The Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center is located in the lower level of the Vermont Department of Employment and Training which is also a multicultural partner. The Center, opened in January of 2004, recognizes the importance of facilitating discourse among people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
One of the missions of the Center is to create an environment where all people will be able to learn to respect differences. and promote a community that recognizes and celebrate the growing diverse population.
One focus of the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center is to ensure that the community is inclusive in all programs and services with respect to cultural diversity and to serve as a unifying force between City and State agencies.
The Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center plays an important educational role in helping to shape a
Diverse community. The Center offers community members the opportunity to develop an awareness about cultures that are different from their own and at the same time offer the opportunity to explore their own cultural identities. The Multicultural Center is also a place where diversity initiatives are developed to include training in areas such as inter-cultural communication skills.
In addition to the many resources the Center maintains a library of multicultural books and videotapes on various topics regarding affirmative action, race, age gender class., immigrants and sexual orientation. In creating a multicultural learning environment, the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center, plays an important role for all people in the Burlington Community and helps them to understand that multiculturalism is an evolving concept .

Keywords

• Multiculturalism
• Diversity
• Education
• Learning
• Community

(30 min. Conference Paper, English)