Long Island University-Brooklyn and Hispanic Agencies Launch
Educational Services through System of “Plazas Comunitarias”
- Breakfast launch on Sept. 29 features dignitaries from Mexico –

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, in collaboration with Mexican institutions, is introducing a ground-breaking initiative to provide much-needed educational services to Spanish speakers in New York City.

On Wednesday, September 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., in the Jonas Board Room, the Brooklyn Campus will formally unveil a proposal to create “Plazas Comunitarias” in culturally, racially and linguistically diverse neighborhoods of New York City.

The project is a partnership between the Brooklyn Campus’s School of Education and Spanish Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center, the Mexican Consulate, Mexico’s National Institute for Adult Education, the National Council for Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development, and local adult literacy and workforce development providers.

Expected at the “Breakfast Launch” are Arturo Sarukan, general consul of Mexico; Guillermo Linares, director of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs; representatives of the Office of English Language Learners at the New York City Department of Education; directors and instructors from more than 20 community-based organization across New York City who intend to open “Plazas Comunitarias;” from Mexico City, the directors from Mexico's National Institute of Adult Education and the National Center for Workforce Development and Lifelong Learning; and the Campus’s School of Education Dean J. David Ramirez.

“Plazas Comunitarias” (community plazas) provide Spanish-speaking adults with the resources and support to be successful in the workforce, in the community and to help their children succeed in school. Services are provided at local community-based organizations, and all Spanish-speaking adults in need of educational services are eligible for the free services.

For more information, call Marguerite Lukes at (718) 488-3485 or email marguerite.lukes@liu.edu.

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Some 31,000 students currently are enrolled at the university’s three residential and three regional campuses, including more than 12,000 at the Brooklyn Campus. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.