The Interfaith Alliance for Immigrants is hosting upcoming forums to talk about immigration in the St. Joseph community.
IAI is an interfaith group advocating for justice, hospitality, human rights and respect for immigrants and their families. Dave Howery, the Ex. Dir of InterServ said IAI has been in existence for around six years.
“We know the interest is there in how do we provide that support and involvement. At the community level knowing that there has to be some sort of a dialogue,”Howery said. “Without that discussion then fear and anxiety takes on a roles of its own. We start to demonize, we start to ostracize by saying, ‘well let’s disregard that.’ So how do we counter that?… It’s that discussing between one another. What are those issues that we see that maybe divide us but also bring us closer together.”
Three forums to talk about health, education, business and resources immigrants utilize in the community are slated over the next several months. Howery said the forums are to get people thinking about how immigrants fit in.
“How do we begin to look at how do we benefit from that, past and present. St. Joseph has a good background at that,” Howery said. “My grandparents on my maternal side came from Mexico. They weren’t citizens, they didn’t speak English, they had nine children. It’s always that second or third generation who begins that move from integration into the community to assimilation and we’ve all experienced that.”
The first forum will take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church located at 301 N. 7th St. The forum will touch on Education and Health with speakers Nancy Clisbee (Webster), Dr. Robert Stuber (SWB), and Fumi Cheever (MWSU).
“We talk about assimilation, coming into American and assimilating. We find that one of the barriers is language,” said Ramadhan Washington with the St. Joseph Islamic Center. “We have Ms. Clisbee who will be there from Webster, where they teach the bilingual, second language.”
The second forum will tackle social services and resources on March 21 at 7 p.m. at St. Peter Lutheran Church located at 3524 St. Joseph Ave. Speakers at that forum will include Kim Kempf and Carrie Turner (YWCA), and Donna Salcido (Inter-Serv).
The final forum will take place April 18th at 7 p.m. at St. James Church located at 5814 King Hill Ave. Employment and business will be the topic with speakers Chief Chris Connally (SJPD), and Pat Lilly (Chamber of Commerce).
Then in May, IAI will host a prayerful gathering on the 24th the St. Joseph Islamic Center.
“Having somebody talk about that relationship and understanding about the various religions in Islam,” Howrey said. “We’ve been doing the prayerful gatherings on an annual basis, maybe twice a year to bring the community together as part of that sort of celebration, recognition of the gifts that people bring from different cultures.”