Chattanooga International Summit
Culture and Lifestyle Session
Proposed Topic: Leveraging the Power of Diversity by Integrating Cultures
Speaker: Panel of Four – To Be Identified
Facilitator: Jacqueline Strong Moss, Office of Multicultural Affairs
Background:
Should the City of Chattanooga take affirmative steps to support the integration of diverse cultural perspectives and heritages into the civic, social and economic life of our city?
Today, over forty different languages are spoken in Hamilton County. We now live in a society that is culturally complex and ethnically diverse. Never before has it been so difficult to integrate different traditions, beliefs and values into a single vision of community. As the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County continues to grow more and more diverse, the time is right for a community conversation on how best to connect with international cultures and support the inclusion of the global community into the fabric of community life.
The presentation will include two parts. At the foundational level, you will be introduced to the concept of building inclusive communities. Community inclusion refers to the outcome of actively utilizing the wide range of cultural perspectives, knowledge, and skills in the service of a collective community interest. The community inclusion model that will guide the conversation was developed by Billy E. Vaughn. It is based on the assumption that (1) a community of people becomes inclusive by virtue of constructing a shared sense of purpose, (2) inclusion is the result of creating an intentional, goal-directed activity system that capitalizes on the rich cultural practices available in a diverse society, and (3) a diverse community goes through a set of developmental stages in achieving inclusion.
During the second part of the presentation, participants are invited to join us in a conversation on culture and how culture impacts the social, political and economic life of our city.
Goals:
- To identify existing outreach opportunities for cultural inclusiveness.
- To develop pathways for the integration of various cultural perspectives into the civic, social and economic life of our city
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