efforts to change that.

Today, the latest in a spate of events to convene Latinos takes place at noon at St. Hyacinth Church in Oakland. It is a free information fair to help newcomers and struggling immigrants navigate the health, housing, education, banking, legal and cultural systems, with advice as simple as how to open a bank account and get a driver's license.

It is the latest among many forms of outreach that long-established Latin American residents have struggled for years to effect.

Last weekend, a statewide coalition of Latinos met in Pittsburgh to discuss strategies to help the local Latino voice be better heard in Harrisburg. Numbers indicate it would be a louder voice. From 1990 to 2000, the Allegheny County's Latino population has grown from 8,700 to 11,166, according to the U.S. census.

Last year, the first Spanish-speaking TV show in Pittsburgh began airing on PCTV-Channel 21. "Hola," with Ezekiel Mobley as host and interviewer, airs from 8-9 p.m. Fridays, It is an outreach effort, Mobley said, but invisibility remains a problem.

Without a neighborhood, a community center or a hub of any sort, the area's Latinos remain "elusive and dispersed," said Patricia Documet, an organizer of the St. Hyacinth event, which falls during Hispanic Heritage month, Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. It is a month chock full of events. Last weekend's folk festival at Pitt coincided with the statewide coalition's visit, and a dinner gala of the Latin American Cultural Union will be held Saturday at the Marriott Hotel Downtown.

To the larger community, which may believe Pittsburgh lacks a Latino presence, this intensity of activity might seem as if a cluster of Latinos had shown up, celebrated, then folded up their tents and vanished.

Not only do organizers have to find out where other Latinos are in order to gather economic and political speed, but, providing they can make a representative huddle, their numbers still remain too small to carry much weight.

The bulk of the recent growth here is a more vulnerable population than the area's traditionally slow-growth professional class of Latinos -- less well-off, in less stable jobs, with limited English, few contacts, and, in significant numbers, without health insurance.

"Access to health care in general is a problem," said Documet, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health. "Many people are not citizens and many are the working poor, in jobs that offer little pay and no benefits."

These people can become solid players only with help beyond efforts such as fairs and festivals.

"From the political establishment, we need a commitment to have someone solely dedicated to the Latino population," said Brent Rondon, president of the Latin American Cultural Union. The need is great, he said, and because Latinos are the only growing population besides the elderly in Allegheny County, Pittsburgh could benefit by embracing them.

"We are also an economic force," Rondon said.

The Hispanic Center, a job office for Latinos, was founded three years ago amid projections of a serious workforce shortage. With a seed grant from the Heinz Endowments and a home at Community College of Allegheny County's North Side campus, it has since gotten state, foundation and private support.

Its acting director, Andy Rind, said he was seeking collaborations with groups such as the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and LACU.

The center helps Latinos find jobs, trains them for work and helps them relocate to the area. On average, Rind said, the staff of three sees 40 to 60 new clients a month, 80 percent of them Latinos who are not necessarily new to the area but who have just learned of the service.

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has just begun its own demographic study of Latinos in the area, "to build more meaning into the census numbers," chairman Joe Manich said.

In its eight years, the chamber has grown from about 15 members to the current 40. It recharged itself at the beginning of the year, taking on a new name and hiring its first paid executive director, Cameil Williams.

Manich called the decision to hire a full-time director "an energized professional effort" to find more corporate support, help Latino-owned businesses grow and provide a network for Latinos in general.

But in building the community into a cohesive force, Manich said, "Our biggest challenge is that we're so well integrated we are hard to find.

"For example, I was interviewed recently on a Spanish-speaking radio show [which runs every Thursday from 6:05 to 7 p.m. on WRCT-88.3 FM]. They've been doing this for years and I didn't even know about it."