JCMCF - History

"I really feel at home here is one of the highest compliments that can be said about a neighborhood, city or state. Jefferson City, like any city, has a diverse, ever-changing population, from natives to newcomers. All deserve to feel equally at home."

This is the first line from an editorial published in the Jefferson City News Tribune on June 18, 2000. That date marked a significant step for the community of Jefferson City and mid-Missouri. It was at that time the Jefferson City Multicultural Forum began its formal process of foundation. And those first few words within the editorial reflected the hopes of the Forum in its earliest stages of effort toward making everyone in Jefferson City feel part of the community.

The actual beginning of the Forum was in the fall of 1999 when the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce organized a trip to Rogers, Arkansas, the purpose of which was to investigate how the community dealt with the influx of Hispanic immigrants to their area. There were approximately 60 members of the Jefferson City governmental, education, business and human services organizations as well as the community at-large who participated in the trip.

During the two day stay in Rogers, members of the task force met with their counterparts from the Rogers area. They heard the stories of local immigrants and the community members regarding changes that had to be made to accommodate new languages and traditions. They also got a sense of the challenge it could be to welcome a large influx of persons with different backgrounds to their once very homogeneous city. Some of these challenges included new curriculum offerings within the schools, a language gap for new immigrants trying to open bank accounts or shop in local stores, a lack of adequate, affordable housing, an understanding of laws, a mixing of cultures and many more.

Upon arrival back in Jefferson City, the task force met to discuss what they had learned. From this meeting, six subcommittees were formed. These were:

Each of these communities held their own meetings and began the process of looking at what Jefferson CIty had in the areas of immigration influx, demographics, and how the City was positioned in each area of service for such immigration issues. There were also subsequent meetings of the entire task force where these subcommittees reported their findings. One of the findings that each subcommittee brought back to the task force was that whatever steps were taken on behalf of new populations to the area, the task force also had to remember that the community as a whole should benefit from any changes or enhancements being offered. This was especially true when recognizing the fact that the African-American population in the community had been somewhat disconnected from the community as a whole and that that population along with other growing contingencies from Eastern Europe, Central and South America and the Asian continent needed the same services and considerations as the task force found available or wanted to make available to the current Anglo population.

To this end, members of the task force began attending local community organizational meetings such as the Rotary and discussing their findings. A consensus was reached within the task force and the community at-large that some sort of agency or organization be formed as a resource network for handling all the information being gathered as well as being a platform from which help could be offered to the community regarding the changing face of Jefferson City.

In early spring 2000, the task force formed one more subcommittee dubbed the Leadership Development subcommittee. The charge to this group was to begin the process of acquiring a 501(c)3 status for a multicultural based entity. This leadership group then met over the next couple of months and developed a statement of purpose which states:

Armed with new census information, outlines of plans from other local communities such as California and Sedalia, Missouri, and the above statement, a Board of Directors was elected and a new non-profit organization of the Jefferson City Multicultural Forum was legally instituted in January 2001.

The Board of Directors consists of a cross-section of the Jefferson City population, drawing individuals from many cultures, including Hispanic, German, Irish, Asian, Indian, African, African-American and more. Community representation was also established to include educators and administrators from the public and private educational institutions, religious leaders, business members, college staff and faculty, recent immigrants, health department, officials, governmental entities, law enforcement and private individuals.

Initial funding for the Forum's work came from a $1,000 grant offered by Scholastic. This money along with in-kind services from Scholastic and other business members within the Jefferson CIty Chamber of Commerce allowed the Forum to cover its legal obligations regarding its foundation and begin to focus on the tasks at hand.

The focus of the Forum's work during its first year was to make the community aware of its existence and to begin the process of networking all of the cultural groups already in existence so that an awareness of cultural issues came to the forefront. To this end, three primary tasks took shape.

The first of these were for members of the Forum to visit local organizations and share their story. Board members attended meetings of the Board of Realtors, Rotary, Business Associations, Council of Clubs, City Council and School Board meetings. Public service announcements and news articles were also published.

The second undertaking was to publish a community resource directory that new and current members of the community could use to find services available within Jefferson City. It took many months for the Forum's Community Resource Committee to gather information from service agencies, to format that information and publish it in both English and Spanish. Over 500 copies of the Directory have been distributed to both service vendors and individuals needing service within the community.

The largest and most impactful task was the initiation of the Multicultural Festival. The first Festival was held on October 7, 2001. It was as if no better time for the Festival could have been chosen. The community was still reeling from the affects of the events of September 11 and the bombing of terrorist targets in Afghanistan which literally began the same day as the Festival. Despite these world concerns, and maybe even because of them, the Festival was a huge success with nearly 3,000 persons attending the day-long event.

Held in McClung Park, the Festival allowed members of all cultures within the community to share their history and beliefs through storytelling, exhibits, activities, food and music. Over 40 businesses and organizations helped sponsor the Festival through both cash and in-kind contributions. Nearly 60 groups participated through exhibits and presentations.

The success of the first year's Festival demonstrated to the Forum and the community as a whole that there is room and opportunity for all persons interested in living within the Jefferson City area. The Festival's success also challenged the Forum to bigger and better accomplishments during 2002. The Board of Directors along with interested members of the community held a day long retreat where a new mission statement was formulated and an expansion of the Forum's outreach was discussed.

The Board added other committees in order to accomplish those goals including Public Relations, Legislation, Education and Training, Fundraising, Community Resources and Community Awareness and Special Events. Additional committees meant more board members and community members within those committees and these persons were incorporated into the Forum activities.

The second Multicultural Festival, themed as a Tapestry of Cultures, also grew and established itself as an annual event to be held the first weekend in October each year. Because of the growth in participation in the event, the Festival was moved to Riverside Park. The new venue allowed for more cultural booths and those were all filled and then some. Exhibitors demonstrated their cultural heritages from countries as varied as Sierre Leone, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Germany, Scotland, Africa, the Caribbean nations and the Middle East and organizations such as NAACP, El Puente and the Munichberg Association. Children were issued passports which allowed them to travel to various countries represented. Many businesses and organizations shared their information and diverse interests with the community. A second annual poster contest was held for the local school children in which they had their chance to show what diversity meant to them. Musical performances and multicultural storytelling as well as a variety of ethnic foods were available for the Festival goers. Crowd estimates were much larger than the previous year with many individuals and organizations signing on to be included in the 2003 festivities. The momentum continued and successful festivals were held in subsequent years.

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. It is also home of one of the most international college populations in Lincoln University. 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 the Multicultural Festival 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, the United Way, NAACP, the City's Commission on Human Rights, the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce, and the Jefferson City Public Schools' Multicultural Committee.

Its Education and Training Committee reaches out to both the community and directly to businesses to offer necessary resources. Its Legislative Committee will keep the Forum, and thus the community, abreast of issues coming from the state and national governments that would affect individuals and organizations networked with the Forum. Community Awareness will always be in the forefront of the Forum's activities as more opportunities arise to present the tapestry of Jefferson City's cultures to individuals throughout mid-Missouri.

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 in such activities and the Multicultural Festival or its other committees 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.