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What Can Roseville Learn from Austin's Welcome Center? A Tale of Two Minnesota Cities Roseville Austin • Metro area • Outstate • Population approx. 34,000 (2000 Census) • Population approx. 24,000 (2000 Census) • Home of first Target ever built • Home of Hormel (biggest employer) • John Rose Oval • Spam Museum • Large inflow of immigrant populations • Large inflow of immigrant populations Austin Welcome Center Mission "The mission of the Welcome Center is to connect newcomers to the resources and information that will facilitate their becoming part of our community, and to provide programs and services that will promote self-sufficiency and multicultural understanding." Austin's Welcome Center Objectives • Provide a place to welcome new neighbors. • Provide guidance and services to assist newcomers in their transition into the community. • Collaborate with agencieslorganizations to find better ways to address multicultural issues. • Educate the community at large about the economic and social value in developing a new, multicultural community Roseville HRC First Steps Austin organized the Welcome Center in 2000, so it has been active for eight years. The Roseville HRC is in the early stages of making contact with the Austin HRC. The first step is to contact Liliana Silvestry, a member of the Austin HRC and the contact person for the Welcome Center. We will introduce ourselves, explain our interest, and initiate further dialog. Next Steps We hope to segue into afact-finding phase where we can learn about the Welcome Center's successes, as well as what Roseville's newcomers might benefit from. Finally, we hope to identify some elements of the Austin program that could be replicated here.