Appreciating and Understanding Cultural Diversity

In an effort to help foster a greater office understanding of King County's wonderfully diverse population, the PAO's Diversity Committee is offering a series of monthly presentations that focus on distinct communities within King County.  As part of these presentations, the PAO will be inviting community leaders to come to our office and share information about their backgrounds, beliefs, and the concerns of different groups sharing common cultural and historical heritage.

January's presentation was about Sikhs and Sikhism, the world's fifth-largest organized religion, with more than 20 million followers worldwide.  As part of the presentation, DPA Manka Dhingra and Sukhvir Singh, Hardeep Singh Rekhi, Kulwant Grewal, and Jasmine Marwaha, members from King County's Sikh community, shared an overview of Sikh beliefs and practices, an overview of the Sikh-American community, and common misconceptions and stereotypes surrounding Sikhs.   The presentation also included a discussion of how the PAO can best serve King County Sikhs.

Our office's work with the public is more effective and compassionate when we have a better understanding of some of the discrete communities living within our county.  We look forward to this new and exciting program.  Next month we feature immigrants from the Oromo community, East Africa's largest ethnic group.

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