welcomingamerica.org

You can get involved with Welcoming America in three main ways: join the Welcoming Network as a member, take part in Welcoming Week, or donate to support the mission. If you want practical guidance first, the site also offers toolkits and resources you can use before committing to membership or an event.

Join the Welcoming Network

Welcoming America describes itself as a nonprofit leading a movement of inclusive communities that become more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs, including immigrants. It connects a broad network of nonprofits and local governments and supports them in becoming truly welcoming places.

Joining the Welcoming Network is the main route for organizations and local governments that want that support. The site lists "Join the Welcoming Network" under Ways to Get Involved, with a separate "Learn about membership" link for details.

• Best for: nonprofits and local governments that want to connect with a national network and work toward becoming welcoming places.
• What to do first: read the membership information linked from the homepage before applying, since the site does not publish membership terms, fees, or eligibility on the homepage itself.

Participate in Welcoming Week

Welcoming Week is the site's public-facing event participation option, listed under Ways to Get Involved with a "Learn more" link. The site's blog also references #WelcomingWeek2026, showing the event runs under a yearly banner.

• Best for: communities, organizations, and individuals who want to take part in a time-bound event rather than ongoing membership.
• What to do first: open the Welcoming Week page to see current dates and participation options. The homepage does not list dates or registration steps, so confirm them there.

Donate to Support the Mission

If you want to support the work without joining or organizing, the site lists "Support Our Mission — Donate today" as a direct option.

• Best for: individuals who want to contribute financially.
• What to know: the homepage does not state payment methods, donation amounts, or tax details. Check the donation page for those specifics before giving.

Use the Resources and Toolkits

The site publishes resources you can use regardless of membership status. One example is Narrative in Action: A Toolkit for Framing, Messaging, and Storytelling in Welcoming Communities, described as sharing step-by-step guidance to build narratives of local belonging — how communities welcome, include, and grow together. It is tagged under Connected Communities, Equitable Access, and Government and Community Leadership.

The site also points to the Welcoming Standard for how it defines welcoming places, which is useful if you want to understand the criteria behind the network and certification.

See What Participation Looks Like

The site's Stories of Impact show how communities put this work into practice. One featured story, "Welcome to Gunnison: A community modeling rural belonging," describes Gunnison, Colorado — a county of about 16,000 residents — where local organizations and leaders are growing efforts for connection and belonging. Reading these stories is a low-commitment way to see what joining the network or running Welcoming Week activities can look like in a real community.

The news section also tracks certification milestones, such as Worcester becoming Welcoming America's 50th Certified Welcoming Community and Durham and Durham County achieving a Certified Welcoming designation. These updates help you judge whether certification is a goal worth pursuing for your own community.

Which Option Fits You

A practical sequence for most organizations: read the Welcoming Standard and a toolkit, review a Story of Impact close to your community type, then decide between network membership and Welcoming Week participation. The homepage does not publish costs or eligibility rules for any of these, so confirm details on each linked page before you act.

Welcoming America offers four main types of resources for communities working on immigrant inclusion and belonging: a framework called the Welcoming Standard that defines what a welcoming place looks like, practical toolkits such as Narrative in Action for framing and storytelling, stories of impact from member communities, and news and blog coverage of local initiatives. These resources are aimed at the nonprofits and local governments that make up the organization's network, and they are most useful to communities that want a structured starting point rather than a one-off event.

The Welcoming Standard: A Definition to Work From

The Welcoming Standard is the organization's framework for what makes a place welcoming. The site describes it as the way Welcoming America defines welcoming places, and it functions as the reference point for communities that want to assess where they stand and set goals. It is also the basis for the Certified Welcoming designation, which communities can earn at different star levels.

Use it when: your community wants a shared definition before committing staff time or budget, or when you need to explain the case for inclusion work to local leaders.

Toolkits for Framing, Messaging, and Storytelling

The most concrete how-to resource listed is Narrative in Action: A Toolkit for Framing, Messaging, and Storytelling in Welcoming Communities. According to the site, it provides step-by-step guidance for building narratives of local belonging — how communities welcome, include, and grow together. It sits under the themes of Connected Communities, Equitable Access, and Government and Community Leadership.

Use it when: you have a program or initiative and need help communicating it — choosing messages, framing the local story, or training staff and volunteers to talk about belonging consistently.

A practical way to apply a storytelling toolkit

1. Input: gather the raw material — who arrived in your community, which local organizations partnered, what changed for residents.
2. Action: work through the toolkit's framing and messaging steps to turn those facts into a narrative rather than a statistics sheet.
3. Expected result: a consistent story your local government and nonprofit partners can repeat in public communications, funding requests, and volunteer recruitment.

A common sticking point is treating storytelling as a communications task only; the toolkit's emphasis on government and community leadership suggests the narrative needs buy-in from the people running programs, not just the people publicizing them.

Stories of Impact: What Other Communities Did

The site publishes stories of impact that show the work in context. One example is Gunnison, Colorado, described as a rural mountain town of about 16,000 residents where local organizations and leaders have been building efforts for connection and belonging. The value of these stories is comparative: a small or rural community can see how another small or rural community approached the work, including the role of seasonal workers and local partnerships.

Use them when: you need to persuade a skeptical local audience, or when your community's size or geography makes national models feel inapplicable.

News, Blog Posts, and Designation Examples

The news and resources section reports on communities reaching milestones — for example, Worcester becoming the 50th Certified Welcoming community, Durham and Durham County achieving a Certified Welcoming designation, and Salem earning a 3-star designation — alongside blog posts such as a recap of Welcoming Week. These posts are useful for seeing the range of community types that pursue certification and for timing your own efforts around shared moments like Welcoming Week.

Choosing Among the Resources

For communities ready to go further, the site also points to the Certified Welcoming designation process and to donating in support of the mission. The most efficient path is usually to read the Welcoming Standard first, then pick the toolkit or peer story that matches your next bottleneck.

Certified Welcoming is a designation that Welcoming America awards to communities that meet its Welcoming Standard—a framework for how a place welcomes and includes immigrants and ensures everyone belongs. A community earns it by joining Welcoming America's network, working through the standard's criteria, and being assessed for certification; designations can carry star ratings, and recent examples include Worcester (Welcoming America's 50th Certified Welcoming Community), Durham and Durham County, and Salem (a 3-Star designation). The exact criteria, assessment steps, and fees are not published on the homepage, so a community should confirm current requirements directly with Welcoming America before planning.

What the designation signals

Certification is a public marker that a local government and its partners have made measurable progress toward welcoming immigrants and building belonging for all residents. It is not a one-time award for intent—Welcoming America frames it as part of a movement of "inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs, including immigrants." The star ratings indicate different levels of achievement, as Salem's 3-Star designation shows.

How a community typically earns it

The homepage describes the pathway at a high level rather than as a step-by-step checklist:

1. Join the Welcoming Network. Welcoming America connects a broad network of nonprofits and local governments and supports them in becoming truly welcoming places. Membership is the entry point described under "Ways to Get Involved."
2. Work toward the Welcoming Standard. Welcoming America defines welcoming places "through the Welcoming Standard," which is the reference framework for what a welcoming community looks like.
3. Participate in shared programming. Welcoming Week is the network's public-facing event, and participation is one way communities engage with the movement.
4. Undergo assessment and receive a designation. Certified communities are announced publicly, sometimes with a star rating.

Because the site does not publish the full application process, timeline, or cost, the practical next step is to contact Welcoming America through the network membership route and ask for the current certification requirements.

What it looks like in practice

The designation is tied to real local conditions, not just paperwork. Welcoming America's story on Gunnison, Colorado describes a rural county of about 16,000 residents where local organizations and leaders are building connection and belonging despite a small population and a seasonal-worker economy. That example illustrates the kind of community-level work—coalitions of local government, nonprofits, and residents—that certification is meant to recognize.

Is it the right fit for your community?

If you are exploring involvement rather than certification, the lower-commitment options on the site are joining the Welcoming Network, participating in Welcoming Week, or supporting the mission through a donation. For the certification path specifically, start with network membership and ask Welcoming America for the current standard and assessment details.

Welcoming America is a nonprofit organization that leads a movement of inclusive communities working to ensure everyone belongs, including immigrants. It connects a broad network of nonprofits and local governments and supports them in becoming more welcoming places. If you are a local government, community organization, or individual looking to advance belonging in your area, the site points to three main paths: joining the Welcoming Network, participating in Welcoming Week, or supporting the mission through a donation.

What Welcoming America Does

The organization describes its work as "Building a Nation of Neighbors." Its role is twofold: it leads a movement of inclusive communities that become more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs, and it provides direct support to a network of nonprofits and local governments working toward that goal.

The site frames "welcoming" as a defined standard rather than a vague aspiration. A dedicated section, "What is Welcoming?", explains how the organization defines welcoming places through the Welcoming Standard. Communities that want to be assessed against that standard can pursue a Certified Welcoming designation — the site's news section notes that Worcester became Welcoming America's 50th Certified Welcoming Community, and that Durham and Durham County achieved a Certified Welcoming designation, while Salem achieved a 3-Star Certified Welcoming designation.

Ways to Get Involved

The homepage lists three entry points, each aimed at a different audience:

If your goal is to connect your organization or municipality with peers and resources, the Welcoming Network is the relevant starting point. If you want a time-bound way to engage residents, Welcoming Week is the campaign to look at. The site does not publish pricing or eligibility details for membership on the homepage, so check the membership page before assuming cost or requirements.

Resources and Stories

Beyond programs, the site publishes practical material for communities building belonging:

• Narrative in Action: A Toolkit for Framing, Messaging, and Storytelling in Welcoming Communities — described as step-by-step guidance for building narratives of local belonging: how communities welcome, include, and grow together. It is tagged under Connected Communities, Equitable Access, and Government and Community Leadership.
• Stories of Impact — case profiles of communities putting the work into practice. One example is Gunnison, Colorado, a rural mountain town of about 16,000 residents where local organizations and leaders have been growing efforts for connection and belonging.
• News & Resources — press releases on new Certified Welcoming designations, blog posts such as a recap of #WelcomingWeek2026, and links to the full resource library.

The Gunnison story is useful if you work in a small or rural community: it shows the work being adapted to a low-population area rather than only large cities.

How to Decide Where to Start

• You represent a local government or nonprofit ready to formalize the work: start with the Welcoming Network and the Welcoming Standard, then consider whether a Certified Welcoming designation fits your capacity.
• You want a ready-made framework for communication and storytelling: download the Narrative in Action toolkit before designing your own messaging.
• You want to engage residents quickly: look into Welcoming Week participation.
• You want examples before committing: read the Stories of Impact profiles, such as Gunnison, for a sense of what the work looks like on the ground.

Each of these paths is described on the site with its own page; use those pages to confirm current details, timelines, and any requirements before planning around them.

Welcoming America is a nonprofit that works with nonprofits and local governments to help communities become more inclusive and prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs, including immigrants. Its stated aim is to build "a nation of neighbors"—connecting a broad network of organizations and local governments and supporting them in becoming truly welcoming places. Belonging matters in this framing because inclusion is treated as a driver of community prosperity, not just a social good.

Who Welcoming America Works With

The organization describes its core partners in two groups:

• Nonprofits — community organizations that join a broad network and draw on shared resources and guidance.
• Local governments — municipal and county agencies that want to embed welcoming practices into how they serve residents.

These partners are connected through the Welcoming Network, which the site lists as the primary way to get involved. The network is the structure through which Welcoming America supports communities "in becoming truly welcoming places."

What the Partnership Looks Like in Practice

The site's impact stories show how this plays out locally. One example is Gunnison, Colorado—a rural mountain county of about 16,000 residents that is described as a hub for seasonal workers. Despite its small size, local organizations and leaders there are building "growing efforts for connection and belonging." The takeaway for other communities: welcoming work is not limited to large, diverse cities; rural and small-population places can use the same network model.

Why Belonging Matters

Welcoming America frames belonging as connected to prosperity: inclusive communities become "more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs, including immigrants." The logic is that when all residents—longtime and newcomer alike—can participate fully, the whole community benefits.

The organization also publishes a Welcoming Standard, which sets out how it defines a welcoming place. Communities that want a concrete benchmark can start there rather than inventing their own criteria.

Recognition: Certified Welcoming

Communities can pursue a Certified Welcoming designation, and the site's news shows the program in active use:

The star levels indicate that certification is tiered, though the homepage excerpt does not detail the criteria for each level. Communities interested in the specifics should consult the Certified Welcoming program materials directly.

Ways to Get Involved

The site lists four entry points:

1. Join the Welcoming Network — membership for nonprofits and local governments; the site offers a "Learn about membership" link.
2. Participate in Welcoming Week — an annual event; the site points to a "Learn more" page. A related blog post, "The Courage to Connect: How #WelcomingWeek2026 Brought People Together," describes the 2026 edition.
3. Donate — support the mission financially.
4. Use the resources — including the Welcoming Standard and a toolkit titled Narrative in Action: A Toolkit for Framing, Messaging, and Storytelling in Welcoming Communities (dated September 28, 2026), which offers step-by-step guidance on building narratives of local belonging.

If You're Deciding Where to Start

• A local government or nonprofit ready to formalize the work: start with Welcoming Network membership, then consider the Welcoming Standard as your benchmark and Certified Welcoming as a possible goal.
• An organization that wants to communicate better before committing: the Narrative in Action toolkit is the lowest-commitment starting point, focused on framing and storytelling.
• An individual who wants to participate: Welcoming Week is the public-facing entry point.

Note that the site does not publish pricing or membership cost details on the pages summarized here, so confirm any fees or requirements with Welcoming America before planning around them.