Fifteenth Annual Conference
Cambio de Colores / Change of Colors
Latinos in the Heartland: Building Bridges, Dialogue, and Opportunity
Columbia, Missouri
June 8-10, 2016
www.cambiodecolores.org
The Call for Presentations is now available! Proposals can be made at www.cambiodecolores.org. Students are invited to participate in a student poster competition. Contact decolores@missouri.edu with questions.
2016 Themes:
-Change and Integration
-Civil Rights and Political Participation
-Education
-Entrepreneurship and Economic Development
-Health
-Youth Development
About the Cambio de Colores 2016 Conference
Communities throughout the Midwest have seen dramatic demographic changes in the last three decades, including the arrival of large numbers of immigrants who are settling in rural and urban areas. Since 2002, the Cambio de Colores (Change of Colors) Conference has annually brought together community leaders and policymakers, those who provide services to newcomers in changing communities, researchers, and other professionals to discuss the issues resulting from these changes.
The theme this year, “Building Bridges, Dialogue, and Opportunity”, emphasizes the need for developing connections among the diverse groups that exist in our communities, facilitating dialogues that increase understanding, and motivating people to engage in processes that create opportunities for people to address differences and facilitate greater integration. As world migrations continue to surge this year, there is interest in building our communities to be more adaptive and to integrate newcomers, knowing that our communities grow stronger when they grow together and learn to respect differences. The movements for racial and economic justice on campuses and in communities have confirmed the need for more conversations, community work, research, and policy changes around issues of integration and understanding. While this conference focuses on the integration of Latinos and other immigrants, the planning committee encourages attendees to think broadly about how lessons learned at Cambio de Colores can be applied to other contexts.
Over the past fifteen years, this conference has served as a hub for researchers and practitioners to take stock of how our communities are adapting to changes and share experiences of how to improve community wellbeing and the integration of Latinos, minorities, and immigrants. While native and foreign-born Latinos may constitute the majority of new arrivals in these regions, the conference is also interested in immigrants from other areas of the world. The integration of these very diverse groups is being studied by academics and pursued by stakeholders, as the newcomers seek to become part and parcel of the social, economic, and cultural fabric of their new communities.
Continue reading at: http://www.cambiodecolores.org/2016/documents/2016call.pdf
