Community-based organization welcoming centers are one-stop service centers for clients who find it difficult to access or navigate government-led public sector services. Their value has become particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this prolonged crisis, community-based organization welcoming centers in Illinois have helped clients and families cope with loss of employment, food insecurity and housing issues, as well as reduced access to essential medical, educational, civic and social services.

For many clients, a welcoming center is their only source of services and assistance. In Illinois, these organizations are a critical safety net for immigrant and refugee communities. Community-based organizations and their welcoming centers have overcome challenges despite limited resources and capacities. However, since their inception in 2007, there has been no systematic review of the Illinois Welcoming Center model.

Our statewide initiative, the Immigrant and Refugee-Led Capacity Development Network of Illinois, was established in December 2020 to enable nonprofit community based organizations to better serve as welcoming centers across diverse regions of Illinois.

The Office of Welcoming Centers selected 17 community-based organizations, all Illinois Welcoming Center grantees, to participate in the initial phase of the Immigrant and Refugee-Led Capacity Development Network. This project, a collaboration of the Office of Welcoming Centers and the Illinois Welcoming Center, the community and university resources, has the following objectives:

• produce a needs- and strengths-based assessment, with input from key stakeholders
• design a scalable implementation strategy for addressing service gaps and improving the quality of services and outcomes
• produce strategic blueprints for each of the 17 community-based organization welcoming centers to help improve their capacity to serve individuals, families and communities.