January 29, 2024 | From City of New Orleans
Welcoming in the Crescent City: How nonprofits helped New Orleans become Certified Welcoming
In October 2023, New Orleans became the first place in Louisiana to earn the Certified Welcoming designation. Notably, New Orleans is also the first 1-star Certified Welcoming city under the new star designation system. We talked with leaders across the city to learn how community partnerships helped achieve the designation.
Relationships, trust, and power-sharing are at the heart of strong communities. As New Orleans deepens its commitment to welcoming, marked by the recent achievement of the Certified Welcoming designation, partnerships with local nonprofits and advocacy groups are one of the forces making the Crescent City a home for immigrants and refugees.
In many Certified Welcoming communities, the local government office that sets the strategy for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) is responsible for welcoming initiatives. This is the case in New Orleans. The Mayor’s Office of Human Rights and Equity led the certification process for the community, bringing together and relying on the contributions of many community-based organizations.
“Creating a space in a specific office that’s thinking about human rights, people’s dignity, and their quality of life within a city is at the core of [our office’s] goals and values,” says Kahlida Lloyd, the director of the Office of Equity and Human Rights, reflecting on the role of the office in immigrant inclusion efforts and beyond. “When we think about equity, as Mayor Cantrell says, we think about ‘meeting people where they are,’ but also connecting and identifying the disparities that we see societally. A city government has the onus and the responsibility to help bridge that gap.”
Once the city saw how Certified Welcoming aligned with the mayor’s vision and goals of improving access to services across the community, the Office of Human Rights and Equity team moved forward with the process.
Together, the community met 16 criteria required to become 1-star Certified Welcoming. Initially, New Orleans sought certification under the original Welcoming Standard, which required communities to meet 45 core criteria. Once the new system rolled out, the city was excited for the opportunity to transition their assessment to the Welcoming Standard 2.0, become certified at 1-star, and have a clear path to continue improving their welcoming efforts.
“The new designation system made it easier for the city of New Orleans to gain that certification because there were a lot of changes that we needed to complete under the previous [system],” says Shakira Cruz Gonzalez, equity program manager at the city. “The new report was more digestible because it was broken up into tangible goals. With the new system, it’s little by little, you’re improving, and you have four years to move up those [stars].”
Most importantly, the certification process also gave the city the chance to lean into relationships with community organizations and partners that are already doing this work, but may not have had the chance to connect with the local government..
Shakira reflects, “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We just have to keep oiling it, adding more support to community organizations, and showing that the city is interested in making those policies and programs more accessible.”