LEWISTON – Two professors and a group of students from Clark University have offered to help the city’s Somali community get more involved in local affairs.

According to Assistant City Administrator Phil Nadeau, plans are under way for the professors and their students to spend two weekends in September in the homes of local Somalis.

Part of their goal will to be get information from Somalis about their needs and desires.

But more importantly, Nadeau said, is that they will be looking for ways in which the city can help the Somalis get more involved in the ongoing process of integrating themselves into the community.

“There is an underlying desire in the Somali community to make it work,” Nadeau said. “The difficulty is: How do you do that?”

Clark University has offered to do the project as a class exercise, leaving the city responsible for minimal costs, Nadeau said.

The relationship between the Massachusetts college and the city was formed earlier this year when Nadeau traveled to Worcester to talk about the city’s experience with Somali immigrants.

While there, Nadeau met Richard Ford, a professor in the department of international development, community and environment. Ford is an expert on Somali cultures and has visited the country several times.

He will begin his work in Lewiston on Friday, Aug. 29, at a 3 p.m. meeting with leaders of local charities, governments and service providers. Victoria Scott, the city’s immigrant and refugee programs manager, said the meeting was planned to help Ford get familiar with the community.

“We want to understand where the community is and what services are already there so he knows how to respond to the Somalis,” Scott said. “Anyone who provides a program, anyone who has done research, is invited to that meeting.”

After that meeting, further efforts will be made to put Ford, an assistant professor and their students in touch with local Somalis.

Nadeau said the current plan is to have the group work with the Somalis who live in the Hillview housing complex in downtown Lewiston.

“They are going to live with these folks,” Nadeau said.

In the end, Nadeau added, the group will outline ways that the city and the Somalis can work together.

City officials will use the report as a guide to help get more Somalis involved in the community.

“We’re hoping that the Somalis are going to come in and be very comfortable with the process and tell Ford and his colleagues what they want, what they think they need and how they’d like to begin that process,” Scott said.

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