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Building cultural bridges through storytelling, training and education to promote diversity and inclusion.
The Need:
Like many places, the population of Grand Island is becoming more culturally diverse. The growth in diversity changes the fabric of the community-to the ways in which people play sports, have celebrations, build business, raise their children.
As this diverse community has developed, friendship and team play are the norm for many of the young people simply because they have grown up together or go to school together. The adult population, however, is more reluctant based on varying degrees of isolation and stages of prejudice.
Most importantly all of this impacts the overall health of the community, leaving people feeling isolated in groups and missing the opportunity to develop a rich, vibrant, inclusive community that celebrates diversity while finding common goals for the future.
The Project:
Utilizing podcast technology, as well as other technologies, conduct conversations and interviews that are designed to identify similarities and explore differences between cultures. To help the conversation, diverse teams are formed and provided with conversation cards. The conversations occur over coffee or a light meal. At the end of each set of sessions, the teams are interviewed by a third person for the podcast where they talk about what they have learned about the other person during their time together.
We anticipate using excepts from the conversations and interviews, as well as the podcasts to improve culture awareness not only in our own Rotary Club, but throughout the community and area. It is our hope to become a culturally diverse club, as reflected in our membership and our community service.
The Timeline:
The project will officially kick off in August of 2018 with a "Citizenship 101" presentation by the Director of our Multicultural Coalition to give us all a better understanding of the process for immigration and citizenship. Then in the following months we will form the teams and begin the conversations and interviews. Ideally, we will use as many club members as possible throughout this project.
The Funding:
Our club will provide, at minimum, $250 to add to the $1000 District Grant. Our budget is as follows:
Tech equipment and professional editing $750
Hospitality (light meals, coffee, etc) $400
Supplies (printing and promotional expenses) $100
Total $1,250
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