MEDIA ALERT

May 11, 2007


MEDIA ALERT

Contact:
Jane Simpson, Director of Public Relations
Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Inc.
402-978-5646; cell 402-690-7344
jsimpson@lfsneb.org

Lutheran Family Services hosting Church World Service Interethnic Dialogue on Immigration

OMAHA, May 11, 2007 – Church World Service (CWS), a global humanitarian agency whose work includes U.S. refugee resettlement and immigration services, and Lutheran Immigration Services, a program of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska (LFS), is holding an Interethnic Dialogue on Immigration Wednesday, May 16, from 1-5 p.m. at the LFS Center Mall office, 1941 South 42 nd St., Suite 402, in Omaha.

The immigration issues event is one of a national series of interethnic dialogues scheduled nationwide through mid-July to give community leaders, immigrant and ethnic groups a forum to speak out, listen to each other, find common ground, and generate unified community action on this topic.

Omaha is one of ten sites across the U.S. that Church World Service selected to host a Dialogue. Dialogue Coordinator Jamie Pitts from CWS will be in attendance to facilitate the discussion. The dialogue venue is the co-location of the Lutheran Immigration Services office and the International Center of the Heartland in Omaha. The International Center of the Heartland is a United Way of the Midlands community collaborative impact initiative, with Lutheran Family Services as the lead agency.

Over 200 Nebraska organizations and individuals, including people from immigrant and refugee communities, community advocates, businesspeople, government officials and the faith community, have been invited to participate in the May 16 Omaha Dialogue. Participants are asked to come with one immigration-related issue that is most important to them or their organization. The participants will break into small groups to discuss each issue, and a closing plenary session from 4-5 p.m. will be held to summarize the dialogue and determine next steps.

Dialogue Coordinator Jamie Pitts says, “Interethnic Dialogues on Immigration create space for people with a wide array of opinions to share those opinions and respectfully listen to others. We believe the give and take of sharing and listening – dialogue – is central to our democratic process and will help our national discussion on immigration.

“We do plan for action to come out of the dialogues and these dialogues will facilitate new alliances and help identify common ground where action can take place. Finally, the dialogues are a great way to connect with organizations that are active on immigration in your community.”

For more information in both English and Spanish: www.immigrationdialogues.org

For questions regarding the Omaha dialogue process, contact Jamie Pitts:
jpitts@churchworldservice.org or cell 626-823-1371

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