Welcoming America is pleased to announce that we have expanded our fundraising efforts to include a mobile giving and employer gift/volunteer match program! Read the rest of this entry »
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Welcoming America Shares Experience in Canada
Last week, Welcoming America’s Deputy Director, Rachel Steinhardt traveled to Canada to share the organization’s experience with colleagues in Ottawa and throughout Canada. The event, “Fostering Welcoming Climates,” was hosted by the US Embassy in Ottawa, Jewish Family Services of Ottawa, the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership, and numerous other local partners, and was broadcast live to US Embassies across Canada and the globe.
A news story published in the Ottawa Citizen discussed the event and work of Welcoming America, and its resonance in Canada. The session explored the context for welcoming communities in a world increasingly shaped by global migration, in which there are significant economic rewards for communities can attract the talent and ideas and vitality that newcomers bring. In order to reap these rewards, communities must create receptive and welcoming environments, and work to build positive relationships between immigrants and receiving communities. The event also featured a screening of the film Hawo’s Dinner Party: The New Face of Southern Hospitality. To access the presentation, visit: conx.state.gov/canada.
Promoting community dialogue during the national immigration debate
As the nation considers ways to reform immigration policies, it is more important than ever to reach out to those with fears about their changing communities. Today there is not only an opportunity to create the long-term
conditions to support immigrants and their successful integration, but also a chance to secure a positive future for all Americans.
As the immigration debate continues, Welcoming America has tools to help communities and organizations promote listening and constructive dialogue on immigration issues. The Receiving Communities Toolkit and Welcoming America’s Dialogue Guide are resources for groups interested in hosting challenging conversations that build real understanding.
If immigration reform is passed by Congress, the debate over immigration may not subside, and it’s possible that fears may even grow, lending more urgency to reaching out and engaging receiving community members. Welcoming America is currently working to support communities as a whole, as well as representatives at all levels of government to prepare a response to receiving community concerns, and to use the moment as an opportunity to spur even more contact and dialogue between new and longer-term Americans. Through its Welcoming Cities effort Welcoming America is helping municipal governments consider policies and practices that will help them create to create more welcoming, immigrant-friendly environments that maximize opportunities for economic growth and cultural vitality and position communities as globally competitive, 21st century leaders.
Immigration reform and immigrant integration work best when the community as a whole is ready and willing to participate. When everyday Americans are encouraged to learn about and develop positive relationships with their newest neighbors, they become invested in countless ways. Whether in schools and workplaces or the town square, experience and research consistently demonstrate that immigrants integrate most successfully in receptive environments that welcome them and in which they can participate at their fullest potential. There are proven practices for educating, engaging, and sustaining the support of receiving communities, and for leveraging the new resources and vitality these engaged communities can bring at the local level to support long-term integration. Bringing such receiving communities approaches to scale will help create the impact required for successfully promoting a global, 21st century economy. When receiving communities embrace strategies that not only attract but retain newcomer populations because they are recognized assets to the community, a positive policy climate is created that will lead to the strongest economic and social outcomes.
Will you join us in building more welcoming communities?
This holiday season, we ask you to make a donation and join us in creating stronger, more immigrant-friendly communities across the country. Just imagine what we could achieve if every community in America committed to building a welcoming climate, where all are welcome, accepted and integrated. 
With your support, every city and town in America could join with places like Salt Lake City, Utah, East Providence, Rhode Island, Tucson, Arizona and Dayton, Ohio – and more than a dozen other cities and towns to date – in proclaiming themselves welcoming communities that live up to the highest American values of acceptance and equality.
With your help, we know it’s possible to make every community a welcoming one. And the time for this work is now.
At no time in our nation’s history has there been a greater need to reach out to those with fears about their changing communities, nor a greater opportunity to support immigrants and their successful integration, and to secure a positive future for all Americans.
We have the tools to be successful, and we have already accomplished so much. Community by community, Welcoming America and its partners across the country have brought together more than 20,000 thousand of U.S. and foreign-born individuals around the country to find common ground, and to celebrate a simple shared belief: immigrants make us stronger.
Learn more about the impact your support can make and our accomplishments in the past year alone. Then, join us today by making a gift, and help make the dream of a more welcoming America come true.
About Your Gift
Your gift of $25, $50, $100 or $250 can make all the difference in building a nation of neighbors that live, work and play in your communities. Seventy-five cents of every dollar Welcoming America receives goes to support our countrywide network of members, partners and the communities they serve. Click here to donate.
Your donation:
- Helps leaders around the country transform their towns and cities into Welcoming communities.
- Changes the messages people hear about immigrants, such as through billboard and poster campaigns.
- Helps U.S.-born and immigrant community members meet and learn about each other’s values and cultures.
Welcoming America is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Your donation is fully tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.
At National Affiliate Conference, Welcoming by Definition
What does it mean to build a more Welcoming America? While the answer may be complex, we know that it all begins with a recognition of the talent and potential that every member of a community brings. And nowhere is that spirit more evidenced than in our own diverse community of practitioners – the leaders of Welcoming initiatives, who are the bright stars that remind us every day how much we all have to gain from creating a culture that embraces difference as the greatest force for generating new creativity and ideas.
Exchanging ideas at the National Conference
Last week, Welcoming America’s affiliate initiative leaders from 21 states across the U.S. met in Atlanta for Welcoming America’s 4th annual National Affiliate Conference. Over three days, our affiliates shared their work and experiences, along with their stories of the incredible innovation and impact happening in communities across the country.
Read the rest of this entry »
America is Changing – How Will Our Communities Adapt?
This week’s election placed the changing demographics of the United States front and center. As our communities continue to evolve, we must adapt to address new challenges, and also recognize that our growing diversity is an asset that contributes to our economic and social prosperity. Welcoming America’s network of initiatives across the country are a powerful force for building new bridges between newcomers and long-time residents, and for reminding Americans that our communities are strongest when everyone feels welcomed. This new video from our affiliate, Welcoming Michigan shows us how:
Welcoming America thanks Bus 52 for their time and talent in the production of this video.
First-Ever National Welcoming Week Shows the Power of Unity
We share the belief that our communities are strongest when everyone who lives in them feels welcome.
Our communities work best when we all do our part - and it takes all of us working together to make that happen.Last month, our affiliates, partners, and supporters across the country united during National Welcoming Week – and showed the power of what we can achieve together.Across the country, thousands of immigrant and U.S. born individuals came together in a spirit of unity to learn from each other and to create stronger communities.
Celebrating National Welcoming Week
As Immigrant Welcoming Movement Grows, Communities Unite Across U.S. for National Welcoming Week
From Dayton to Detroit, a growing movement of cities and local communities are recognizing and promoting the contributions that 
immigrants bring, and developing comprehensive efforts to attract and welcome them. Read the rest of this entry »
