Brattleboro Becomes More Welcoming with Welcoming America
On April 10th, BDCC Welcoming Communities Manager Alex Beck and Brattleboro Town Manager John Potter attended Welcoming Interactive 2024, the annual conference of Welcoming America. Welcoming America is a national nonprofit “leading a movement of inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs, including immigrants.” The BDCC was selected to participate in Welcoming America’s “Rural Welcoming Initiative”, a cohort-driven learning network that focuses on rural immigrant inclusion in small cities and towns. The Rural Welcoming Initiative provided BDCC grant funding to bring a community partner to the conference, in Dallas, TX, and are thrilled that John attended to represent the town.
The Welcoming Interactive is an annual conference that “highlights successful practices and inspiring stories about immigrant inclusion, programs, policies, and partnerships on economic development, civic engagement, government leadership, and more. Attendees learn about local innovations from peer communities and come away with new ideas and energy to foster welcoming places for all”.
While the BDCC has participated in a number of conferences and learning cohorts related to rural workforce development, rural immigrant inclusion, and skilled immigrant inclusion, Welcoming Interactive’s panels and workshops featured a more diverse and holistic set of topics. The Brattleboro team attended two days worth of panels and workshops, including:
- Developing Infrastructure for Language Access at the State and Local Level
- Systems Change and Immigrant Engagement: Collaborative Models in Small Cities and Rural Towns
- “Intro to Civic Life”: Supporting Immigrant & Refugee Participation in Local Government
- Bridging Climate Resilience and Immigrant Inclusion for a Sustainable Future – the Dallas Story
- Welcoming Economies: Broadening and Deepening the Field of Immigrant-Inclusive Economic Development
The BDCC is excited to continue our deep partnership with the Town of Brattleboro and surrounding municipalities in developing greater language access and immigrant-inclusive civic engagement opportunities as we welcome more New Vermonters to our communities.
