Welcoming America Project Is Focus of Discussion at U of A

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Welcoming America Project is a national network designed to help nonprofit and government partners make their communities more welcoming places for immigrants.

Margot Jackson, executive director of the Ozark Literacy Council, and a group of her clients will lead a public discussion of the project and the opportunities it provides in Northwest Arkansas. The program will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, in room D115 of the Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences Building, 1120 W. Maple Street, across from the Administration Building on the University of Arkansas campus.

This is the last of the community events that are part of the U of A’s One Book, One Community program, which encourages the university and surrounding community to read the same book and come together to discuss it.

This year’s selection is Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference by New York Times reporter Warren St. John. The author will visit the U of A to give a free public lecture and sign books from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, in the Donald W. Reynolds Auditorium. He will also speak to Fayetteville Public Library book club members at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6. 

Outcasts United is the true story of refugees from wars in the Middle East and Africa who were re-settled in the small town of Clarkson, Georgia, a few miles outside of Atlanta. The process was as wrenching for the refugee families as it was for the townspeople. For the children and teenagers, soccer was a common link. For their coach, a young Jordanian woman, herself an exile, the challenge was to build that link into something strong enough keep her players in school and out of trouble. The soccer team she led, known as the Fugees, became a symbol of the turmoil and change for the refugees and the Clarkson community.

Local readers of Outcasts United can find parallels to the experiences of people living in many Northwest Arkansas communities, and of the immigrants who have moved into the area.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.