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About this Handbook

What is this Handbook?

The Belonging Handbook provides practical lessons, tips, and how-tos to support you in building belonging in your community. ��You may use the Handbook as a jumping off point if you are just getting started. Or it may be a helpful source of inspiration if you have been at this work for a while and you need some innovative new ideas from experts and peers around the country.

Who should use this Handbook?

The Belonging Handbook is primarily intended for people interested in creating belonging in their local communities and strengthening community bonds, for example by: �

decreasing tension between groups,
bridging across differences,
welcoming immigrants and newcomers,
nurturing greater community resilience,
increasing civic engagement,
or cultivating greater prosperity through belonging and other shared aims.

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About this Handbook

This Handbook might be helpful if you are:

A nonprofit leader interested in building belonging within and between the communities you serve�
A business leader interested in cultivating resilience and/or shared prosperity in your local workforce and wider community �
A local government official interested in bridging across political differences and improving civic engagement�
A faith leader interested in strengthening belonging among congregants and welcoming new people into your community �
A community advocate, leader, or educator who works in other settings interested in building belonging to create more inclusive, welcoming spaces

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Welcome to The Belonging Handbook

We encourage you to watch this brief introduction video from Kimberly Serrano, the Director of the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council, as you begin your journey with this Handbook.

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About this Handbook

Why did we create this Handbook?

For the last several years, the Center for Inclusion and Belonging (CIB) has been working to understand the art and science of building belonging in partnership with community leaders from across the country [see the Appendix for more]. The Belonging Handbook provides practical lessons informed by the CIB’s research and its grassroots partnerships to increase belonging in local contexts, which is greatly needed as we face growing divisions and polarization in our communities and neighborhoods.

As you will learn in this Handbook, building belonging, bridging differences, and cultivating shared prosperity benefits all of us in many ways by improving our personal health and well-being, educational outcomes, workplace satisfaction, social cohesion in our communities, and civic engagement in our democracy. Many of the experts and community leaders featured in this Handbook share that building belonging feels essential right now – and that it will take all of us playing a part to make real progress. We are so glad you are here. Let’s get started.

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Acknowledgements

The Belonging Handbook was created by the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council. The practical lessons provided in the Handbook would not have been possible without the expertise and real-world experiences of the Council’s partners in communities across the country.

This project was spearheaded and compiled by Emily Baird-Chrisohon and Kimberly Serrano at the CIB with support from an anonymous donor and in partnership with Alyah Khan, Cristina Alvarez, and Elysha Dávila at Wonder for Good. Matt Erickson, Reed Kelly, and Sarah Flowers of 76 Words contributed to editing video lessons.

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Thank you to the many contributors featured in the Handbook:

Rich Andre Director of State and Local Initiatives, American Immigration Council New York City Nichole Argo�Executive Director and Founder, �TogetherUp Institute and Founder and Co-Director, Needham Resilience Network Needham, Massachusetts Wendy Petersen-Boring Professor of History, Willamette University Co-Founder, The Conversation Project Salem, Oregon	David Gutterman�Professor of Politics, Policy, Law and Ethics, Willamette University�Co-Founder, The Conversation Project Salem, Oregon Jackie Guzman Founding Board Member, Empowering Families Scottsbluff, Nebraska Dr. Alaina Jackson Managing Director, Global Detroit Detroit, Michigan Chelsie Kramer Texas State Organizer, American Immigration Council Houston, Texas	Krystal Reyes Deputy Mayor of Tulsa Tulsa, Oklahoma Valeria Rodriguez Executive Director, Empowering Families Scottsbluff, Nebraska Kimberly Serrano Director, Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council Southern California Ze Min Xiao President and CEO, The Center for Economic Opportunity and Belonging Salt Lake City, Utah

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Table of Contents

Each video lesson is followed by a reflection exercise

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The Foundations of Belonging

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What does it mean to belong?

Social psychologist Nichole Argo is the executive director and founder of the TogetherUp Institute and the founder and co-director of the Needham Resilience Network in Massachusetts.

In her local community work, �Nichole invites people to think of their own sense of belonging in three ways:

connection,
psychological safety,
and agency or co-creation.

These three concepts are known as the principles of belonging — and are explained in more detail in this video lesson.

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Video Recap: Belonging as a scale

Here, individuals experience: feeling left out, ignored, rejected, or excluded

Over Zero and The Center for Inclusion & Belonging at the American Immigration Council (2024). The Belonging Barometer: The State of Belonging in America. Revised ed. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/report/the-belonging-barometer/

Here, individuals experience:

Connection: The quality and quantity of one’s relationships in a setting.
Psychological safety: Feeling valued by a group for who you are and what you contribute, even if you disagree or don’t express yourself clearly. You are comfortable being your whole self.
Agency or co-creation: Understanding how things work and feeling like you can influence the process.

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Reflection Exercise: What does it mean to belong?

One way to deepen your understanding of what it means to belong is to consider your own sense of belonging. For this exercise, think about a time when you felt a strong sense of belonging–whether in your community, among your friends or family, in a religious group, at school, at your workplace, or another setting.

Describe the setting or community.
What about your relationships in this setting made you feel connected?
Did you feel valued for who you are? And what helped you feel that way, or feel safe being yourself?
Did you feel like you had influence or a voice in the decisions being made? And what helped you feel that way?

Now think about a setting when you felt uncomfortable – or even excluded or rejected.

Describe the setting or community.
What about that setting felt unwelcoming?
What made you feel like you didn’t belong?
What would have helped you feel more at ease or more yourself?

Now, consider the principles of connection, psychological safety, and agency. How did these show up – or not show up – in the settings and communities you just described?

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Why is it important to build belonging?

Research undertaken by the Center for Inclusion and Belonging, Over Zero, and other partners has found that an increased sense of belonging among community members positively correlates to health and education outcomes, more robust civic engagement and trust, a stronger connection to your workplace, and less division among groups with different identities.

Experts in this video lesson share how a lack of belonging is the cause of many of the problems we are experiencing in the U.S. today and how we all have a role to play in building belonging in order to survive and thrive.

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Why is it important to build belonging?

�Speakers featured:

�Kimberly Serrano

Director, Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council

Nichole Argo

Executive Director and Founder, TogetherUp Institute

Founder and Co-Director, Needham Resilience Network

Ze Min Xiao

President and CEO, The Center for Economic Opportunity and Belonging, Utah

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Reflection Exercise: Why is it important to build belonging?

Experts and community leaders featured in this Handbook agree that belonging is an essential human need. They share that if we don’t find it in our community or in a particular group setting, we will seek it out elsewhere, including in ways that sometimes result in othering.

In this reflection exercise, we ask you to consider the ways in which you’ve seen belonging show up in your community and how this has been beneficial. We also ask you to consider what factors might be leading some groups to experience a sense of exclusion. In your community, consider:

In what ways do groups of people with different identities connect with each other right now?
Which groups or individuals may be experiencing exclusion, and how do you know?
What challenges in your community feel related to a lack of belonging?
What is your vision for belonging in your community? What does that look like and how does that feel?
How do you think a greater sense of belonging would impact the people you serve or work with?

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How to get started:

Understanding your community and getting into the right mindset

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How to get started

One of the hardest parts of building belonging in your community is knowing where to start.

Valeria Rodriguez, Executive Director of Empowering Families in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, shares how she began her community work by using Over Zero and the American Immigration Council’s Belonging Barometer, an accessible tool for measuring belonging that can be used pre- and post-interventions. Another tool available to you as you get started is the Council’s Map the Impact, which provides comprehensive state and local immigration data. In addition, practitioners emphasize the importance of getting in the right mindset to do this work, particularly when it comes to partnerships.

Deep listening and partnership with a core group of community members to truly understand the needs and priorities of the community is often the best place to start.

Experts in this video lesson recommend resources to help you better understand the levels of belonging in your community (including how residents, workers, and/or students experience belonging or not) as a first step.

“When thinking through where to start I would remind the person pursuing this work that this isn't about them or their ideas. And that where they should start is with the community.”

– Dr. Alaina Jackson, Global Detroit

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How to get started

Speakers featured:

Valeria Rodriguez

Executive Director, Empowering Families, Nebraska

Nichole Argo

Executive Director and Founder, TogetherUp Institute

Founder and Co-Director, Needham Resilience Network

Rich Andre

Director of State and Local Initiatives, American Immigration Council

Dr. Alaina Jackson

Managing Director, Global Detroit

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Reflection Exercise: How to get started

We understand that getting started can be one of the hardest steps in building belonging in your community. We encourage you to review some of the tools, including the Belonging Barometer, provided in this lesson as a way to start developing a belonging intervention. �

In this reflection exercise, we encourage you to embrace your curiosity. �

When you think about your community, which groups do you wonder about most when it comes to their experience of belonging?
What data or feedback do you currently rely on to understand how people feel in your community? What data might be missing?
What mindset shifts might you need to embrace – personally – to work effectively across differences?
Who do you need to talk to in order to truly understand the community with whom you wish to work alongside?
Is there anyone already doing this work that you can speak to or maybe partner with?

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How to move from ideas to action:

Innovative ways leaders

are building belonging

around the country

In this section we explore:

How to nurture lasting partnerships
How to build bridges across differences through story
How to authentically co-create belonging

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How to nurture lasting partnerships

Ze Min Xiao is the President and CEO of The Center for Economic Opportunity and Belonging in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ze, an immigrant from rural China, has spent nearly three decades in Utah and her work is focused on collaboration among diverse public and private partners to co-create solutions for pressing economic issues in the state. �

She explains in this video lesson how her organization nurtures meaningful partnerships and where you can begin when it comes to establishing cross-sector partnerships.

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Reflection Exercise: How to nurture lasting partnerships

As Ze explains in this video lesson, cross-sector partnerships are critical when it comes to building belonging and addressing important social issues in your community.

You can use this reflection exercise to consider the existing partnerships you have and how you might strengthen them to increase belonging or what new partnerships you hope to establish.

When you think about your current partnerships, what makes the strongest ones work well?
What sectors (local government, nonprofit, business), organizations, or people in your community do you think you should be connected with, but aren’t yet?
Who might be doing similar work nearby that you could reach out to?
What is one action you could take to nurture a relationship or partnership?

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How to build bridges across differences through stories

Willamette University Professors Wendy Petersen-Boring and David Gutterman founded The Conversation Project, an initiative to cultivate capacity for honest, transformative dialogue, because of concerns about polarization following the 2016 U.S. elections.

They developed a curriculum that allows students to develop important intrapersonal skills over time, such as staying grounded, listening, developing compassion for self and others, cultivating curiosity, and staying passionate and non-reactive.

“We tend to think immediately of bridging work as trying to build some sort of great expanse between two very distant poles. And a lot of the bridging work that we do first is building the smaller bridges between people who agree on so many things, but have a fissure or a disagreement or a curiosity or a difference about something else.

We think about bridging work as not one great expanse, but a series of connected smaller bridges that we are able to create between people and between communities. Once we break it down into smaller bridges, the work becomes that much more accessible and possible.” �

– Professor David Gutterman

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How to build bridges across differences through stories

In this video lesson, Wendy and David define what bridging work is, how to intentionally create the conditions for bridging work, and why storytelling and listening is essential to difficult bridge-building conversations.

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Reflection Exercise:

How to build bridges across differences through stories

This video lesson considers how to build bridges, including how storytelling can play an important role in lowering the temperature and helping people see one another in difficult conversations. As Professor David Gutterman shares, the point in these types of conversations is not to “win” but to understand.

In this exercise, we want you to reflect on the role co-creation plays in building belonging among different groups.

What does co-creation mean to you as a way of working with others?
How do you think bridging techniques help establish trust among groups?
What shared purpose or goal could your community rally around?
Who are some people in your community who have built strong relationships and networks and could serve as advisors or partners in this work?
How could you respond to conflict or tension in group work that can deepen understanding or lead to better solutions?
What is an immediate action or next step you might take to incorporate these ideas into your work?
What can you do to ensure that your intervention or program is co-created with the community members you most want to involve?

Now let’s consider how this lesson can support you in your work, including the idea of ‘small bridges’:

Where in your work do you see opportunities for building small bridges across differences?
Who might you invite into a bridging conversation, and what story could help open that door?
Think of a disagreement or tension in your community, what might a small bridge look like in that situation?

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How to authentically co-create belonging

Dr. Alaina Jackson is the managing director at Global Detroit, a nonprofit organization that deeply believes that immigrant inclusion is an economic development strategy that can bring prosperity to all Michiganders.

In this video lesson, Dr. Jackson shares about Global Detroit’s Social Cohesion Project, which brings together longtime African American residents and their newer immigrant neighbors to build trust, solidarity, and relationships as they work toward a common goal.

Through this case study, Dr. Jackson explores how bridging techniques work, why co-creation was critical to the success of this project, and how to handle disagreements among community members.

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Reflection Exercise:

How to authentically co-create belonging

In this video lesson, Dr. Jackson shares that although residents and the neighborhoods she worked with were doing well, there was a lack of social cohesion as people were living detached lives from one another and there were deep biases. In order to bring neighbors together and create stronger social cohesion, Dr. Jackson and her organization empowered community members to co-create a process and solutions toward a common goal.

In this exercise, we want you to reflect on the role co-creation plays in building belonging among different groups.

What does co-creation mean to you as a way of working with others?
How do you think bridging techniques help establish trust among groups?
What shared purpose or goal could your community rally around?
Who are some people in your community who have built strong relationships and networks and could serve as advisors or partners in this work?
How could you respond to conflict or tension in group work that can deepen understanding or lead to better solutions?
What is an immediate action or next step you might take to incorporate these ideas into your work?
What can you do to ensure that your intervention or program is co-created with the community members you most want to involve?

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Belonging, resilience, and

local government

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How to implement belonging programs in ways that are good for civic engagement

Kimberly Serrano is the director of the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council. She shares from her experience working with local leaders that as community members begin to feel a deeper sense of belonging, residents report stronger outcomes in civic trust, civic engagement, and democracy indicators.

In this video lesson, Kimberly Serrano, Valeria Rodriguez, and Rich Andre share examples of how increased belonging has strengthened civic engagement in their own communities and what these programs can look like in practice, including resources from Welcoming America.

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How to implement belonging programs in ways

that are good for civic engagement

Speakers featured:

Kimberly Serrano

Director, Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council

Valeria Rodriguez

Executive Director, Empowering Families, Nebraska

Rich Andre

Director of State and Local Initiatives, American Immigration Council

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Perspectives from local government:

How to foster collaboration

Krystal Reyes is the first Latina Deputy Mayor of the City of Tulsa. Prior to her appointment as Deputy Mayor, Krystal was the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Tulsa, a role in which she oversaw immigrant and refugee inclusion work and the New Tulsans Welcoming Plan.

In this video lesson, Deputy Mayor Reyes shares her advice for nonprofit and community leaders on how to effectively collaborate with their local city government in order to expand the reach of their belonging work and how to maintain a diverse coalition of stakeholders.

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Reflection Exercise:

Belonging, resilience, and local government

This exercise can be helpful if you are part of the local government or interested in collaborating with your local government.

First, consider how belonging has impacted civic engagement in your community. Next, weigh which groups are included and excluded from civic participation and to what extent your local government is interested or invested in these efforts.

How would you describe civic engagement in your community – in particular, which groups in your community are currently at the table to voice their opinions on local services and public issues?
Which groups are missing?
What outreach needs to be done to ensure they are included? Who might do that outreach?
How is your local government involved in strengthening belonging and resilience – if at all?
What asks do you have of local government to strengthen belonging, resilience, and civic engagement among more groups?
How do you think local government partnerships could benefit your work?

As a follow up, what existing relationships do you have to make connections with local government officials and start these conversations?
What data, anecdotes, or desired outcomes might you need to collect to start these conversations?

If you are already engaged with local government, where are there still gaps? What might help you fill these? What’s the next step?

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Belonging, business, and shared prosperity

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How to implement belonging programs in ways that are good for business

Chelsie Kramer is the Texas State Organizer for the American Immigration Council. In this role, she leads the organization’s business coalition work through Texans for Economic Growth and collaborates primarily with chambers of commerce and business leaders.

In this video lesson and case study, Chelsie shares how business leaders can support their employees’ sense of belonging, as well as how communities can strengthen shared prosperity through welcoming programs with business and education partners.

She also highlights specific examples of how increased belonging has benefitted business and economic growth in rural parts of Texas.

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Reflection Exercise: Belonging, business, and shared prosperity

Chelsie Kramer shares how increasing belonging among employees benefits business and shared prosperity in communities. If you are a business leader, you can use this reflection exercise to consider how to strengthen belonging in your workplace. This resource may also be helpful to you as an employer: Cultivating Belonging at the Workplace. If you are interested in partnering with businesses in your belonging initiative, we also pose some questions on how to get this process started.

For those interested in partnering with business:

In what ways could your organization collaborate with local businesses or your community’s chambers of commerce to build belonging in your community?
Are there business, education or workforce stakeholders who aren’t engaged in belonging work but could play a key role?

As a follow up, what existing relationships do you have to make connections and start these conversations?
What data, anecdotes, or desired outcomes might you need to collect to start these conversations?

If you are already engaged with business, education, and workforce stakeholders, where are there still gaps? What might help you fill these? What’s the next step?

For business leaders:

What aspects of supporting belonging for employees resonates most with you?
How do you see your role in fostering belonging in your workplace?
What actions can you take to strengthen belonging in your workplace?
What about in your larger community? How might greater belonging in your community strengthen your business?
What actions can you take to strengthen belonging in your larger community?

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Fundraising for belonging work

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Fundraising for belonging work resources and ideas

The leaders featured in this Handbook run programs in their communities that are funded in various ways – through government resources, philanthropic donations, employers, educational institutions, or community foundations. There are many examples of groups who have led larger data collection efforts by mobilizing resources from community foundations – like in Colorado, or in Washington. However, many started small – with just themselves and a small number of volunteers.

There are many things you may be able to do without raising a lot of money. These might include:

Setting up a community meeting to talk about community priorities and start a co-creation project like Dr. Alaina Jackson talks about
Inviting key representatives from different communities to come together (maybe over a meal) and discuss working together towards a common goal.
Holding a storytelling event like Professors Wendy Petersen-Boring and David Gutterman describe
Pointing to national data or gathering a smaller amount of data locally that can help start conversations. You can see a helpful example of local data collection from the Needham Resilience Network available here.

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Fundraising for belonging work resources and ideas

Often, taking a first step like one of these is also the first step to longer-term fundraising. Smaller wins demonstrate the success and the commitment that funders often look for when thinking about giving larger grants. It can also be helpful to start with potential funding partnerships in mind, locally – for example, your community may already have a local community foundation, government-funded workforce development program, welcoming program, or other organizations that share similar goals as you have in mind. We recommend making contact and meeting with these groups to understand what they may already be doing, and to illuminate any gaps you are seeing.

There are also resources for raising funds from national sources like Grants.gov and state grant portals (for example, grants.ca.gov) for federal opportunities, and private grant databases such as Philanthropy News Digest’s RFP Bulletin, GrantStation, and the Grant Portal. In addition, The Commons from Chronicle of Philanthropy as well as Coming Together, Not Apart from the Council on Foundations has articles and resources for philanthropy about why they should fund and support work to bridge divides, and which may be useful in developing your own grant proposals.

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Reflection Exercise: Fundraising for belonging work

This exercise is meant to help you consider what you can do without funds, the funds you need to do this work sustainably, and what next steps to take.

What assets do you have that aren’t money – for example, volunteer time or event space? And what might you get started on without raising funds?
If you take a first step using volunteer time, how can you document the early impact you make in order to build a case for funding more long term?
Now, thinking bigger picture, what is a budget or fundraising goal you would need to do the belonging work you want to do sustainably?
Who might be interested in partnering in this work as a funder? And what are the next steps to engage those individuals or institutions? What data or documentation do you need to start a conversation?
Who might already be doing this work in your community? Can you volunteer or partner with them?

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Overcoming challenges when building belonging

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How to overcome challenges

In this video lesson, Ze Min Xiao, Chelsie Kramer, and Jackie Guzman share their reflections on the current environment and its impact on belonging work. They also discuss how to overcome challenges when building belonging, including:

focusing on people’s shared values,
understanding that this is a lengthy process,
meeting people where they are at,
and bringing people with different perspectives together to start the conversation.

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How to overcome challenges

Speakers featured:

Ze Min Xiao

President and CEO, The Center for Economic Opportunity and Belonging, Utah

Chelsie Kramer

Texas State Organizer, American Immigration Council

Jackie Guzman

Founding Board Member, Empowering Families

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Reflection Exercise: How to overcome challenges

This work is hard, it takes time, and you will encounter challenges, as many of the experts and community leaders featured in the Handbook explain. We hope this video lesson provides some ideas on how to overcome the difficult challenges you might experience in belonging work.

We offer this reflection exercise to help you identify challenges you have faced, how to effectively collaborate, and how to engage people with different perspectives.

What challenges in building belonging have you encountered, and how have you approached them?
What challenges do you anticipate going forward? What can you do proactively to overcome these challenges?
How can you effectively collaborate with people with a different perspective?

Consider: What values do people with different perspectives have in common?
Consider: What are ways you could meet people where they are at?

How do you think you can effectively establish community buy-in? (Think about the lessons in the How to Get Started section)

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How do you know your efforts to build belonging are working?

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How to know building belonging is

working in your community

In this video lesson, belonging experts and community leaders explain how they know their efforts to build belonging are making a difference, including measurement data and qualitative evidence such as new relationships or organizational collaborations – and they share real-life belonging success stories from Needham, Massachusetts, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Scottsbluff, Nebraska for your inspiration.

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How to know building belonging is working in your community

�Speakers featured:

Krystal Reyes

Deputy Mayor of Tulsa

Ze Min Xiao

President and CEO, The Center for Economic Opportunity and Belonging, Utah

Nichole Argo

Executive Director and Founder, TogetherUp Institute

Founder and Co-Director, Needham Resilience Network

Rich Andre

Director of State and Local Initiatives, American Immigration Council

Valeria Rodriguez

Executive Director, Empowering Families, Nebraska

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Reflection Exercise:

How to know building belonging is working in your community

Congratulations: You’ve made it this far! That means you have already made a difference, because each step along the path you have chosen to build to belonging is a step in the right direction – for both you and for your community.

Whether you are just getting started or looking for inspiration to keep going, use this reflection exercise to consider how to celebrate each win along the way.

Which – if any – of the success stories shared by these experts most resonate with you for the work you are doing?
Looking back on your work to build belonging, what have you personally learned so far?
Looking back on your work to build belonging, what do you think others might have gained?
Looking forward toward the work you want to do next, what are 1-3 small wins you might look for?
Looking forward toward the work you want to do next, what are 1-3 adjustments you might make moving forward?
When you identify small or large wins, how will you celebrate them?
How will you measure change moving forward?

Want to collect data to know if your efforts are working? The Belonging Barometer is a good place to start. More details are available in the Appendix.

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Thank You and Get in Touch

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Final Reflections

Thank you for visiting this Handbook! We sincerely hope it has provided you with inspiration and learning for your next steps. We also invite you to share this guide with others in your community or network, and welcome your lessons, innovations, and questions. In the spirit of co-creation, we are confident you will unlock new ideas and breakthroughs, and we look forward to hearing from you so we can continue to develop and grow this work together.

We welcome your questions, feedback, and reflections.

Get in touch: belonging@immcouncil.org

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Final Reflection Exercise

We will end with a final reflection exercise.

As you think about the lessons experts and peers have shared in this Handbook, what will stick with you?
What is one thing you will do next as a result of what you’ve learned here?
Is there anyone in your life you think might enjoy this Handbook? If so, how might you share it with them?

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Appendix: Additional Resources

The Belonging Barometer

A nuanced new tool for measuring belonging that is robust, accessible, and readily deployable in the service of efforts to advance the common good. The Barometer (and further variations and versions of the tool) can be adapted to measure levels of belonging over time (e.g., for workers, students, residents), or to track pre- and post-intervention changes.

Cultivating Contact: A Guide to Building Bridges and Meaningful Connection Between Groups

In this guide, the authors describe how to set the stage for people from different backgrounds to engage with each other in ways that foster trust and belonging, while also drawing on their similarities and differences to solve community problems.

Cultivating Belonging in the Workplace: An Employer Guide

Informed by business leaders and nuanced national research, this guide is designed to help you: understand the current state of belonging in the workplace; build a business case for developing a strategy on belonging; and take action to foster belonging and measure your progress.

The Center for Belonging and Inclusion (CIB) at the American Immigration Council and partner organizations have a number of informational and practical application resources about belonging that may provide additional support to you as you get started.

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Appendix: Additional Resources

Gateways for Growth

The Gateways for Growth Challenge is a competitive opportunity for localities to receive research support and technical assistance from the American Immigration Council and Welcoming America to improve immigrant inclusion in their communities.

Map the Impact

A comprehensive tool that provides state and local immigration data.

Transforming Together: Practices and Possibilities from the First Belonging Innovation Lab

In 2022, the Center for Inclusion and Belonging created the Belonging Innovation Lab Fellowship to support and strengthen groups working to bring people together and build belonging in communities across the United States. The Fellowship was designed to recognize and reinforce the vital work being done by small, local nonprofit organizations—from colleges and literacy centers to mutual aid societies and community agricultural initiatives. Transforming Together celebrates the Belonging Innovation Lab Fellows’ extraordinary work building community and belonging, and elevates their takeaways to help others learn.

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