Our Approach

All Welcoming America affiliates utilize  a strategy with three core approaches  - local leadership development, strategic communications and public engagement – to reduce anxiety, and promote healthy dialog in communities across the country. This approach helped Welcoming Tennessee, the first Welcoming campaign – and model for all subsequent campaigns – win the Migration Policy Institute’s E Pluribus Unum award for exceptional immigration integration initiatives in 2009. For more information on Welcoming Tennessee’s award, click here. For more information on each Welcoming approach, see below or click here for even more detailed information.

Positive Messaging

In many towns and cities across the U.S., particularly new immigrant destinations, the messages U.S.-born community members hear about immigrants are often negative. One need only watch the local news, or turn on talk radio, to verify this. In reality, most immigrants in communities across this country are positive additions to their new hometowns. Unfortunately, their stories are not often heard by most of their neighbors. Welcoming America attempts to change the messages people hear about immigrants in local communities by utilizing a number of key communications tools such as: billboards, interactive websites, press conferences/press releases, and letters to the editor. This communications approach complements the community organizing and direct engagement approaches utilized in all Welcoming campaigns. To learn about these additional approaches click here.