Fort Collins, CO: How do you open up a conversation about challenging issues in your town? The Not In Our Town Alliance in Fort Collins formed a book club dedicated to exploring issues of acceptance and inclusion in their community.
This winter, Mayor Doug Hutchinson led a discussion of The Tortilla Curtain, which was chosen to generate discussion about immigration issues.
“It was good that a lot of new faces showed up," said Ft. Collins NIOT member Caroline Farley. "The book discussion demonstrated that our community is dedicated to talking about how immigrants can be stereotyped. That kind of stereotyping can lead to racism.”
In addition to the book club, the Ft. Collins Not In Our Town Alliance [1] boasts a Hate Crime Response Team, which gathers as needed, and a prevention team that meets monthly. The group has set up an anonymous hate crime hotline (970-797-1841) and writes a monthly op-ed column in The Coloradoan [2]. They can be reached at niota.hotline@yahoo.com. [3]
In: