class photo with students holding up donated textbooks

Partnership celebrated with donation of materials for SWBOCES Adult Education programs

SWBOCES Communications

October 19, 2026

Community Resource Center provides textbooks for English language learners

The Southern Westchester BOCES Center for Adult & Community Services in collaboration with the Community Resource Center in Mamaroneck is providing English language learners with the practical skills they need to participate in the workforce. Several classes of students and their teachers celebrated the partnership on Oct. 5, 2026, with brand new textbooks donated by CRC.

“Our mission is to empower immigrant families in Mamaroneck,” said Marco Bohorquez, Director of Operations and Programs at the CRC. “What we do in partnership with BOCES is to provide students with important skills for them to be able to succeed in this country. For example, this is hospitality training, so they’re getting the skills they need to apply for jobs.”

The course and textbooks are aligned to federal adult education standards and supported by a federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act grant and the New York State Education Department. Adult Education at SWBOCES emphasizes practical skills in all of its programs. Over the course of four months, the Adult English language literacy course provides adult learners with critical linguistic skills tailored specifically for the field where they want to work.

“The whole point of this is to advance their skills so that they’re ready for the workforce. They all have to have basic workforce eligibility already, like green cards, but there is specific, contextual information that they need to know first and foremost,” said Nicole Eschler, Director of Adult & Community Services at SWBOCES. “This class doesn’t start from the beginning with English. It’s focused on what they need to be employed.”

The English language literacy classes help adults across the region gain practical skills needed to find success in the workforce in a financially self-sustaining manner. With grant funding, this program enables adults in our communities to quickly gain the language skills needed to work more and better jobs, providing passionate and capable members of our communities with new opportunities to succeed in needed fields.