Where does the Jefferson City Multicultural Forum go from here?
Mid-Missouri continues to be a destination for immigrants from many areas of the world. Jefferson City is home of Lincoln University, one of the most diverse four year institutions in the state of Missouri. The University also serves an international student population from 27 countries around the globe, with the highest numbers from Jamaica, Ghana and Tanzania. More and more Americans are learning about their own cultural heritages and expressing their pride.
Employers in the area need a source from which to draw both employees and knowledge of diversity and legal issues involved in the question of multiculturalism. Governmental organizations need resources for handling the new languages emerging and the challenges of cultural/multi-national differences in both needing and desiring help from such agencies.
To this end, the Jefferson City Multicultural Forum will grow in its outreach. It will continue to offer multicultural events as an opportunity for sharing and awareness of the community's differences and commonalities. Members of the Forum will participate on various other organizational councils and boards such as El Puente, Lincoln University and the City's Commission on Human Relations.
What does the Forum need to accomplish all of this? It needs support, not just financial, although the Forum would not turn down any endowments, but it truly needs people support. It needs to have more and more people involved as the Forum endeavors to make the Jefferson City area a great place to live and a place of pride for all cultures. Interested persons may contact the Forum to discover how they can make a difference in their community.
Everyone who decides to make their home in mid-Missouri deserves to feel at home. That is the ultimate goal of the Jefferson City Multicultural Forum.