This Welcoming Week, September 14-23, the YMCA of Greater Kansas City will join Welcoming America and hundreds of YMCAs and other organizations nationwide in hosting events to celebrate immigrants’ contributions to communities and bring together all residents in a spirit of unity.
Welcoming Week activities are open to the public and include open house events, resource fairs and seminars, and other activities that celebrate cultures from around the world.
The Y believes our communities are stronger when everyone feels welcome, and we can all work together for the common good.
Welcoming Week shows that in places large and small, rural and urban, people of all backgrounds are coming together to create stronger communities. It is a time to celebrate the shared values that unite us as neighbors, parents and colleagues, and to make our towns more welcoming to newcomers and to everyone who calls our community home.
For more than 160 years, the Y has provided immigrants with support and resources to integrate well and fully participate in American society. The Y has a long history of welcoming and engaging immigrants – from launching the nation’s first English as a Second Language class in 1856 to providing aid to thousands of new arrivals at Ellis and Angel Islands in the early 1900s.
We believed then as we do now, that offering our newest neighbors the support and care to thrive creates stronger, more connected communities for all. With more than 42 million foreign-born individuals living in the United States today, the Y is committed to strengthening community by fostering an environment that encourages successful immigrant integration and social cohesion.
Please contact your local Y about specific activities in your center. Find a location near you.
About Welcoming Week
Welcoming Week, founded by Welcoming America, is an annual celebration bringing together thousands of people and hundreds of local events that celebrate the contributions of immigrants and refugees and the role communities play to foster greater welcome. Welcoming Week is September 14-23 across the country and now expanding to other parts of the world.
Welcoming America is leading a movement of inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by making everyone who lives there feel like they belong. Welcoming America believes that all people, including immigrants, are valued contributors and vital to the success of both our communities and our shared future. Learn more at welcomingamerica.org.