Intercultural Festival

PURPOSE

Vision: Making our communities inclusive, diverse, safe, and productive for everyone
Mission: Our mission is to help immigrants, refugees, and international student to successfully integrate into their adoptive communities in Iowa.
Goals:To improve and celebrate diversity and in Cedar Rapids and nearby communities. We are promoting culture diversities to near down our differences and make our communities more inclusive and knowledgeable on other cultures in the world.

Our Missions in Our Communities

The number of international residents in Cedar Rapids is proliferating. In 2018, Cedar Rapids demographic has 5.5% black, 2.21% Asian, over 3% is Hispanic or Latino, 3% of the population is mixed race.

Many of them are immigrants who are looking to start a new life. Some of them are refugees who are being rescued and resettled from war zones. There are also international students who came here for a better education. These new residents came from different parts of the world. They have different cultures, customs, and lifestyles. They needguidance. Often, they are unaware of our local cultures, traditions, and public safety. At the same time, we also want our locals to understand where they came from. Here are some observations of our refugees and our missions:

Lack of awareness in public safety

Immigrants, refugees and international students can get into some serious troubles with law enforcement because of their lack of awareness of public safety expectations.
Our goal is to build mutual understandings between the law enforcement and our international residents. By bringing our international residents and local law enforcement together, we create an opportunity for new residents to understand the cultural differences and public safety expectations.

Lack of education and overcome the language barrier

Most refugees have no education and are learning to speak English. They have a hard time to understand or to communicate what they need. Although there are resources made available to our communities, they will need guidance on how to use them.
We invite leaders and volunteers to educate immigrants about the resources available to help them. The event will benefit our international residents to understand our communities is providing support to them and help them to build better lives. Moreover, we also offer an opportunity for them to express what they need.

Overcoming emotional trauma in the past

Some refugees need to heal from the terrible emotional trauma of their past. Without appropriate integration and a sense of support from the community, they will have a harder time to become productive citizens, employees, and students.
o We invite community leaders to share information or to inform any new resources of the community. Leaders may also take the opportunity to interact directly with the refugees and understand their needs.

Lack of knowledge in cultural differences

Many children living in our communities came from have different backgrounds and culture. Children of these new residents may not be familiar with the cultural differences.