The City of Ames is working hard to combat racial, ethnic and community differences, and a $3,000 grant is making this possible. The Commission on Human Relations has received a grant from the Study Circle Fund to start up a series of conversations aimed at these issues in a program called DIALOGUES. “We hope to make Ames more welcoming for everybody,” DIALOGUES Coordinator Jan Beran said. “To be successful, [the program] doesn’t require agreement, but it does require talking together and listening.” Dialogue groups will be led by members of the community who receive training and are expected to begin in October, said Beran, a member of the Ames Human Relations Commission. Each group will have eight to 15 persons and will meet four times for about an hour to discuss issues of concern for Ames residents, she said. Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco received the facilitator training as part of the pilot dialogue done by the City of Ames before establishing this program. “In Ames, any given day, 100 or more countries are represented,” Tedesco said. “I just hope the people in the community will sit down and talk about situations when they come up.” Residents may be more inclined to ask specific questions or bring up sensitive issues in the smaller groups, Tedesco said. “I’m sure there are a lot of people who have a natural fear of getting involved in something like this,” he said. “[Going through the training] made me feel more comfortable.” ISU students are encouraged to participate in the dialogues and receive facilitator training, Beran said. “We’ll try to work schedules, so it would fit students’ schedules,” she said. Being involved in DIALOGUES could also be offered as college credit for students in the Honors Program next spring, Beran said. She said she hopes to have 150 people involved in DIALOGUES by the end of the year. Ames is not the first to establish a DIALOGUES program, Beran said. Drake University has implemented the program, and Simpson College is also in the process of establishing one. Ames was interested in DIALOGUES because of the number of complaints the city has received about discrimination. The program is one effort to prevent catastrophic situations from occurring, Beran said. “We do get complaints about unfair and discriminatory things that are happening because of a person’s race or gender or related to housing,” she said. “The dialogues would help us to better understand each other so we wouldn’t practice those discriminatory tactics.” The program is endorsed by Tedesco and the Ames City Council as well as the NAACP, Breaking Down Barriers, Beyond Welfare, Ames Ministerial Association, Ames School District, League of Women Voters, YWCA and Church Women United. Facilitator training will be Sept. 8 and 9, but persons interested should contact Beran ahead of time.