FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2013
Contact: Angela Sultani, 313-945-8147, asultani@accesscommunity.org
WHAT:
Launch of Welcome Mat Detroit website—an online, searchable database of immigrant resources and service providers in Southeast Michigan. Official website goes live on September 24, 2013.
WHO:
Immigrant service providers, community members, and government officials. Speakers include Leslee Fritz of Michigan Department of Civil Rights, Steve Tobocman of Global Detroit, Belmin Pinjic of Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, Sophia Chue of Caribbean Cultural and Carnival Organization, Reginald Pacis of Butzel Long, and Master of Ceremonies Roop Raj of Fox 2 News.
WHEN AND WHERE:
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
11:30am-1:00pm
Southfield Public Library, 26300 Evergreen Rd, Southfield, Michigan 48076
WHY:
For immigrants and refugees to thrive in a new place, they need access to resources, vital services, and culturally sensitive service providers. Metropolitan Detroit, with a foreign-born population of 365,000, has the second largest immigrant population in the Great Lakes region. Welcome Mat Detroit catalogs a robust network of social service providers in Southeast Michigan and simplifies the process of choosing a provider that is best suited for them. With the information possible through the Welcome Mat, new connections and communities can be developed.
“Nothing is more powerful to remaking Detroit as a center of innovation, entrepreneurship and population growth, than embracing and increasing immigrant populations and the entrepreneurial culture and global connections that they bring and deliver,” states a 2010 report by Global Detroit.