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Q&A
Council Member Brewer inquires about funding for immigrant services and suggests YouTube for English learning
2:18:56
ยท
3 min
Council Member Gale Brewer inquires about funding needs for legal services, English language classes, and healthcare support for immigrants in New York City. MOIA Commissioner Manuel Castro and Deputy Commissioner Jasniya Sanchez provide information on current funding and services. Brewer then suggests using YouTube as an effective method for English language learning based on her observations of young immigrants.
- Legal services costs range from $2,000 to $5,000 per case
- MOIA allocated about $1 million to public library systems for English classes
- Over 5,000 people received English classes through library partnerships last year
- Brewer proposes using YouTube for large-scale English language learning, citing its effectiveness with young immigrants she knows
Gale Brewer
2:18:56
Thank you very much.
2:18:56
I I just wanna follow-up on that, and I'm sorry if it's the same kind of question.
2:19:00
But the issue is English as a second language, legal services, and of course, just other kinds of support, Medicaid and so on.
2:19:10
So do you have a sense of what it would cost to do the legal services for not just citizenship, but generally I'm I'm focused on the 43,300 people, to be honest with you.
2:19:21
That's my goal.
2:19:22
So of that portion, what do you think is needed in terms of funding for legal services from what you have or what you need?
2:19:30
English language, what you have versus what you need, and also just health care in general.
2:19:36
Most people have New York Cares, but they don't have Medicaid.
2:19:39
Just just some ballpark numbers, what you have and what you need.
Manuel Castro
2:19:43
Thank you, council member Brewer, for this.
2:19:45
I all of these services have a cost per unit number attached to them.
2:19:53
To be candid, whatever number I give to you here will probably be underestimating the amount of It's a tremendous amount of needs to be able to provide all these services.
Gale Brewer
2:20:04
I'm aware, but I want to know what the number is.
2:20:06
Do you have some sense of it?
Manuel Castro
2:20:08
Well, with respect to legal services providers who submit applications to us often they range depending on the legal service, but they range from anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 per case if not more.
2:20:23
And as I stated earlier, there are 400 between 405 undocumented immigrants that live in New York City.
Gale Brewer
2:20:30
Okay.
Manuel Castro
2:20:31
And many more who would require legal services.
Gale Brewer
2:20:33
Okay.
2:20:34
And how about English?
Manuel Castro
2:20:36
With respect to English classes, it depends on the program.
2:20:38
We speak program, our English centers, deputy commissioner can share more data on how much we spend.
2:20:53
We have been partnering with our three branches of our library systems.
2:20:58
Yep.
2:20:59
And that is a tremendous partnership to be able to provide these classes.
2:21:03
Very proud about it.
Jasniya Sanchez
2:21:06
Yeah.
2:21:06
Currently for this fiscal year f y twenty five, we have allocated about $1,000,000 to the three public library systems here in New York City.
2:21:23
And we have, through initiative, have over 80 branches that have these classes available.
2:21:35
And currently, as of today, we have, right now, today, 78 active classes.
2:21:43
We have for, as of last calendar year provided classes for over 5,000 people, and we continue to surpass our goals yearly.
2:21:57
So this partnership with the library systems has been incredibly helpful to reach immigrant dense neighborhoods.
Gale Brewer
2:22:07
Okay.
2:22:08
Guess what?
2:22:08
The young people I know, they're all doing it on YouTube.
2:22:11
They've all learned English.
2:22:12
They never went to the library.
2:22:14
They never went to an English class.
2:22:15
They all speak perfect English.
2:22:17
People think they're American.
2:22:20
YouTube.
2:22:20
All YouTube.
2:22:22
So my suggestion would be literally to call YouTube.
2:22:25
I'm not kidding.
2:22:27
Put 2,100 people in Bruckner on YouTube.
2:22:30
Get it going.
2:22:31
Have huge screens.
2:22:32
Have a teacher there if you need it.
2:22:34
I'm not kidding.
2:22:35
I looked at them.
2:22:36
You have to be kidding.
2:22:36
They all learned English on YouTube.
2:22:38
Never went to a library until I took them to the library last week.
2:22:43
YouTube.
2:22:43
Thank you.