Welcoming America

Welcoming America supports communities in building a welcoming society where every person, including immigrants, can fully contribute and shape our shared prosperity. Approximately 55 million people live in communities participating in Welcoming America programming, including Certified Welcoming and the Welcoming Network.

The Problem
More people than ever are on the move, displaced by climate and conflict, and are seeking opportunity and mobility. As migration reshapes communities, many places are unprepared and underinvested in the work needed to create welcoming infrastructure. By not preparing or investing in locally-led efforts, there is a risk of origin, status, race, and other intersectional forms of identity determining participation and the ability to thrive as individuals and as communities. This risk carries grave consequences, including discrimination across various facets of diversity, and inequality and undemocratic norms becoming further entrenched in society.

The Solution
Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization leading a movement of inclusive communities to ensure everyone is prosperous and belongs. Through the Welcoming Network, a network composed of over 300 nonprofits and local governments, Welcoming America provides the tools, resources, technical assistance, and global community of practice to help communities of all sizes become more welcoming places. Grounded in the leadership of communities, Welcoming America connects, supports, and amplifies individuals addressing systemic disparities and discrimination. Welcoming America offers an approach to demographic shifts toward equity and justice rather than inequality and nativist policies.

Over the next decade, Welcoming America aims to support 500 U.S. communities in establishing intentional, inclusive infrastructure and collaborative agenda-setting policies that advance civic, social, and economic participation. By 2026, 50 diverse communities will be Certified Welcoming — a formal designation for cities and counties that have created policies and programs reflecting their values and commitment to immigrant inclusion. To fully achieve these goals, Welcoming America must invest in their people, strengthen their internal platforms and infrastructure, and explicitly center their diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging values in all they do.