The Social Justice/Diversity Summit – a forum to create awareness among Long Islanders of a broad range of social justice issues – will be held at Farmingdale State College on Saturday, April 23.
The event runs 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the college’s Campus Center Ballroom. Admission is free and open to the public, but attendees must register in advance. The summit is sponsored by Farmingdale’s Social Science Research Institute.
Roundtables led by community leaders and social justice advocates will address issues such as Environmental Justice, Health Disparities, Homelessness, Immigration, LGBTQ, Race, Housing Discrimination, Educational Disparities, Mental Health, Criminal Justice, Food Justice (and Food Security), and more.
A focal point of the event will be inspiring Long Islanders to lobby for equal access to vital resources regardless of race, ethnicity, class, age, religion, gender, disability, and sexual orientation.
Among the featured speakers are Bernice Sims, author of Detour Before Midnight, an account of the infamous Neshoba County, Mississippi, murders of civil rights workers
James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman; Elaine Gross, president of ERASE
Racism, a Long Island-based, nationally acclaimed organization known for its cutting-edge
work on institutional and structural racism, especially in the areas of housing, education,
and community development; and the Reverend Dr. Alfonso Wyatt, author, mentor, and
founder of Strategic Destiny: Designing Futures Through Faith and Facts.
Marge Rogatz, a life-long champion for social equity, justice and the rights of the
homeless, will be honored as Lifetime Community Advocate. She has been president and
CEO of Community Advocates, Inc. for 30 years; was a co-founder and officer of both
the Nassau-Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless and Sustainable Long Island; is a founding
officer and current co-chair of ERASE Racism; a board member emerita of the Long Island
Community Foundation; and a director of the State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA).
For more information contact Dr. Miriam Deitsch at 934-420-2751.
Farmingdale’s Social Science Research Institute encourages and implements multidisciplinary social science research to benefit the residents and organizations of Long Island, and, more broadly, the state, the nation, and the world. It promotes excellence guided by ethics in fostering scientific and social advances. The Institute aims to foster social justice and equality in the region through community involvement and individual empowerment and to inspire students to increase their community involvement and maintain a lifelong commitment to social equity and justice.
