The White Center Community Development Association held a "Conversation with The Community" on Wednesday June 23 to stimulate discussion, gather ideas, and promote better communication. The meeting, led by Sopha Danh of the CDA as well as Evelyn Steele of Family Connection and Lan Le of the Refugee Federation Service Center, split people into groups and asked them to answer questions, meant to shape thinking and elicit creative solutions.

As an example, "What do you think is needed to be in a place to make sure families are connected to others, to school, to resources and the community in general?" was posed to the group.

The various groups then discussed the question, wrote their answers and shared the best of them with the larger group. The answers revealed the kinds of needs the community has such as better and more interpreters (the area has over 57 different languages), a common phrase booklet or "Rosetta Stone" style guide to help people from different cultures communicate, and cultural classes to better familiarize people (both new arrivals and long time residents) with different cultural norms.

White Center is home to approximately 32,000 people, "and we really only reach half of them," said Danh.

The idea of spreading and sharing information about community events, resources, and news through email, blogs and websites came up but for White Center this poses a problem. Sarah Weir, Family Development Director for the CDA noted that even though we are "practically in Bill Gates and Microsoft's backyard, only 44% of people in White Center have internet access."

Several members of the CDA took part in the meeting and they shared the sentiment that White Center's diversity doesn't mean it's a dangerous place or deserves a bad reputation. They suggested that it really needs to essentially work on it's own self image and through community events, such as Cultural Diversity Fair (perhaps in tandem with the July Jubilee Days at some point in the future) more attention could be brought to the strengths and value that diversity brings.

The ideas collected will be compiled and saved for future use, perhaps for the purposes of writing a grant proposal or possibly just as a springboard for future discussion.