The Siler City Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to create an Immigrant Community Advisory Committee on June 21. The resolution is a recommended action from the Siler City Building Integrated Communities (BIC) Action Plan, which consists of recommendations from more than eighty residents with recent immigrant ancestry collected through a participatory research process from 2017-2019. At the same meeting, the Board also approved a five percent pay raise for bilingual employees, an additional recommendation from the Action Plan. Other recommendations already implemented include Town website improvements with Spanish language content, a bilingual guide to Town services, and an interpretation request process.

The Immigrant Community Advisory Committee will work with Town staff and the Board of Commissioners to strengthen civic participation and leadership, expand positive relationships, and build the Town’s capacity to communicate and engage with residents. The Committee will be open to individuals with relevant knowledge and skills who are from historically underrepresented communities with ancestry in Latin America and/or other world regions.

To read more about the methods and findings of the BIC process, visit the bilingual report, “Community Perspectives and Recommendations for local government” at http://migration.unc.edu/. Siler City BIC is a multi-year-year collaboration between the Town of Siler City, The Hispanic Liaison/El Vínculo Hispano, and the statewide Building Integrated Communities program at UNC-Chapel Hill.

For more information, contact:
Town of Siler City
Jenifer Johnson – jjohnson@silercity.org
El Vínculo Hispano Contact:
Ilana Dubester – ilana@evhnc.org
UNC Contact:
Hannah Gill – hgill@email.unc.edu