Welcoming Refugees Resource Library

Thank you for visiting our repository of resources developed from 2012-2018 to help advance refugee welcome. Visit welcomingamerica.org to learn more about our ongoing work to build welcoming communities and how you can get involved.

Featured Resources

Welcoming Refugees in Rural Communities: Promising Examples from the Field

This tool profiles four rural initiatives there are successfully bringing together receiving community residents and refugees and demonstrating what is possible when all residents are connected, su

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Building Meaningful Contact: A How-To Guide

This how-to guide explores lessons learned from promising models for contact building from across the United States, and delves deeper into a series of activities that the nonprofit Welcoming Michigan conducted in Macomb County, Michigan. By focusing on one example in particular, readers are able to learn step-by-step how to plan, implement, and follow-up on a contact building event.

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Harnessing Volunteer Energy to Support and Welcome Refugees in your Community: Five Tips for Success

Learn some of the best practices in engaging, supporting, and managing volunteers to help welcome refugees in your community. Tips around volunteer outreach, designing options for volunteer engagement, volunteer onboarding, and keeping volunteers energized are included. This toolkit also shares field spotlights from a number of refugee-serving organizations that are successfully utilizing volunteers in new and interesting ways.

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The Welcoming Economies Playbook: Strategies for Building an Inclusive Local Economy Webinar

This webinar will explore Welcoming America’s soon-to-be-released new tool, the WelcomingEconomies Playbook: Strategies for Building an Inclusive

Promising Practices

Promising Practices are stories from the field used by organizations to build support and welcome for refugees.

How Refugees Helped a Struggling Ga. Grocery Store Succeed

By embracing the needs of refugees in his community, a Georgia grocery store owner gained loyal customers, turned his business around, and created a sense of community. His story highlights the benefits of embracing the diversity and strengths of recently arrived refugees.

Impact of Refugees in Central Ohio

This engaging report is filled with facts, statistics, and stories that confirm the significant social and economic contributions that refugees make to their new communities.

For Syrian Refugees In Connecticut, A Helping Hand From Private Volunteers

A new program in Connecticut is pairing refugees with private citizens. Community groups across Connecticut have resettled 28 Syrian families - more than 150 refugees in total. The groups are trained by a resettlement agency and handle everything from legal requirements to medical checkups.