Voices of the Confluence

Title: Coming to America: Then and Now

September 30, 2023

Sponsors: Building an All-Inclusive Community, Prescott Community Education, Prescott Historical Society

Funded By Building an All-Inclusive Community through a generous grant from the United Church of Christ Wisconsin Conference.

Today immigration is a much discussed and even controversial topic in the news and on social media. But what do you really know about immigration? Do you know that at one time immigration to the United States was unregulated? When did the government begin to regulate immigration and for what reasons? Who got to immigrate and who did not? How are refugees and asylum seekers different from immigrants? What do our official policies say about immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers? Who were Prescott’s original immigrants? Our Panel: Michele Waslin is the Assistant Director of the Immigration History Research Center; Kathryn Burger works with the Minnesota Council of Churches in Refugee Services; and Dallas Eggers is a retired teacher from the Prescott School District, a local historian, currently president of the Prescott Historical Society and a former over boat pilot.

A Respectful Conversation about Bridging Cultural Differences in Prescott

Saturday, October 14

Sponsors: Building an All-Inclusive Community & Prescott Community Education

Funded By Building an All-Inclusive Community through a generous grant from the United Church of Christ Wisconsin Conference

Conversations about important topics can sometimes be emotional, pick-a-side and fight-it-out discussions that leave us feeling worse about the people we disagree with, and sometimes worse about ourselves. But there is another way for us to talk that builds our empathy and strengthens relationships! The Respectful Conversations Project is a program of the Minnesota Council of Churches designed to strengthen civic life. Communities throughout our region host conversations that explore issues through the lens of deeply held convictions while enhancing relationships among those who disagree. Respectful Conversations are free speech venues designed not to change minds, but to soften hearts.

Hmong Voices of the Confluence

Held May 14, 2022 @ the Great River Road Learning Center