Welcome to the Multi-Cultural Center

Dear Friends,

The Multi-Cultural Center of Sioux Falls has been and continues to be an integral service organization to ethnic and minority youth and adults in our community. The center also serves the community at large and our mainstream population. It is the mission of the Multi-Cultural Center to provide opportunities for ALL people to learn, celebrate and share through cultural experiences and we have had the honor of serving our community since 1997.

Many newcomers settling in our area are refugees and immigrants that have come to us from around the globe - from over 80 countries and speaking over 120 languages and dialects. As a refugee myself, arriving over 25 years ago from Kurdistan, I know of the great struggles and opportunities that come along with making a home in a new country. This is precisely why the Multi-Cultural Center was founded. We strive to build bridges of communication and understanding across cultures. We aid in the transition that newcomers face when adjusting to life in America and work to encourage self-sufficiency in those that we serve so that newcomers thrive as members of our community.

A non-profit research group shows that "the city of Sioux Falls, along with Minnehaha County, is the U.S. Metropolitan area with the fastest-growing percentage of foreign-born residents. Sioux falls is the only metropolitan city in the study that had more than doubled its immigrant population during the 1990s." Recent studies by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington D.C. indicates that "Minnehaha County is at the epicenter of this spread of immigrants in the heartland, and it's being driven by the refugee resettlement groups. Sioux Falls has been called the Ellis Island of the Upper Midwest."

I personally invite you to visit us at the Multi-Cultural Center and to witness the hands-on outreach that takes place each day through our programming. Please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions, or if the Multi-Cultural Center can be of assitance to you in furthering the understanding of diversity.

Sincerely,
Qadir Aware, Executive Director
Multi-Cultural Center of Sioux Falls