January kicked off with a year-long mission to collect the latest impact data and use it to create a new community narrative on cultural inclusion.
The American Immigration Council (the Council) and Welcoming America selected Fort Wayne, Indiana, to receive a Gateways for Growth (G4G) Research, Technical Assistance, and Matching Grant award as part of the fifth cohort of the initiative. Amani Family Services, Downtown Fort Wayne and Greater Fort Wayne Inc. formed a partnership to accomplish three main goals:
Develop a clear, detailed plan for creation of the Welcoming Plan
Gather an effective and influential steering committee
Produce a community report to share assessment results at Welcome Week
In June, the Gateways for Growth partners hosted a Call to Action meeting announcing a steering committee of community leaders and the launch a multilingual community survey. The community response was tremendous - nearly 800 residents responded to the community survey which provided new insight into the differing views of both foreign-born and locally-born residents.
In September, the G4G partners with the support of the technical assistance team launched the New Americans in Allen County report during Welcoming Week.
Here’s what we found out:
Immigrants are helping the county meet its labor force demands. Immigrants were 32.3 percent more likely to be of working age than their U.S. born counterparts.
Immigrants support the federal safety net. Immigrants contributed $65.3 million to Social Security and $17.4 million to Medicare in Allen County in 2019.
Immigrants are helping Allen County meet its rising labor needs in key industries. While making up 6.8 percent of the county’s overall population in 2019, immigrants represented 13.5 percent of manufacturing workers, 12.3 percent of construction workers, and 8.3 percent of hospitality workers.
Immigrants play a significant role in the county as entrepreneurs. Immigrants represented 9.9 percent of business owners in Allen County in 2019. About 1,300 immigrant entrepreneurs generated $37.9 million in business income for the county.
Immigrants in Allen County help create or preserve local manufacturing jobs. Immigrants strengthened the local job market by allowing companies to keep jobs on U.S. soil, helping preserve or create 1,200 local manufacturing jobs that would have otherwise vanished or moved elsewhere by 2019.
Both the community survey and New Americans In Allen County impact report have become critical pieces of information in working with the G4G steering committee, as well as local and state stakeholders. You can download both reports here.
In January, the G4G partners will launch a Welcome Plan based on hours of community discussions, however the implementation and execution will require individuals across many sectors to bring it to fruition. Your support of the Welcoming Fort Wayne Initiative is needed now more than ever. Can we count on you to help us sustain this incredible community movement?
Support AMani today
Special Thanks to our Partners and Sponsors
