BRISTOL – Roger Williams University President Roy J. Nirschel and Rhode Island Latino Policy Institute co-founders Jorge Elorza and Domingo Morel today joined in announcing a new Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University.

The new center, part of a collaborative effort, aims to become the leading source of data about the state’s Latino population.

The university described it as a “cornerstone in efforts to involve a number of important academic and non-academic institutions, in and around Rhode Island, in data and policy gathering on Rhode Island’s Latino community.”

Under the three-year agreement announced this morning, Roger Williams will provide a headquarters for the LPI, as well as additional physical and intellectual resources.

The institute will provide “empirically-grounded public policy research that will contribute to fundamental advances in the quality of life for Latinos and the state as a whole,” the university said, adding that “by stimulating public policy discourse based on timely and factual data, the Institute will serve as a valuable resource to state and local policymakers.”

“Like many states, Rhode Island is at a critical policy juncture on a number of issues, including education, economic security, immigration and health care,” Nirschel said in a statement at the 10 a.m. event.

“The Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University will ultimately shape future public policy by creating a better understanding of the significant contributions of the Rhode Island Latino population. RWU’s long history of connecting academic research to the broader global society will help to attract further resources and cultivate strategic partnerships for this important initiative.”

The institute “was conceived in October of 2005 by a group of individuals who saw a dire need for quantitative and qualitative data on the Latino community” that would enable local leaders “to make informed and fact-based decisions,” the LPI said in a statement today. Although previously active in projects including the 2007-2009 Latino National Survey – and the preparation of a multi-agency report based on local data, entitled “Myths vs. Reality,” which was released in October during an LPI reception at the Rhode Island Foundation – the research group previously has had no permanent home.

“RWU’s solid record of developing cultural collaborations and community partnerships across partisan lines is a major asset to our growth,” said the LPI’s Morel. “This new collaboration will foster our ability to affect positive changes in Rhode Island by providing critical information on our growing Latino population.”

The need for such information is great, the university noted, because Latinos already comprise the largest minority population in the Ocean State. In 2005, the state had 112,722 Latino residents, or 9.8 percent of the population, U.S. Census Bureau data show, and those numbers are expected to double by 2020.

“LPI envisions a Rhode Island where Latinos are socially and economically integrated and civically engaged,” and where “Rhode Islanders have an understanding of the contributions of Latinos to the state,” the research group said.

The Rhode Island Latino Policy Institute (LPI) is an independent public policy research group based at Roger Williams University in Bristol. It aims to document and analyze the social, economic and civic contributions of Latinos in Rhode Island, becoming the leading source of data about the state’s Latino population.