The Interfaith Alliance for Immigrants will be holding the first of three awareness forums coming up Tuesday evening in St. Joseph.

Roger Lenander with the Interfaith Alliance for Immigrants said they have put on the Awareness Forums for about five years.

“The purpose of it is to look at some of the topics and issues around immigration and to bring in some speakers and presenters who will speak to that and then to have a public dialogue about those issues, to be informed,” Lenander said.” It is twofold, it’s one, about being informed, and the other is about hospitality and what are the state of things and how we as a community provide hospitality to those who are immigrants in our community and coming from that background.”

The forum Tuesday features a panel of two presenters, Jessica Piedra, an attorney in Kansas City who has more than 15 years of experience in assisting immigrants in their legal journey and Dr. Melinda Kovacs, a native of Hungary and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Missouri Western State University.

The first forum takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall at 301 North 7th Street in St. Joseph.

The forums are free and open to the public. The other two forums will be held at 7 p.m. on March 19th at St. Francis Xavier Parish Center and 7 p.m. on April 16th at InterServ.