She is talking about the integration of immigrants into the Santa Clara County community.
The county has made a commitment, not just paying lip service, to integration. It is about creating a profound relationship, identifying not only need, but contribution.
When the census happened, the question was how to get immigrant community counted. We were able to have one-on-one contact with more than 40,000 members of the community.
We are asked how do you bring all these people together. It’s actually very simple. You invite them in, and they will come. It’s as simple as that.
Because we created an infrastructure, based on relationships, in Santa Clara County, it’s actually the community that is dong the work. Santa Clara County worked with Mexican Consulate to help deal with hate crimes, to help start a conversation. The county developed MOUs with the consulate to deal with issues in the immigrant community.
The county developed relationships with other agencies to ease government interactions for immigrants in the community.
Immigrants have to be able to share the issues that are of concern to their communities.