Through its research efforts, the Center provides a comprehensive understanding of the complex New York social environment, a more accurate picture of the culture and personality of the Caribbean community, and a basis on which the community can more effectively adjust to the New York reality and take advantage of the available economic and social opportunities. Despite resource constraints, the Center has conducted, commissioned and initiated a large number of research projects in the past 15 years aimed at issues concerning the community of Caribbean immigrants. Much of this research has been published by the Center’s own Caribbean Diaspora Press and is available for sale.

Research and training are focused on the English-speaking, Haitian, Dominican and South/Central American Caribbean coast communities in New York and the wider United States. The Center conducts its research under the following heads: Economic Adjustment, Socialization, Health, Education, Political Behavior, and Gender Relations

Past research includes a pilot study of the relations between Jewish and Caribbean-American communities in Brooklyn, sponsored by the CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium at John Jay College and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In addition, the Center is currently analyzing data of the 2000 national census in order to extract demographic data relevant to the Caribbean populations in the United States.

In the past 15 years the Caribbean Research Center has in various ways reached out to the community of Caribbean immigrants and has provided a number of services. Thus, it has developed a Parent Empowerment Program that addresses the immediate concerns of new immigrants who need assistance in orientation and referrals as they make the difficult adjustment to life in their new environment. This program focuses on issues of separation of families, reunification, access to educational, legal, social and health services while taking into consideration cultural diversity and the need for sensitivity in counseling and referrals.

It goes one step further to provide education, guidance, and leadership training to enable families, during and after the first three years of residence, to engage actively in community life and participate fully in the social, political and economic opportunities open to immigrants.

The Center also continues its outreach efforts to assist citizens of the volcano-ravaged island of Montserrat. The Caribbean Research Center in collaboration with the Montserrat Progressive Society launched the Adopt-A-Family-Project where families can be given moral support and monetary assistance on an individual basis. The Project has delivered monetary funds to families in Montserrat and Antigua April 1998 and April 1999.

In an effort to be able to respond to disasters as they occur worldwide an organization named Caribbean Disaster Relief Effort was launched. The Center and other community organizations participated in this project. This is an effort to ensure that assistance can be afforded to any country or state that has been adversely affected by disasters. Instead of reacting to the disaster, the organization would have already been prepared to address the disasters.
The Center is expanding its outreach to assist some needy students in Senegal, West Africa to continue their education through high school and college.

As another example of the Center’s diverse activities, Mrs. Weekes, Assistant Director for Administration and Outreach, recently spearheaded a lobbying campaign in the U.S. Congress for an adjustment in the status of Montserratians who have been displaced by the volcanic devastation of their homeland.

Since its inception in 1985, the Center has been a leader in providing a range of initiatives pursuant to the educational and psychosocial concerns of Caribbean immigrant parents and children. Our professional development activities for teachers, administrators, psychologists and councilors are offered in a climate of lively exchange, integration of theory and practice, hands on experiences and acknowledgment and respect for the professionalism of the participants.

The Center has designed and conducted a series of workshops for educators geared to help them in their development of a deeper understanding of the history and society of the Caribbean in general, and the English-speaking Caribbean in particular. The courses currently being offered are:

	“Preparing Caribbean students to meet rigorous performance standards”
	“Integrating assessment and read/writing instruction for Caribbean students: an integrative language perspective”
	“Teaching English as a second language – From Caribbean languages to Standard English”
	"Caribbean Literature in the multicultural classroom”
	“Garifuna Language and culture workshops”

International Conference at Medgar Evers College on Evolving Patterns in Caribbean Migration – Impact, Image & Challenges, 1995

In collaboration with the International Education Resource Center for Research and Study Abroad the Caribbean Research Center hosted the First State-wide Conference on Strategies to Increase Participation of Minorities in Overseas Studies Programs, 1997

Language and African Diaspora Cultures at the City College of New York, together with the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC), 1999

History and Future of Caribbean Migration, a symposium in honor of Prof. Roy Bryce-Laporte, November 2001.

in order to position itself as the premier institution to research various aspects related to the adjustments required by globalization and regionalization, the Center intends to expand its research focus to include data collection for commercial enterprises. Thus, we will offer traditional market research geared at the community of Caribbean citizens living in the United States, in particular those living in the New York City area. Such research is considered of particular value to firms in telecommunications, the financial service industry, data processing etc. While the Center’s research is primarily focused on the United States, it is nevertheless prepared to initiate and conduct focused in-depth studies of the Caribbean markets, provided that the resources for such projects are made available.

In addition to this, the Center has the ability and expertise to conduct market research geared at the wider U.S. market. Examples for such market research include opinion polls, image evaluation, flows of financial, technical and human resources between the United States and the region, export market research for Caribbean firms. Specifically, this can involve research which evaluates the U.S. market’s potential for agricultural or tourism products.

Apart from ongoing research and teaching commitments the Caribbean Research Center offers consultancies and project evaluation services to companies that are interested in maximizing their exposure in the Caribbean community both at home and here in the United States.