The Fort Erie Multicultural Centre is a social profit charitable organization, governed by a volunteer Board of Directors, committed to carrying out its mission to assist newcomers arriving in Fort Erie to settle successfully into Canadian society. The Fort Erie community has a strong and consistent history of welcoming and integrating newcomers, its earliest days connected to the abolishment of slavery in 1793 in Upper Canada (now Ontario) and the famous Underground Railroad to help slaves escape their owners, which was debouched at Buffalo / Fort Erie. Situated at the largest land border crossing for refugees in Canada, Fort Erie is a both a gateway community and a place that newcomers like to call their new home.