Mayor Announces Transition of Hispanic Liaison Office to Office of Multicultural Affairs

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Mayor Dwight C. Jones today announced the transition of the City’s Hispanic Liaison Office to the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), effective July 1, the beginning of the City’s fiscal year. The OMA transition will augment access to city and community-based services, promotes information, education, and civic participation in order to improve the quality of life of the city’s diverse cultural and linguistic communities. The transition also aligns with the City’s Balanced Scorecard key focus area of building unique and inclusive neighborhoods.

“Richmond is a global society with new communities enriching the City culturally and economically. The foreign-born population of the city is 7.1%, according to the 2010 census, and 9.6% of city residents speak languages other than English at home. The enhanced OMA will work closely with all City departments to help create a more inclusive environment, and will continue to build an attractive and multicultural image for potential newcomers,” said Mayor Jones. 

The city created the Hispanic Liaison Office in 2004, in an effort to effectively serve the growing Hispanic community, and while the new OMA will continue to serve the Spanish-speaking community, the expanded office will engage Richmond’s immigrant and refugee communities through enhanced collaboration with community-based organizations, non-profits, educational institutions, and the private sector. The initial transition occurs with the same staff in place, of three bilingual (English/Spanish) professionals with extensive knowledge of the Richmond community and local government.

The office will remain in its current location in the Southside Community Services Center, at 4100 Hull Street Road. Plans are in the works to conduct a needs assessment over the next year to gather input from other diverse populations in the city to inform any future programming.

To request information, contact OMA at (804) 646-0145 or visit www.richmondgov.com.

To view Spanish translation of press release, click here.