With help from the National League of Cities and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the city of Grand Forks will offer training Thursday to law enforcement officers, members of the legal community and others on issues affecting children -- especially children of recent immigrants.
It's the latest outgrowth of the city's "immigration integration initiative," designed to ease the settling here of recent immigrants from Bhutan, Burundi, Somalia, Iraq and other countries.
Thursday's training is meant "to help members of the immigrant community understand what they may be faced with here in the United States and specifically in Grand Forks," said Kevin Dean, a spokesman for the city. Topics may include adoption, child neglect and abuse, and parental rights.
Also on the schedule: child exploitation and abduction.
"It's not to say (those problems) are more likely to happen in Grand Forks than in other places," Dean said. "But one of the aspects of immigrant integration we're looking at is to help those families become more familiar with dangers or risks to their children.
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"We want to try to open as many channels as we can to help make their integration successful in Grand Forks," he said. "It may be as simple a thing as knowing that in an emergency you can call 9-1-1."
Ana Cody, a trainer for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington, D.C., will lead the training, which is free and open to the public.
"There are many issues related to public safety and children," Cody said. "Immigrant children especially can be at risk when they don't know how to handle situations."
The first training session, 9:30 a.m. to noon, is meant primarily for people in law enforcement and the legal profession, Dean said. An afternoon session, from 2:30 to 5 p.m., is for representatives of various community organizations and interested members of the general public.
Both sessions will be in the Alerus Center's Eagle Room, Dean said.
Reach Haga at (701) 780-1102; (800) 477-6572, ext. 102; or send e-mail to chaga@gfherald.com .
