Fayetteville drafts a ‘welcoming’ plan
FAYETTEVILLE — City leaders want to make it easier for foreign-born residents to pay a water bill, find a place to live or get to work, according to a plan the City Council will consider today.
The Welcoming Fayetteville plan aims to help newcomers with basic services and to increase the city’s diversity in the process. Fayetteville has the lowest percentage of foreign-born residents out of the four major cities of Northwest Arkansas, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. About a quarter of Springdale’s population is foreign-born, while Fayetteville has hovered at 7 percent for the past few years.
City employees drafted the report with support from Northwest Arkansas organizations and nonprofit groups, as well as input from the public.
Augusta Branham, with the city’s Communications Department, said the key is breaking down the barriers, language or otherwise, that might dissuade different populations from living in the city.
“We’re a city that has always stood for diversity and inclusion,” she said. “It just seemed natural that we would also be leaders in this effort.”
The Welcoming City concept was developed by nonprofit organization Welcoming America, of which Fayetteville and the Northwest Arkansas Council are members.
The Welcoming Fayetteville plan lays out a series of goals over the next five years. They include increasing the city’s foreign-born population, making more multilingual documents and materials available, having a more diverse demographic of residents participating in city government, and developing trusting relationships between immigrants and government.
Margot Lemaster, director of WelcomeNWA, the Northwest Arkansas Council’s diversity and inclusion arm, said the council expects to put out a report this summer.
“Diversity will only grow here in Northwest Arkansas,” Lemaster said. “In order to make sure that we continue to be a great place to live and work, we’ve got to make sure that our population — whether they’re moving from another country or another state — that they come here and they feel included in our community.”