Category: Welcoming

Welcoming Week 2022 is here!
September 9 – 18 and beyond!

This 10th anniversary of Welcoming Week is a great opportunity to get to know neighbors – new and old – to embrace the universal values of welcoming places, and to celebrate culture, helping everyone to belong and feel at home. This year’s Welcoming Week theme “Where We Belong” aims to go deeper and spark individual reflection on how and why belonging occurs, and ways we can break barriers to foster belonging for all, including immigrants and refugees.

Here in Nebraska and across the globe community members are practicing what makes welcoming places and fosters belonging for all people.

Find local events NEAR YOU! Nebraskans are hosting festivals, parades, learning events, cultural performances with music and dance, sharing food and stories of belonging, and more!

Join a virtual event or include a Welcoming Week event if you are traveling this week.

Print a Welcomer sign for your office, business or to post on social media!

Engage on social media! Share your photos and experiences with welcoming on social media using the hashtag #WhereWeBelong”. Follow Nebraska Is Home and Welcoming America on Facebook or @WelcomingUSA and @NebraskaIsHome on Instagram and Twitter.

Join us for the final session of the Nebraska is Home virtual summer series Practicing Community Tools for Race Equity and Belonging, as we launch Welcoming Week together!

Friday, September 9th at 10:00 AM-11:30 AM (CT) / 11:00 AM-12:30 PM (MT)
Inclusion Practices Everywhere in Community Work

Our final session falls on the first day of Welcoming Week, as groups across Nebraska and all over the country hold events that bring neighbors from different backgrounds together to get to know one another and celebrate what unites us as a community! This year, the Welcoming Week theme is “Where We Belong.”

Join our virtual session with other Nebraskans as we celebrate this week of belonging! Together, we’ll:

• • Preview techniques to speak up against stereotypes and other biased behaviors, without blame or guilt;
  • Share ideas, tips and learnings about holding neighbor-to-neighbor events year-round that promote inclusion and belonging; and
  • Create a Welcoming Week message together and hear what other Nebraskans have planned for this week and beyond!

(If you registered for previous events in the series, there is no need to register again.)

We hope to see you there!

June is Immigrant Heritage Month. This is an opportunity to reflect on our past, take hold of our present, and imagine our future. Immigrant Nebraskans shaped the state we live in today, building our agricultural economy, as entrepreneurs, educators, inventors, laborers and community leaders. Today, immigrant neighbors continue in those same roles adding to the rich tapestry of culture, art, and community across this state, playing a role in together shaping our collective future.

 

It is hard to find a part of everyday life in the United States that immigrant Americans have not shaped – our impact is felt in the movies we watch, the music we listen to, the food we eat, and so much more.

To Cook or Eat:

Taste of Belonging: This collection pairs recipes from diverse cultures with activities that connect people around a shared table and get them working together on a common goal.

The Return of Taste of 27th Street: This guided walking tour is now sold out, but you can still visit each restaurant: Intuit Raw Foods, Banhwich Cafe, Misky Bakery, and Bloom in Lincoln.

Support your favorite local immigrant-owned restaurant.  Or try a new one!

Events to Attend:

June 17, 18 & 19 Stromsburg Swedish Festival 

June 17, 18 & 19 Holdrege Swedish Days

June 18 Omaha World Refugee Day

June 24, 25 & 26 Clarkson Czech Days

Learn More:

June 28 6th Annual Columbus Diversity and Inclusion Summit  For anyone, especially HR professionals, business leaders, community leaders, and D&I practitioners interested in supporting diversity and inclusion efforts for our growing communities and workplaces!

Now through September 20 Carne y Arena  at Kaneko in Omaha. This is an immersive VR experience recounting the harrowing journey of Central American and Mexican refugees. CARNE y ARENA is presented for the first time in Nebraska.

To Watch or Stream:

Local stories: Centro Hispano in Columbus invites you to celebrate Immigrant Heritage Month with the series Semillas del Destino! Tune in for new stories each Friday on their Facebook page – this Friday, watch Jose’s story!

Minari: Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari is, at least in part, based on a true story. Minari, which won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, follows the story of an immigrant Korean family who move from California to Arkansas in hope of a better life and land to call their own.

Little America: Inspired by the true stories, “Little America” goes beyond the headlines to look at the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring, surprising stories of immigrant Americans, more relevant now than ever.

To Read:

• • • The Next Great Migration (Sonia Shah)
    • The God Who Sees (Karen Gonzalez)
    • The Undocumented Americans (Karla Cornejo Villavicencio)
    • Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen (Jose Antonio Vargas)
    • The Ungrateful Refugee (Dina Nayeri)
    • The Good Immigrant (26 Writers Reflect on America)
    • The Land of Open Graves (Jason De Leon)
    • Once I Was You (Maria Hinojosa)
    • The Warmth of Other Suns (Isabel Wilkerson)
    • The Beekeeper of Aleppo (Christy Lefteri)
    • Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Services shares more information on these books and interviews with authors