SPRINGDALE -- EngageNWA, a nonprofit group that promotes a welcoming, diverse culture in Northwest Arkansas, announced the receipt of a $100,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation at a meeting of at least 100 people at an "community cohesion forum" Thursday night.
The group hosted the forum with interested parties at the Springdale Holiday Inn Convention Center. The meeting's purpose was to come up with specific proposals and plans to encourage greater interaction between individuals of all cultures. Organizers then announced at the end of the meeting that the group had received the grant, allowing them to act on those proposals.
"Integration and engagement are not to become ends in themselves," Terry Bankston, EngageNWA director, told the group as the meeting began. Action needed to result from Thursday's discussion and earlier forums hosted by the group, he said.
"We can't leave here tonight and then one of us see another at the mall over Christmas and say, 'Where do I know that person from?'" Bankston said after the meeting. If everybody has a good talk, a warm feeling and then does not even keep in contact with anyone they met that night, the meeting will have failed, he said.
The wide range of proposals discussed in the two-hour forum ranged from translation of more public literature including city government websites into more languages, more cultural events, creation of a booklet listing the variety of cultures represented by the residents of the area all the way to encouraging residents to hold subdivision parties. A regional center for reporting incidents of discrimination were also proposed. Issues emphasized by the group included transportation needs and emphasis on a regional approach. The proposals are being tabulated and compiled into a report by EngageNWA members.
Earlier, mayors Peter Christie of Bella Vista and Doug Sprouse of Springdale spoke to the gathering. Both mayors said that not only had the regions diversity made the region a more vibrant place, but that the region simply could not have sustained its economic growth without immigration. For longtime residents like himself, Sprouse said, "I know change is scary, but it's not new."
The meeting also featured a panel of business and community leaders who spoke up about when the region showed support for diversity and when it did not.
Mayra Esquivel is a staff member of Arkansas United, a nonprofit group that helps immigrants. She was most impressed by the Latino community of the region being so helpful to fellow Latinos who need assistance of any kind, particularly when someone needs assistance because of health issues.
Niru Raghavan, an executive at Cognizant Technology Solutions, has lived in the region for more than 15 years. She said she knew the region was embracing its diversity when she started seeing non-immigrants showing up at south Asian cultural events. She also said there were more of these events, such as local celebration of the festival of Holi in recent years. The celebration of springtime falls on different days each year depending on the date of the full moon. Celebrants throw colored powder at each other, covering faces and clothes. She invited all present to "come in March or April and throw colored powder at each other."
Things have changed a great deal from the time she attended a women's group luncheon 15 years earlier and a local mayor spoke to the group, Raghavan said. The long-retired mayor called recent immigrants "them" and the ladies in the group "us."
"I don't think he was intending anything but the fact he had that mindset scared me a little bit," she said.
This was the third and final of the community cohesion forums, with an earlier forum being held in Bentonville and another at The Jones Center in Springdale.
NW News on 12/02/2016