Multicultural Training Opportunities and Resources

Cultural Training

1. Local Cultural Compentency Training
2. Cultural Competency for Human Service Professionals: an introductory self-study course
   Dates: Register for the program whenever it is convenient for you and work at your own pace
   Location: Online; Fee: $75

Cultural Resources

1. Diversity Matters - Helping You Prepare for America's Changing Demographics
2. Diversity Matters Newsletter - In the News and Announcements 2007, Vol. 3, No. 1
3. Manitowoc Local History Collection Manitowoc local history captured in photographs.
4. Population Notes: A look at the demography and geography of Wisconsin
5. Profiles of Children in Immigrant Families: the U.S. and 50 States
   Twenty percent of children in the U.S. now live with at least one foreign-born parent. This new brief from Child Trends and the SUNY Albany Center for Social and Demographic Analysis finds four in five children of immigrants are American citizens, and nearly one-half speak English fluently and another language at home. Pre-K is a critical support for their successful integration into American society.
6. Manitowoc Library
   Multicultural consortium celebrates diversity, library provides tools Manitowoc County is changing, and Manitowoc Public Library provides the tools to appreciate the changes. It is not uncommon, for instance, to hear Spanish or Hmong being spoken, or to see people dressed in what many Americans consider ethnic attire, but is really just everyday apparel in other countries. Yes, even Manitowoc County is beginning to reflect the world’s diversity. Manitowoc Public Library has the resources to help us understand and celebrate this diversity. There are audiobooks to teach you languages, dictionaries to help you translate, and books that describe the cultures from around the world. Just browsing the audiobook collection, you can find language programs in three dozen languages. Learn to speak Slovakian or Swahili, Armenian or Omaeqnomenewak, Farsi or Filipino. Oh, the library has language programs for Hmong, Spanish, and English, as well. Have a nodding acquaintance with the language, but need to learn some words for phrases? The library offers dictionaries and phrasebooks in more than fifty languages. Not only will you find dictionaries for languages that originated in faraway places, but also for indigenous American languages, including Hawaiian and Ojibway. Want more of a flavor of the language and the people who speak it? Listen to their music. Manitowoc Public Library’s extensive CD collection includes music and stories from around the world, in dialects that bring its speakers to life. Browse the Ethnic sections of the CD collections and see for yourself. Another collection worth exploring is the foreign language collection. There you will find books and magazines for children and adults in Spanish, Hmong and Japanese. There are also a number of bilingual books, particularly in the Youth Services Department, in Spanish, Hmong, Chinese, German, Japanese, and others.
   
   For more information about multicultural resources at Manitowoc Public Library, visit the library at 707 Quay Street, or call 683-4863, and press #2 for the Reference Desk or #6 for Youth Services. For more information about multiculturalism and diversity in Manitowoc County contact the Multicultural Consortium. Contact NyiaLong Yang at 684-1228 pr via email at nyang@hmongcommunity.org, or Bobbi Schuetze at 683-5014 or via email at bobbischuetze@co.manitowoc.wi.us. The Multicultural Consortium meets six times each year in room 300 of the Manitowoc County Office Complex at 4319 Expo Drive.

Opportunities for a Diploma

1. A new way for English Language Learners to earn a high school diploma (1 page, 28 KB)
   Lakeshore Technical College is offering a new, competency-based option for individuals to obtain a high school equivalency diploma. The option is for students who are not able to obtain a diploma through the traditional HSED testing process. Individuals complete requirements to show mastery in math, reading, science, social studies and writing as well as career awareness, civics, employability skills and health.

Resources in Spanish and English and on Immigration

1. Hispanic Resources Directory (11 pages, 57 KB) - Spanish and English: lists Church, Clothing, Counseling etc. in Manitowoc County.
2. Resources for Immigration in Wisconsin (2 pages, 17 KB)
3. Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery Now Open for Fiscal Year 2008 (2 pages, 79 KB)
   

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