There's an American flag right inside the door and a picture of an eagle on the wall. And in the office of new director Irene Zoppi, there's a painting of the Statue of Liberty.

They tie together Ms. Zoppi's hopes that the center will be a bridge between longtime residents and the city's growing immigrant community.

"They want to be Americans," she said. "They want to be here. We need to work together."

Ms. Zoppi took over as director in the spring, when founder Mary Schumaker retired. She brought with her two elements key to its survival - a vision for growth and the will to keep it going despite cuts to its funding by the county.

"We're here to help," she said. "Lack of funding? We'll still be here."

Born in Puerto Rico, Ms. Zoppi moved to the United States in college. She holds a master's degree in business administration from The Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in education policy from the University of Maryland at College Park. Her father's side of the family is directly descended from President Lincoln, and she's a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She's also a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve - she served in Operation Desert Storm and speaks passionately of her belief in duty, honor and loyalty.

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"You live by it," she said.

Ms. Zoppi's husband is a police officer, and they have three children. Previously she directed language programs for Baltimore County Public Schools and research in Latino education at the University of Maryland's Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education.

Earlier this year, she called the Centro de Ayuda to volunteer, said Sophie Camacho Hoover, president of the board of directors. Instead, Ms. Hoover hired her part-time as director.

But since then she's been working full-time hours, and more.

The center's biggest funder used to be the county, but that stream was cut this year by County Executive John R. Leopold, who has been cracking down on illegal immigration. He said he doesn't want to support organizations that aid illegal immigrants, said his spokesman, Audra Harrison. And the Centro de Ayuda couldn't promise county funding wouldn't be used to help them, she said.

The center had never asked whether the people they helped had legal status, Ms. Hoover said.

"We don't want to inhibit people who need help," she said. "We want them to come in if they have a question, not feel we're going to call INS (the former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service) on them."

Previously, the center received about $109,000 a year from the county; for 2009 Mr. Leopold offered $14,000, but only for programs that help legal residents obtain citizenship. Now Ms. Zoppi is filling holes in funding with grants and donations.

Centro de Ayuda grew out of a community center in an apartment complex that housed new immigrants, Ms. Hoover said. In 2002, it became a nonprofit organization aimed at helping people new to America become self-sufficient, so they can open a bank account, buy a home and speak English on their own.

"When they're coming from another country, they don't know where to start," Ms. Hoover said.

Ms. Zoppi has infused the center with new energy and purpose, she said.

Last Wednesday Ms. Zoppi assisted a family's custody battle in court and mitigated a police visit on a domestic-violence case, all before six pregnant women arrived for a Healthy Mothers class that evening.

"It's social services ER," she said.

Teresa Fuentes, a young mother in her second pregnancy, said the center's class helped her have her first baby.

"It helped because I didn't know anything," she said in Spanish. "It's helped to have the support of other women."

When funding for the class dried up, the teachers kept working as volunteers. If they stopped to wait for money to come through, they might have lost contact with the young mothers, and that was too much of a risk, said Terri Dayney-Smith, one of the teachers.

Despite the center's financial trouble, more people keep coming in, said case worker Patricia Ghaly, one of two full-time employees. She troubleshoots it all: legal issues, employers who refuse to pay their employees, child-custody cases, divorces, finding special-education services and health insurance for children.

"Every day is different," she said. "We never know what we'll be doing."

In early July, the center was flooded with people panicked by a series of raids on the homes of illegal immigrants in Annapolis. Ms. Zoppi said the raids led to a rash of other problems, including a rise in domestic-violence cases she traces to an increase in fear and stress.

She wants the center to be a resource not just for Hispanics, but for immigrants from all countries. She wants to hire a liaison to go out into the community, and someday, when there's enough money, she wants to open satellite offices in Brooklyn Park and on the Eastern Shore.

And she said she wants the center to help people in Annapolis see that immigrants are eager to join their community.

"As humans, we should have compassion," she said. "We should never forget that we're a nation of immigrants."