Hispanic and Immigrant Liaison, Fort Wayne, Indiana

This initiative has been identified as a good immigrant integration practice by the NLC. Click here to find all about the other programs!

Fort Wayne has a population of 255,890, six percent of whom are foreign-born.

Fort Wayne’s Community Development, Planning & Policy Department created the Hispanic and Immigrant Liaison position in 2009. The liaison works to establish communication with the Hispanic community as well as with the general immigrant community. The liaison provides information and assistance for accessing city services and is involved in community development planning projects that affect the city’s immigrant communities. In addition, the liaison educates the community at large about the changes and cultural issues associated with Fort Wayne’s diverse populations. The liaison works to continuously collaborate, coordinate and organize community events that benefit recent immigrants, refugees and other diverse communities.

The liaison has worked in partnership with the local Burmese Advocacy Center to invite the community at large to learn about Burma, its people, history, culture, diverse dialects, music and food and to hold presentations from faculty, researchers, and volunteers who have direct contact with this community. The liaison has also recently partnered with the Fort Wayne Police Department and the Burmese Advocacy Center’s Self-Sufficiency Program to form the Immigrant and Refugee Community Safety Task Force (IMCSTF) with the goal of acquainting immigrants and refugees with their safety rights and responsibilities. This task force will open communication between property owners, residents, service providers, corporations and the City of Fort Wayne.

Other activities and programs include:

• Intensive English and Spanish classes
• Job Skills/Financial Skills for Fathers
• African Food Fest
• Cultural Competency to Immigrant and Refugee Service Providers
• English Café sponsored by the Multicultural Information Exchange Program for immigrants to practice their English language skills
• Free multicultural human rights camp for 5th graders sponsored by the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission
• Support for the Bienvenido Program, a prevention intervention program that increases Latino access to mental health services

The liaison has also partnered with NLC’s Municipal Action for Immigrant Integration program (MAII). Fort Wayne actively participates in the NewCITYzen Naturalization Campaign
and the CITYzenship Community Initiative by organizing events like immigration and naturalization trainings and other workshops. A recent webinar focusing on local gateways to citizenship and co-organized by MAII and Cities of Migration (Canada) highlighted Fort Wayne and the CITYzenship Community Initiative as topics of discussion.

Programs from this partnership include:

• Bilingual television public service announcements to raise citizenship awareness
• Integrating Immigrant Communities to Protect Our Children program, supported by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and focused on immigrant children and youth safety issues
• “Prevention of Mental Health issues in the Immigrant Community” workshop
• Community trainings

For more information about the Hispanic and Immigrant Liaison, please contact Palermo Galindo, planner– Hispanic and immigrant liaison, at (260) 427-6214 or palermo.galindo@cityoffortwayne.org.

For more information about the Integrating Immigrant Communities to Protect Our Children project, please contact Ricardo Robles, Fort Wayne Police Department, at (260) 439-8200 or ricardo.robles@cityoffortwayne.org.