 generation, and generation will alter to the representative of the community who we are. Thank you all for being here. I have the reporters to tell us what their group topic was and then share their one big idea that the rest of the group needs to know. Let's get started. And reporters, Mehmet from the dialogue institute is a member of our planning community. And you see him shaking his head in the urban. Okay? So thanks Mehmet. Okay. So our first reporter, tell us your name, the group topic, and then your one big idea. Hello everybody, my name is Mehmet Ramon. And I'm basically a group where we build communities with refugees. Our final resolution was that we need to support the local groups that are already working like the Center for refugee services, Catholic Characters, ISIS, and some of the groups that we came across during the time that we were doing our discussion. So we need to support those groups because they already have the infrastructure. They're working with those individuals. We just need to support them. Thank you for having me in your group. So working to support the organizations that are already working to serve refugees. So we just talked about what we think is influencing laws and policies right now. And you realize that the unfortunate truth is that fear is a basis in which we've been driving all the misconceptions that we have. Whether that be in the agenda that the media is pushing, political leaders, or even our local political leaders with the state. So it's really breaking that idea of fear that's been facilitating for us. We need to focus not only on our state, but really in our own homes. We need to talk to our families, talk to our children about the issues that have helped them understand that we are all equal. That really was a really moving sight to see the majority of the groups stand up when that question was asked. Whose grandparents, whose great-grandparents, or they we've solved for immigrants. Definitely to start it at home is what we figured out. Wonderful. Thank you Michael and your group for moving tolerance in inclusive communities. We decided that a tolerant inclusive community is created by a non-judgmental, safe, informed, and engaged community through personal interactions starting with ourselves in our neighborhoods and schools. Wonderful. Thank you for telling me that. So creating a safe community through connection and focusing on ourselves in our schools. Our group was 4A, which was to refer to misconception and misrepresentation of refugees. And we talked about all the misconceptions that people in the country have toward refugees. And we came up with re-establishing the value of welcoming community, practicing a visible hospitality, welcoming an inclusion by building relationships that need to be built into the people by overcoming fear. But one thing I want to add as a former refugee is that no one become a refugee by choice. But you become a refugee by choice. Thank you. Thank you for the visible hospitality. How does the refugee program work and how can I get involved? And our main concern was that there's only a four to six month time span of which the families have to become self-sufficient. So we realized that everyone can offer something to help such as their time or monetary donations, also donating their talent or their professional expertise. We had some medical professionals in our group who were interested in helping with refugees' medical needs and they just didn't know where to plug in to do that. Also education, somebody who can become, you know, in English as a second language teacher, even if they're not trained as a teacher, there's still something that they can offer to help. And then lastly, one of the things that we thought they could offer is advocacy, just spreading the word about who are refugees, why are they here, what do they need to be successful. Wonderful. Thank you. So as we think about how we can help refugees, there's way for everyone to donate their time, talent and treasure. Thank you. Hello, my name is John and I was with the state. We talked about trying to dispel misconceptions about how we talk about immigrants, especially using the correct vocabulary and learning the laws that describe immigrants in different situations. Okay, so accuracy in language matters. Thank you to your group. Okay, my name is Jane Koboskis and I work with the group of how to create tolerant and inclusive communities. And I am the Mexican-American who's lived here all my life. I'm 70 years old. And when I first got up, when they asked, stand up if you have relatives who had come from another country and being of Native American blood and me and Mexican-American and my mother telling me that we were always from Texas and maybe the border kept on jumping around and it moved around us. So it got me to thinking that how could I as a person of Mexican-American descent feel like I am an immigrant because they're still telling me to go home, to go back to where I came from. And so I feel like how could you feel to welcome people when I myself do not feel welcomed. And so we're saying that conversation outside reach and open up and be open to education. We have to treat people as people. Mindfulness, self-awareness. Thank you, Jane. We did fear of the others and misperceptions. And I think we discussed that it's important to engage and educate across multiple levels. So the natural, the community and the self. National level, of course, that would be getting in touch with politicians and encouraging them to perhaps change policies. The community level is more events like this. Other events that reach people across the community, perhaps those who are not like-minded because at events like this we're going to have more people who feel the same way we do, but we need to combat and overcome misperceptions and misperceptions, which means reaching out to people who think differently from us. And so we talked about different ways that we could do that, such as cultural events across the city like Eid and Diwali and the Day of the Dead festival. And then on a personal level, inviting those who are perhaps refugees or immigrants in our neighborhood, or volunteering at a local or religious center, or teaching in English, or if somebody mentioned, if you're at H&B and you see somebody who looks like they're struggling, who they might be new to the country, just reaching out to them, smiling at them and letting them know you're a friendly case who will go miles and miles and miles toward making that person feel more at home. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay, ours was a circle topic, 5B. How is entrepreneurship and leadership by former immigrants and refugees changing the city for the better? When we're talking about how vibrant it makes the city whenever we have new businesses being opened up, now good for the economy it is to have people come and open up new businesses, and to have these different cultures in our city. And we talked about the things that we can do to help people who come to our country and to our city to help them open these businesses that they want to. One of the big things that we were thinking about is having a central resource for small business start-up and supporting multi-cultural type of businesses. Some place where we can tell people, well, this is where you can go to get a small business loan, this is where you can go to get this, maybe, climate people to employ and things like that. Also, positive support for refugees and countering fears with rich contributions, people stepping up to help the refugees whenever they need it, especially other business owners who have already been here for a long amount of time. Invite helpers and supporters of refugees to participate and show my example. One, we, for the sale, how do we build community with refugees? And we brought in the common theme of all of our discussion is language, and how are any difficult things for English speakers is 95x10, or people who don't speak English. So one of the solutions that we came up with was more opportunities for English practice, including conversations. We had a weekly conversation about what the folks could go to and speak with refugees who were practicing their English. That would, one, help them practice their English. And two, help overcome fear of the other and misperceptions and misperceptions of refugees as folks who are only worthy of service acts and not full human beings. Wonderful. So creating connections through English language, running out with communities. I want to thank all of our very rich, our long conversation in a very short amount of time. So let's give our reporters all a big round of applause.