LEWISTON – Beth Stickney, executive director of Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, will be this month’s Great Falls Forum speaker.

Stickney will focus on Immigrants in Maine: A 2006 Snapshot. Her talk will cover what types of immigrants are in Lewiston and Maine as well as why they are here. She will also discuss the sections of the economy being affected by the influx as well as the challenges these immigrants face upon arrival.

The advocacy project is Maine’s only provider of immigration law and related legal assistance to low-income Maine residents. It serves about 1,500 Mainers who need immigration information, brief assistance or legal representation.

Stickney has specialized in immigration law since 1986 and has also completed two years of human rights work in El Salvador. She has been published extensively on a variety of immigration law issues and is co-author of “Immigration Law & The Family.” Stickney frequently talks both locally and nationally on immigration issues.

The forum will be from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, at the Marsden Hartley Cultural Center, Lewiston Public Library, Lisbon Street. Lunch is $7 with preregistration.

For lunch reservations, call Jeanne Lachance at 689-2843 on or before Tuesday, Oct. 17.

The monthly public platform provides for thought-provoking speakers and discussion. Everyone is welcome. No dues. No obligations. Just lunch, discussion and information. A question-and-answer period will follow the talk.