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QUINCY, IL -- Thursday night's focus -- challenges ahead when it comes to improving diversity and equality in the Tri-States.

There's a group in Quincy dedicated to accomplishing just that.

It's called "CARE."

That stands for Citizens Advocating Racial Equality

KHQA's Rajah Maples attended a CARE meeting to find out some of the challenges our community faces.

What are some of the issues today?

Viola Majors says, "Education is a top priority. I would say more so in junior and senior high. The drop out rate and attitudes and understanding black children plus white children."

CARE co-founders Viola Majors and Jim Burns say focusing on the future, our youth, is key to improving race relations, equality and diversity in the Tri-States.

Jim Burns says, "Education is crucial now. I think that we've got some reason our whole country is involved in. You mentioned the president is black, and yet in the school system, we still have issues of children calling other children the N word. It's there. It happens. Teachers need to know how to deal with that. The children need to know how to deal with that when it comes up."

CARE meets on Tuesday nights at John Wood Community College. The YWCA in Quincy also has a study circle program created to help eliminate racism. Burns and Majors would like to see more people, particularly educators and community leaders, to attend.

Majors says, "They could have a big impact.."

What challenges face our community regarding diversity and racial equality? "Getting as many to attend our study circles as possible."

For more information on the Quincy YWCA's study circles, log on to http://mail.ywcaquincy.org/.

We'd like to hear about some of the issues going on in *your* community when it comes to race relations. Please feel free to tell us your thoughts below.