Building Meaningful Contact: A How-To Guide

This how-to guide explores lessons learned from promising models for contact building from across the United States, and delves deeper into a series of activities that the nonprofit Welcoming Michigan conducted in Macomb County, Michigan. By focusing on one example in particular, readers are able to learn step-by-step how to plan, implement, and follow-up on a contact building event.  Personal experiences and relationships help shape our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.  While facts contribute to how we form opinions, it’s experiences that provide an opportunity for individual transformation.  Today, many people in communities may not know someone who is a refugee, let alone have a significant relationship with one.  Language and cultural barriers can get in the way of these relationships forming organically. A large body of research confirms the importance of contact building – finding ways to bring together people for shared opportunities – in order to create greater social cohesion.

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