Town Welcome Center

The Basic Idea:

Help your community grow and thrive by creating a space and/or resource to connect new residents with culturally competent services, resources and opportunities.

How it works:

• Establish a place in town for welcoming incoming residents whose cultural background(s) differ(s) from the native population.
• Welcome Center staff stay abreast of population shifts and research how to best support new neighbors.
• Welcome Center staff connect newcomers with the resources they need to adjust to their new homes and become economically self-sufficient.
• Welcome Center workers provide community-wide cultural education to promote acceptance and bridge potential cultural barriers. (This could take place in schools, local businesses or other community locations.)

Who Does It?

• Anyone who is a stakeholder in the community, i.e. businesses, non-profits, local government, community leaders and other residents in the area.

Pros

• New residents get the help they need to thrive and contribute to the community as consumers, entrepreneurs and taxpayers.
• Cultural education creates an accepting community environment where newcomers and native populations learn from one another and work together.
• Communities can create a welcome center using resources (people, space, services) they already have.
• Easing the transition for incoming families makes them more likely to stay in the area, preventing population decline.

Cons

• One size does not fit all. A successful Welcome Center tailors its support strategies to fit the unique needs of each incoming population. This requires:
  • Frequent and thorough research on who your new neighbors are and how best to support them
  • Strong connections with community organizations and agencies that provide services new families may need
• Potentially high-cost/volunteer-intensive. Staffing the Welcome Center and offering more extensive resources (such as offering basic personal care items to meet immediate needs for families in transition) can make a welcome center expensive to maintain.
• Population shifts can be a challenging adjustment for communities. Supporting new neighbors in a respectful way requires culturally competent workers who can lead the community in tactfully navigating cultural and language barriers.

Simplicity Index

Tough at the Start—But Fruitful! This can take a lot of work to set up, but good models are available. Investing in newcomers yields high returns, and over time, it becomes second nature!

Quilt It

• Earn It – If new residents don’t speak English, developing a workplace English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) program can help ready the neighbors for local employment.
• Keep It – Many newcomers have family and friends abroad. Making sure that these families have high quality and low cost remittance services is a great way to quilt this action idea.

Examples and Resources

The Austin Welcome Center, a nonprofit founded in June 2000 in Austin, Minnesota, combines economic self-sufficiency programs and community-wide education to get newcomers off to a great start. Click here to learn more: http://www.austinwelcomecenter.org.