Benjamin Mueller
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
535 Bevier Hall
905 S. Goodwin Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 244-2463 or (815) 742-2224, (217) 244-2861 fax

Community Forums: Addressing Health, Education and Workforce Disparities of Latino Immigrants Residing in Midwestern Communities was developed to provide an opportunity for improving communication and creating more favorable conditions for Latino/a immigrants and the organizations serving them in Midwestern communities.

The goal of these community forums is to provide an environment for primarily Mexican immigrant families to dialogue with representatives of schools, health organizations, local government, and companies that are employing immigrant workers in order to discuss what issues and problems the Latino families are experiencing and to help these families understand what are some of the programs and opportunities that they may access from these institutions. The target audience for the community forums is primarily undocumented Mexican immigrants working in non metro Midwestern communities that vary in size.

Typically the forums are developed by a local committee coordinated by the University of Illinois Extension and the University of Illinois National Center for Rural Health Professions. The latter has a four year $6.4 million NIH grant to address Minority Health Disparities among Rural Populations in Illinois. Approximately a dozen communities in Illinois and Wisconsin have participated in a forum or are in the planning stages for developing a community forum. Often there are multiple forums in a community. In each case, a community planning committee is formed to organize the forums and recruit the speakers and assure the participation of the Latino families. Subject matter experts, community organization representatives who work with Latino families, and student interpreters are resources that are available for the community forums.

Outcomes include: increased complaints of Latinos filed with local government Human Relations Commissions, investigations of racial profiling of police, waivers for Latino families to attend specific schools in a district without additional charges to the families, reforms in school registration procedures for undocumented immigrant families, and, in general, a better understanding both from the immigrant perspective as well as the community’s educators, health care providers, employers and social service providers of how to improve the conditions of these families who are one of the highest “at risk” populations residing in the U.S.