Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter attends Dublin conference on ‘intercultural integration’

Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter is in Dublin, Ireland, this week, attending a conference on “intercultural integration.”

Carter, who represents much of central and western St. Paul, is part of the U.S. delegation to the conference: “Intercultural City: Making Diversity Work for Cities.” Elected officials from Europe also are attending the conference.

When first elected in 2005, Carter was the first African-American woman elected to a Minnesota county board.

Ramsey County officials said Carter paid her own way to the conference with scholarship assistance from the St. Paul Foundation.

Carter is also working with the CultureBrokers Foundation to set up a local program, so St. Paul would be the first American city, along with 60 other cities around the world, to be certified as an Intercultural City. Cities in the program work to develop diversity strategies.

Said Carter in a statement:

“St. Paul and Ramsey County are multicultural communities with a wealth of people, perspectives and talents. We must work together — across cultural lines and outside our individual comfort zones — to build a prosperous future for all. I am excited to be attending this conference to hear about strategies and best practices from other Intercultural Cities.”

CultureBrokers, a nonprofit in St. Paul, says its programs:

“…educate participants about their own and other cultures; ease racial tensions through positive intercultural relations; and benefit society and ease poverty by building beneficial business and personal cross-cultural relationships.”