This national conference is the culmination of a year-long project to bring together researchers at the University of Illinois who study immigrant/Latino issues in new growth communities with the practitioners and professionals serving these communities in Champaign County. This conference aims to expand beyond this local experience by including presentations and workshops given by researchers and practitioners in other new growth and traditional immigrant communities, from a variety of disciplines.

This conference is free and open to the public, however space is limited and registration is required. Please register at https://sites.google.com/site/respondingtoimmigrants/

The keynote speaker is Professor Toms Jimnez from Stanford University.

Workshops from visiting faculty include:
- Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) with Liz Lightfoot, PhD, Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Minnesota;
- An overview of Arizona State University's Southwest Collaborative on Immigration, Inequality, and Poverty (SCIIP) with Steve Anderson, PhD, Director of the Department of Social Work at ASU; and
- Strengthening Efforts to Engage the Hispanic Community in Citizen-Driven Governance: An Assessment of Efforts in Utah, with Patria de Lancer Julnes, Associate Professor of Public Administration at the University of Baltimore.

Additional presentations from faculty and graduate students from across the country and from the University of Illinois include topics such as Latino acculturation in new growth communities, improving access to services for immigrants in new growth communities, the effects of immigration enforcement on Latinos and their communities, participatory research projects with immigrant communities, and university/community collaborative relationships.

This event is part of a year-long project funded by a Focal Point Grant from the Graduate College at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign).