The University of Findlay and Brown Mackie College – Findlay, have joined forces with other community groups to create the Cultural Diversity Education Coalition to address diversity concerns in the Findlay/Hancock County area.

The mission of the coalition is “to provide multicultural education to our community giving our students and citizens a healthy place to learn, work and live whereby a spirit of open respect is established in regards to cultural sensitivity including but not limited to ethnicity, religion, age, gender, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and mental/physical disabilities.”

Group members met at the diversity forums held over the summer and early fall of 2008, and decided to join forces to help begin to address some of the diversity concerns in the area. As a coalition, their primary focus will be on providing education to the Findlay/Hancock County area in regard to diversity, creating a more open environment, acceptance/tolerance, and basic information about some of the groups present in the community.

The group, which meets monthly, has established two primary goals. The first is programming, which will include creating a calendar of diversity programming and identifying topics that are not being covered. The second is the creation of a speakers’ bureau that will serve as a resource to educate others in the community about diversity issues.

Members of the group include The University of Findlay, Brown Mackie College - Findlay, Hancock County Schools, the Black Heritage Library and Multicultural Center, GreaterFindlay Inc., and Unity Christian Ministries.

For more information or to assist with the coalition, please contact R. Oscar Bernard at 419-429-8660 or rbernard@brownmackie.edu or Almar Walter, director of Intercultural Student Services at The University of Findlay, 419-434-6967 or waltera@findlay.edu.