Queens Borough President's Office
From The Peopling of New York City
The Queens Borough President’s Office brings together civic activists and constituents to help serve the needs of the local community. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall is seen as an “integrationist” by her fellow peers and has done a great deal to assist in solving civic issues. The Queens General Assembly brings together 28 civic activists from each community board as well as local community members to serve as delegates. These delegates discuss quality of life issues as well as civic issues they feel need to be addressed and recognized by others in the community.
In order to make the transition into American culture easier for new immigrants, The Queens Borough President’s Office offers a variety of services. Helen Marshall has been partners with the Asian/American Center at Queens College since 1987 to provide The Translation Program. The Translation Program is a free service available to community-based organizations to make English documents accessible to recent immigrants. The languages currently offered are Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Hindi. The program is currently looking to add Russian to the program as well. Translation request forms can be found at www.queensbp.org by clicking on “Immigrant Affairs.” The Immigration Task Force at Queens Borough Hall gathers together services and institutions for immigrants and is currently publishing an Immigrant Services Directory. Members of the task force are available to deliver presentations around the community and share their expertise in immigrant affairs.
To assist in bringing ethnic groups together, Queens Borough Hall provides a large number of special ethnic celebrations and festivals for all community members under the supervision of their Cultural Coordinator, Susie Tanenbaum. These events can be seen on their published calendar. This year, with the help of Helen Marshall, Queens Borough Hall has for the first time hosted Baisakhi (Sikh), Holi-Phagwah (Hindu) and Philippine Independence Day. The Queens Borough President’s Office has with great success integrated members of the community including immigrants and continues to do so.
