City Of Grand Rapids: City Recognizes Welcoming Week Through Sept. 19

Press release from the City of Grand Rapids:

September 14, 2021

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Mayor Rosalynn Bliss has issued a proclamation naming September 10 through September 19 Welcoming Week in Grand Rapids. As part of the national Welcoming Week initiative, she requested members of the community join together to “build stronger relationships with our neighbors, renew our commitment to our common values, and take actions in the spirit of welcoming.”

“To fully leverage diversity as an asset, our community must strive to create policies and a culture that ensure everyone can belong and thrive. This includes addressing disparities, countering hate, understanding history, and helping neighbors come together,” Bliss said.

In celebration of #WelcomingWeek2021, the City’s Office of Equity and Engagement is featuring daily Facebook posts highlighting local organizations that embody welcoming for local New Americans and to educate on resources and ways to be welcoming. It is also offering staff trainings to increase awareness of the local Welcome Plan, adopted in 2020. In addition, where the plan’s recommendations align with the City’s Strategic Plan, and to further strategize ways to foster welcoming and inclusion within operations.

“The Welcome Plan and the process to create it centered the voice of immigrants, also referred to as New Americans, with the goal to create recommendations for systemic and programmatic change to guide individuals, organizations and policies to be more inclusive and welcoming for immigrants, as well as long-time residents.,” Stacy Stout, director of equity and engagement, said.

The local Welcome Plan was built upon the New Americans in Kent County report that was released in September 2018. The Welcome Steering Committee - comprised of City of Grand Rapids, Samaritas, West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Grand Rapid Area Chamber of Commerce and Kent County representatives – applied for and received technical assistance in strategic planning to create a Welcome Plan from Gateways For Growth. A larger Welcome Committee consisting of 36 multi-sector was formed to help guide the Welcome Plan creation process that included hundreds of survey responses and several dozen focus groups of local New Americans to ensure the Welcome Plan’s recommendations were based on immigrant voice.
City Manager Mark Washington pointed out that implementing the Welcome Plan and recognizing the importance of fostering mutual respect and cooperation between new and long-time residents is even more timely with news that West Michigan is expected to welcome more than 200 Afghan refugees in the coming weeks.

“Grand Rapids is proud to be a Welcoming City,” Mark Washington, city manager, said. “We know that diversity is our strength. We are committed to inclusion and know that bringing people together across lines of difference creates greater prosperity for all,” he said.

Welcoming Week 2021’s theme, Belonging Begins With US, is an existing national campaign supported by Welcoming America in partnership with the Ad Council and American Immigration Council’s Center for Inclusion and Belonging. Launched in 2020, this multi-year campaign aims to foster a more welcoming nation and world where everyone — regardless of their background — can belong.

This press release was produced by the City of Grand Rapids. The views expressed here are the author’s own.