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JOIN US IN CELEBRATING NEW AMERICANS DURING WELCOMING WEEK

YMCA of Greater Kansas City
September 8, 2021
Belonging Begins With Us - Welcoming Week: September 10-19

This Welcoming Week, taking place September 10-19, the YMCA of Greater Kansas City will join Welcoming America and hundreds of YMCAs and other organizations nationwide to celebrate immigrants’ contributions to communities and bring together all residents in a spirit of unity. Each year, Welcoming Week elevates the growing movement of communities that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of the country. The event is an opportunity for neighbors—both immigrants and U.S.-born residents—to get to know one another and celebrate what unites people as a community.

Welcoming Week activities are open to the public and include open house events, resource seminars, a New Americans Welcome Center Equity and Inclusion Luncheon and Naturalization Ceremony 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. 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 Sept. 13-22 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. www.welcomingamerica.org.