Special to the NEWS
Officials with the START Center in San Benito and the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville sign an agreement Tuesday to house a Plaza Comunitaria in the Resaca City. (Staff photos by Michael Rodriguez)
The South Texas Adult Resource and Training (START) Center in partnership with the Mexican Consulate announced on Tuesday the establishing of a Plaza Comunitaria in San Benito.
The START Center of San Benito formally signed an agreement on the morning of July 19 with the Mexican Consulate that cemented the efforts in bringing to the Resaca City a Plaza Comunitaria, which is to serve San Benito and the surrounding communities.
According to Joe Medrano of the START Center, the Plaza Comunitaria objective is to offer a site with the appropriate learning tools and resources where fundamental educational studies can be continued or started for Mexican Nationals seeking to improve their educational levels in the United States, while formally registering these results in their native Mexico.
Services offered are an independent method for learning to read and write, as well as complete the elementary, middle and high school grade levels allowing participants to segue to GED classes, advanced ESL, and/or vocational training, or institutions of higher learning.
The START Center has been providing these same core services, and numerous others, in our community since 1992.
This will provide an opportunity for an extension of START Center, Equal Voice-RGV, NCLR programs and services to the increasing population of low-income, underserved, first generation families in our area.
Urging the importance of meeting demand for a Plaza Comunitaria in San Benito, Georgina Barquet, Consulado Adscrita for the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville, recalled in February when the START Center acted as a host site for a mobile project and attracted 300 people.
“There is nothing more fruitful for Mexico and the United States,” Barquet said of the Plaza Comunitaria, adding there are only two other such facilities in Cameron County, and they’re located in Brownsville.
For more information on Plaza Comunitaria, call the START Center at (956) 399-7818.
To see this story in print, pick up a copy of the July 20 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.
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