Posts by Rachel Perić
Statement on the COVID-19 Situation
Dear Community Members, As the COVID-19 virus spreads across the nation and world, I want to inform you about the steps Welcoming America is taking to respond and monitor the situation. Welcoming communities can and will play an important role, modeling how our values drive the decisions we make going forward, and we applaud the…
Read MoreMaking Inclusion a Social Norm in America
By: Julie Gehrki, Vice President and COO, Walmart Foundation and Rachel Peric, Executive Director, Welcoming America Inclusion builds stronger communities, that’s why the Walmart Foundation is providing Welcoming America with a $1 million grant to accelerate work led by communities across the country to promote belonging and inclusion. Communities work best when everyone who lives…
Read MoreFrom Grieving to Galvanizing
Dear Friends, Our hearts are heavy with grief for the families who lost loved ones this weekend in Dayton and El Paso. We also mourn the victims of the more than 250 mass shootings that have taken place this year, many fueled by hate. We all want to live in communities that are safe, and…
Read MoreWelcoming communities are resilient communities
After 10 years of leading immigrant inclusion work, we know that welcoming communities are also resilient communities. Resilient communities succeed in the face of change. In an era of unprecedented migration and climate change, local leaders are often at the forefront – developing and innovating solutions that help their cities and towns not only respond…
Read MoreA vision for welcoming: If you rise, we all rise
If you joined us in Pittsburgh, you heard me share the story of Mother’s Day, a holiday that didn’t originate as a Hallmark card, but as a plea for peace, a manifesto, in the wake of the civil war, for mothers from all nations to come together to have a greater voice in the solutions…
Read MoreThe human on the other side of Trump’s wall: Lessons from Schindler’s List in an era of othering
Like all nations, America is bound together by deep, and often deeply conflicted, myths and narratives about who we are. The President’s demands for a border wall has refashioned policy discussion about immigration into a retelling of one of the most dangerous narratives we have—one that falsely pits immigrant Americans against so-called “real” Americans. As…
Read MoreWelcoming America’s Statement on Tragedies in Pittsburgh and Louisville
We grieve with the families who lost loved ones in #Pittsburgh & #Louisville. These shootings targeted not only Jews, refugees, and African Americans, but the very idea of being a pluralistic, multiethnic democracy. We stand with our partners in Pittsburgh and Louisville, and our friends at HIAS, whose crucial work building a bridge between Jews and…
Read MoreWelcoming Week brought neighbors together to act our values
Over a thousand events in 40+ states offer a counterpoint to the national vitriol We are wrapping up Welcoming Week in a time of extremes, both the harmful rhetoric that isolates us and hampers our potential as a thriving, inclusive society, and the immense enthusiasm and support for affirming our American values. This is especially…
Read MoreWhat it will take to unite our nation
Seventy-five years ago, my grandparents lost nearly everyone they loved in the Holocaust and came with my mother as refugees to this country, where they were able to build new lives and call themselves Americans. Today, when I hold my daughter’s tiny toddler hands in mine, I think of how my grandmother became an orphan,…
Read MoreLet’s keep families together
Every morning as my little daughter’s smile greets me, it is heart wrenching to imagine the thousands of children in detention and the many more seeking refuge in our country, whose search for love and safety is instead met with cold indifference. Just this week we saw the Supreme Court uphold the Muslim Ban, families continue to be separated…
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