Carla Gibson, Vice President, Programs, REACH Healthcare Foundation
Rachel Peric, Executive Director, Welcoming America
Greg Valdovino, Vice President, Welcoming & Belonging, Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce
More than a decade ago, leadership at REACH Healthcare Foundation began exploring how a community would function if it truly embraced welcoming and belonging for immigrant and refugee populations. The mid-sized Midwest philanthropic foundation sought to invest in a plan to reveal, then address, the systemic barriers impacting Kansas City’s efforts of inclusion for all members of the community.
REACH understands that attitudes influence policy and law, which in turn can exclude newcomers from fully engaging in the workforce, in city services, and in civic life. Most importantly, ensuring health equity for immigrant populations has broad implications for overall community health and well-being.
The Foundation’s commitment to racial equity and community-led systems change guided the development of a 2017 report to determine the health equity needs of immigrant and refugee communities in Greater Kansas City, a bi-state region. The analysis exposed gaps in care, along with substantial levels of fear and mistrust. Community focus groups widened the lens. The information revealed that there was confusion about regional health systems, a lack of cultural competency among health care workers, and problems with the quality of interpretive services in part because the role often relied on grant funding instead of inclusion as a budgeted expense.
Partnering with Welcoming America
By 2018, the foundation had entered an initial two-year partnership with Welcoming America, a nonpartisan nonprofit, to bring a national perspective on how other communities, cities, and regions were reshaping systems to become more welcoming and inclusive. Across the nation, more than 50 cities and counties have gone through Welcoming America’s rigorous audit to become Certified Welcoming by the organization. Welcoming America also brought policies and practices, as well as the nonprofit’s expertise in helping to form multisector coalitions.
The Kansas City work continued through sustained cross-sector collaboration. The partnership was highly aware that many communities were being challenged by friction borne from rapidly shifting U.S. demographics. Nearly 16 percent of the U.S. population is foreign-born, more than 51 million people. This is near a historic high in terms of the immigrant proportion of the nation. The vast majority are legally present, a fact that is often overrun by more negative narratives.
From the beginning, REACH Healthcare Foundation intended this work to be community-owned, not foundation-run.
Engaging the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce on Implementation
A strategic next step was to move implementation forward by partnering with the Greater Kansas City (KC) Chamber of Commerce. The KC Chamber brought the business community and city government together to ensure that services and opportunities would be included in all sectors. In addition, the KC Chamber immediately recognized that REACH’s vision could address workforce shortages hampering economic development in the region while proactively addressing changing community demographics.
Some key details about the Kansas City immigrant community:
- Immigrants are highly entrepreneurial and their economic impact outstrips their numbers.
- Kansas City’s immigrant population is 7 percent of the total, but represents 9 percent of the regional workforce, evidence of the important role newcomers already play in the region’s economy.
- One in 10 children in the Kansas City area has at least one immigrant parent.
Kansas City took an extremely pragmatic and deeply intentional approach by bringing to bear national expertise in the early phase and seeding the work within a chamber of commerce rather than city government. This unique approach has been held up as a national model.
Welcoming KC
The Welcoming KC Plan developed through an 18-month process was designed to shape a shared commitment toward welcoming into clear goals and action. The partnership between REACH, Welcoming America, and the KC Chamber organized institutional knowledge and deep community reach.
Stakeholders included the public library system, a leading refugee resettlement nonprofit, the civic council, a safety-net nonprofit primarily serving Latinos, a regional council of city and county government leaders, an anti-crime group, law enforcement, a migrant farmworker organization, and a health care service-delivery nonprofit tasked with serving immigrants and refugees, along with diverse under/uninsured people.
Work was divided into steering committees that mirrored the seven framework categories outlined by the Welcoming Standards of Welcoming America: civic engagement, connected communities, economic development, education, equitable access, government leadership, and safe communities. More than a dozen goals translated that framework into action.
For example, the group wanted to see meaningful language access achieved for all local city services. The pathway to accomplishing this included auditing current translation and interpretation services, training employees to access such services, and checking that emergency responders were also included. Another goal centered on the region working to empower racially and ethnically diverse residents with educational opportunities and access to civic life. And yet another was to see the purposeful creation, support, and promotion of opportunities for all residents to build trusted relationships with each other.
Additional tactics ranged from visible efforts, such as promoting immigrant-owned restaurants, to tackling more complex barriers, such as supporting immigrants who need new licenses or credentials to continue their careers in the United States.
The plan’s level of detail continues to be its value. The structure allows for natural progression to shift accountability from individuals to systems, increasing public commitment to fairness. Strategies and recommendations give partners a shared direction and will make it possible to measure progress over time.
The work took root in local government. The city audited services and policies. One outcome was the adoption of a recommendation that affected The Mayor’s Commission for New Americans, which had been established in May 2023, formalizing it as the 12-member Welcoming KC Commission.
Kansas City’s Welcoming City Certification
In April 2026, the City of Kansas City, Missouri, received notice that it had been certified as a Welcoming City.[1] The recognition came on the cusp of the city being a host for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Soon, national and international media were boasting about Kansas City’s inclusive nature, openness to foreign visitors and the intentional showcasing of the region’s diversity.
The accolades came with many noting that Kansas City was the smallest U.S. World Cup host, and the feedback exemplified how welcoming can strengthen both community identity and economic opportunity.
Accountability and Further Implementation
Data will be essential to accountability and continuous improvement. The top Kansas City area industries for foreign-born workers have been identified: administrative support, tourism, hospitality and recreation, construction, general services, and manufacturing. This information can help partners better understand where immigrant talent is already contributing and where support for businesses could make a difference. In fact, immigrant-led households in Missouri earned $13.2 billion in income in 2023 and contributed $1.1 billion in combined state and local taxes. As the work to become a more inclusive community continues, it also reinforces a central focus: welcoming is more than a social value. It connects to regional economic well-being.
It’s important to underscore that the REACH Foundation’s work started prior to, and then continued in earnest, as large-scale federal immigration enforcement began upending immigrant neighborhoods and challenging the response of all municipalities—urban, suburban and rural.
Strong board support ensured that REACH wouldn’t shy away from addressing the needs of immigrants, despite current political and culture war headwinds. That consistency matters in work built on trust and long-term change.
Many goals in the Welcoming KC Plan are still being implemented.
The region faces challenges familiar to many cities, no matter their size; continued economic investment and growth, ensuring that every resident, native-born and immigrant alike, has equitable access to opportunities for health and security. Kansas City’s experience shows what can happen when these efforts reinforce one another: philanthropy can invest in the conditions that support health equity, business leadership can connect welcoming, entrepreneurship and regional growth, and a shared community plan can build the relationships, practices, and accountability needed to sustain the work.
Lessons for Funders
For funders, the lesson is practical: advancing health equity can require investment in the conditions around health, not only health care itself. When that investment is paired with community leaders and a shared framework, welcoming can become part of how a region works—how people access opportunity, and how institutions can better serve a changing community. That is the long-term value of welcoming and belonging: healthier people, stronger communities, and a more inclusive place where everyone can thrive.
Relationships were key. In fact, at some points simply having one cheerleader in an agency or city government made all the difference in opening doors and gaining cooperation.
In Kansas City, the blueprint for achieving such success was firmly established by the partnerships formed and nurtured by REACH Healthcare Foundation and its unwavering investment in welcoming and belonging.
Additional Insights:
- The influence of the city’s Welcoming designation was apparent when the Mayor’s Commission for New Americans was replaced with a 12-member Welcoming KC Commission. The city manager will coordinate departmental support, a move that helps formalize and enrich efforts by the new commission.
- The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce leans into showcasing success stories. In 2026, an annual celebration of the top 10 small businesses included three that were immigrant-owned.
Acknowledgment: REACH Healthcare Foundation extends its appreciation to Mary Sanchez for writing and editorial support in the development of this article.
References
[1] Only one city in the nation has a five-star status with Welcoming America: San Francisco. Kansas City applied for three stars, but received one star after falling short on a few strategies judged by Welcoming America. The city likely could have obtained three stars by revisiting its application and making adjustments. But there was momentum to be maintained by waiting until the city’s next assessment in four years.
Press release, City of Kansas City, MO. Kansas City Gains Certified Welcoming Star Designation By Welcoming America. April 1, 2026.
Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Welcoming KC.
Mary Lou Jaramillo, prepared by, for REACH Healthcare Foundation, Immigrant Health Report: Barriers to Health Care for Immigrant and Refugee Populations, January 2017.
Global Detroit, in partnership with the Immigrant Research Initiative. Immigrant Inclusion As A Catalyst For Regional Growth And Innovation.
Rachel Perić, Executive Director, Welcoming America, National Civic League, What Welcoming Communities Are Teaching Us About Civic Trust.
Joe Drape, Kansas City, The Smallest World Cup Host, Has The World At Its Feet. New York Times, July 11, 2026.
Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, Economic Mobility And Opportunity, An Inclusive Initiative: Welcoming Communities, April 5, 2022.
Vera Institute of Justice. Profiles of Immigrants, Kansas City, Missouri, July 2026.