Folsom Childrens Zoo & Botanical Garden

Purpose: Serving as Centers of Community Engagement The influx of immigrants more than doubled in Nebraska between 1990 and 2000 as a result of the selection of Lincoln as a U.S. Office of Resettlement site. Lincoln is one of the top 20 cities in the country for new arrivals from abroad. Because the Folsom children's Zoo and Botanical Gardens serves as a center of community engagement, the Opening the Gates program was conceived and implemented in the summer of 2002 to welcome the city's culturally diverse population to the zoo. This grant will enable the zoo to accomplish the following: upgrade the public communication system so that public service announcements can easily be made in multiple languages; translate standard announcements (emergency, closing, seal demonstrations, zoo train departures, weather and other public safety announcements) into Vietnamese, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, and Bosnian, and record them on CDs; and create a welcome banner in these languages and translate entrance instructions into them. Other areas where these five languages will be added are the zoo map, animal exhibit signage, restroom locations, first aid stations, phones, exits and entrances, and the menu at the Safari Café. The zoo also plans to add more auditory interpretive centers and additional languages in the future.