FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Margot Jackson, executive director of the Ozark Literacy Council, will lead a public discussion of the Welcoming America Project. The project is a national network designed to help nonprofit and government partners make their communities more welcoming places for immigrants.

Jackson and a group of Ozark Literacy Council clients will talk about the opportunities the project provides in Northwest Arkansas.

The free public event 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 event is 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 book tells the true story of young refugees from wars in the Middle East and Africa who were re-settled in the small town of Clarkson, Georgia, and created their own community through their common love of soccer.

 

St. John 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.