Conference highlights changing communities Critical issues will be raised in mid-Mo. brainstorming session By Jessie Turner Adelante Staff Writer The season will not be the only thing changing mid-March in Columbia. Gathering from all over Missouri and around the nation, community leaders, experts and visionaries will meet to share ideas and change the course of Hispanic immigration patterns. The Cambio de Colores (Change of Colors) in Missouri Conference, March 13-15, will address basic issues Hispanic immigrants and their communities face. Health care, criminal justice and education are only a few of the topics to be addressed in hopes of building stronger networks within the state and better resources for Hispanic newcomers. Latino immigrants are coming to Missouri and “communities do not know how to handle it,” said Dolores Arce-Kaptain, director of the Alianzas Program in Kansas City. “Access to transportation, housing and health care is very difficult. All these are presenting challenges to the communities.” The ideas conceived at the conference will give people something to take back to their communities, Arce-Kaptain said. Participants are “going to walk away with some knowledge of where to find resources and who to contact for help,” she said. Different perspectives are an integral part of the conference, said Corinne Valdivia, MU professor of agricultural economics and president of the Hispanic and Latin American Faculty and Staff Association (HLAFSA), the group that conceived the event and has led the organizing. Valdivia, co-chair on the organizing committee, has high hopes for the outcome of the conference, which has been in the works for almost a year. She hopes the conference will create a momentum that Missouri communities can maintain. The conference “is a starting point so that a community of people will form and address these needs,” Valdivia said. Various states and communities will share strategies for handling growth in the Hispanic population, but the focus will be tailored to Missouri, said Stephen Jeanetta, community development specialist for MU Outreach and Extension. Jeanetta said immigration is a widespread phenomenon, and addressing it at the conference will benefit everyone. “It’s happening all over the state, but it’s not happening the same way everywhere,” Jeanetta said. “That’s why it’s important to share the issues each community has.” Valdivia said maintaining the momentum of the conference will be a process. By creating Web site resources, working on research and development projects and hosting workshops throughout the year, Valdivia hopes the networks formed at the conference will serve the needs of incoming Hispanics building toward a 2003 conference at UMKC. HLAFSA and MU will host a conference March 13-15, at Reynolds Alumni Center on the MU campus. “Cambio de Colores (Change of Colors) in Missouri” will focus on the changing demographics of Hispanics in Missouri and the emerging needs of Missouri communities in response to the increasing number of Hispanic immigrants. For more information go to decolores.missouri.edu.