Building a Welcoming Economy: How Local Economic Development Can Support Immigrant Business Owners, Investors and Entrepreneurs

As part of the Winter 2021 issue of the Economic Development Journal, the article “Building a Welcoming Economy: How Local Economic Development Can Support Immigrant Business Owners, Investors and Entrepreneurs” on page 5 highlights best practices, lessons, and examples that communities may use to develop successful economic development strategies that include immigrants. Author Steve Tobocman…

Read More

Establishing and Maintaining Inclusive Emergency Management with Immigrant and Refugee Populations

The Establishing and Maintaining Inclusive Emergency Management with Immigrant and Refugee Populations Checklist is designed to help strengthen existing emergency preparedness plans by ensuring immigrants and refugees are part of any emergency response. History demonstrates that residents of color are disproportionately impacted by disasters. In the Great Floods of 1927, over 330,000 African Americans were…

Read More

Bridging Differences Playbook

As part of the Bridging Differences initiative at the University of California at Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, this playbook synthesizes the core skills and strategies for bridging political, racial, religious, and other divides to support positive dialogue, relationships, and understanding between groups or individuals. Welcoming America is cited on page 36 as an example…

Read More

Bridging Divides, Creating Community: Arts, Culture, and Immigration

Bridging Divides, Creating Community: Arts, Culture, and Immigration is a creative placemaking field scan written by John C. Arroyo, Ph.D., AICP, in partnership with ArtPlace America. This field scan seeks to illuminate key priorities within the immigration sector and provide a framework for understanding the ways that arts and culture contribute to local, place-based immigration…

Read More

Celebrating Welcoming Week: A Guide for Libraries

This toolkit published by the American Library Association in partnership with the National Forum on Libraries, Census 2020, & New Americans; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; and Welcoming America provides tips, tools, examples, and other resources for U.S. libraries to participate in Welcoming Week. Because libraries play a unique role in helping communities…

Read More

Sample Welcoming Week 2020 Proclamation

Download a template of a sample welcoming proclamation that your community leadership can adopt during Welcoming Week 2020 as a public commitment to welcoming policies and practices.

Read More

Welcoming Week 2020: Messaging and talking points

How to use talking points In addition to being a community-building tool, Welcoming Week is an opportunity to share the work of welcoming places with the media. This list provides talking points that you may use in your media outreach plan to share your event and organization’s work with reporters. It may be used to…

Read More

Welcoming Week 2020: Event Examples

Below are examples of events that can be hosted in-person, virtually, or a combination of both: BEAUTIFICATION PROJECTS Clean up a local park or a few neighborhood blocks. Tend a community garden  Paint a community mural Build a new playground COLLABORATE WITH DIVERSE BUSINESSES  Host a virtual cooking demonstration with a local immigrant chef Recognize…

Read More

Developing Your Event

Welcoming Week hosts build bridges through events that bring people of different backgrounds to work on a shared activity. Use the following steps to help guide the development and execution of your event.  1. Listen Start by listening. Ask residents: What are the needs you are hearing from your community? What is being identified as…

Read More