The Welcoming Center receives $1M to expand its work throughout Pa.

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The Welcoming Center will use a $1 million grant from the Pennsylvania Legislature to expand its work throughout the commonwealth.

The Philly-based nonprofit promotes economic growth through immigrant integration, offering a number of programs supporting immigrants in entrepreneurship and professional development.

Anuj Gupta, president and CEO of the center, said the state grant — supported by state Sens. Nikil Saval, Sharif Street and Anthony Williams, along with state Rep. Joe Hohenstein — will help the organization work with immigrant communities in Philadelphia’s collar counties and beyond.

“We’re excited to bring our workforce development models, our entrepreneurship models, our leadership development models, to more communities across Pennsylvania that see immigrant integration as part of their future,” Gupta said.

The grant, administered through the state Department of Community and Economic Development, will fund the organization’s work over a two-year period. Gupta said that though the funds and programming are focused on immigrants, the benefits of the center’s work are felt by all residents.

“The focus of our model has always been that by helping immigrants realize their full economic potential, we’re helping our entire community realize more economic opportunity,” he said. “The support that the legislature has demonstrated, I think it exhibits a trust in this model that we’re not looking to only serve one community as opposed to another. We’re trying to help a community uncap or leverage its full economic potential in a way that benefits everyone else.”

Gupta said the center is exploring what expanded programming will look like, but Philadelphia’s suburbs, especially Chester and Montgomery counties, have been a focus for the organization’s plans even before receiving the grant.

The Welcoming Center started working with Kennett Library, in Kennett Square, to conduct a needs assessment for immigrant residents to figure out what kind of programming there will be of interest to community members. So far, they’ve received around 150 completed surveys.

Gupta said working with onsite community partners is a key part of the process to start working in new areas.

“We want to do it in a way that adds value to the communities that we intend to serve,” he said. “And we can’t prescribe that, we need to get some real information on what they think they need.”

Both Chester and Montgomery counties have significant, growing immigrant populations.

Gupta said supporting immigrants’ economic potential directly benefits communities as a whole.

“If we help more immigrant entrepreneurs open businesses, that creates job opportunities for everybody, if we help more [immigrants] open businesses, that creates amenities for everybody, that improves the quality of life by revitalizing commercial corridors,” he said. “And I think because we’ve got a strong track record the leaders in the Philadelphia delegation and beyond were able to subscribe to what we have done with the idea that we can start to replicate that success in other communities.”