MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Out of many communities in Michigan, Meridian Township has taken on the responsibility to make it their mission to welcome diversity to the community.

The Township has now joined "Welcoming Michigan", a program to help successfully integrate immigrates of all kinds into community which position them to be globally competitors and 21st century leaders.

Affiliated with Welcoming America, Welcoming Michigan has partnered with six other cities and counties who support locally-driven efforts to create more welcoming, immigrant-friendly environments that maximize opportunities to build mutual respect between receiving communities and immigrants, an integral part of thriving communities.

Other cities and counties included in this effort is Macomb County, City of Sterling Heights, the City of Hamtramck, the City of East Lansing, Clinton Township, and the City of Detroit.

"Our country was really founded and made great by the immigrants that came here and that tradition conditions and is a really important part of our economy and we want to make sure everyone in the community is aware of is," said Meridian Township Treasurer Julie Brixie.

Brixie says the organization will like to institutionalize welcoming efforts and so they have practices and policies that promote inclusion in the community and local government.

"We do have a large portion of Chinese people choosing to live here in Meridian Township currently, so we already established some welcoming events."

Such as the Chinese New Year held in the Meridian Mall, now for three years.

"It's kind of interesting with the event that branched out from some of our long time Chinese Americans coming to us asking to assist them in welcoming these international students to the community and so it was really a grassroots effort," she said.