Lancaster Welcomes: Embracing Diversity with a Strategic Welcome Plan for Immigrants and Refugees
City of Lancaster
Mayor
Jaime Arroyo
Start of Project
01/01/2023
End of Project
01/01/2025
© Zayra Falu, Lancaster’s language services coordinator, holds the city’s Certificate of Redesignation from Welcoming America; City of Lancaster
Overview
Lancaster commits to institutionalizing the “Welcoming Plan for the City of Lancaster” through policy, legislation, and programming.
The City of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, became a Welcoming Certified City in 2019 through Welcoming America. The city boasts a 300-year-long history of hospitality and is recognized as "America’s refugee capital" in 2019 for resettling 20 times more refugees per capita than the rest of the nation.
The city completed an intensive evaluation in 2019 and again in 2022 for Welcoming re-certification, involving over 40 partnering organizations. The Welcoming Standard is an extensive roadmap for building welcoming communities guided by the following seven frameworks: Government Leadership, Equitable Access, Civic Engagement, Connected Communities, Education, Economic Development, and Safe Communities.
The city is now developing pathways to institutionalize a Welcoming Plan for the City of Lancaster through policy, legislation, and programming. The Department of Neighborhood Engagement will be charged with the oversight of the Welcoming Standard. In our three-year plan, we aim to operationalize a Welcoming Plan, develop a Welcoming Ordinance, establish an Office of Welcoming and Language Services, and convene and develop a coalition of community partners focused on immigrant and refugee integration.
Expected Impact
Through the Welcoming Standard Plan, the city would be able to evaluate progress in the following seven frameworks:
Government Leadership,
Equitable Access,
Civic Engagement,
Connected Communities,
Education,
Economic Development, and
Safe Communities.
The three-year assessment monitors how the city is growing in these areas and what the potential opportunities are. Important to note that the evaluations are conducted by Welcoming America through an audit process.
Lessons Learnt
Understanding Political dynamics related to private/public organizations.
Not minimizing the importance of engaging internal stakeholders.
Priority Objectives
Engaging in regional and multilateral partnerships and increasing city-to-city cooperation
Protecting those most vulnerable
Providing access to urban infrastructure, social services, and education,
regardless of status
Realising socio-economic inclusion
Supporting reception and advancing community sponsorship initiatives
“We are so proud to certify what we, and the world, know about Lancaster-that we’re America’s refugee capital. We know that refugees and immigrants make our community and our economy stronger. We know that we are better together, and we are proud to embody what I think is truly an American value of welcoming the stranger.”