Although developed in Canada, this toolkit may be applicable to U.S. resettlement agencies as they assess communities, map out local resources, and develop programing priorities.
The Measuring Welcoming Communities Toolkit has been developed to support the groundwork in understanding a community and planning how to shape it to become more welcoming. In total, there are 19 characteristics involved in the measurement process, creating a complete profile of what a community is and can offer. In addition to the main text describing what a welcoming community is, its characteristics, and their indicators, the toolkit includes:
- A presentation deck to facilitate conversations within a community
- Tool 1 – A set of questions that can be used to conduct an environmental scan and identify crucial features of a community that may influence approaches to assessing and working toward a more welcoming community
- Tool 2 – A checklist to rank order the importance of the 19 characteristics for a given community and determine which are a priority for measurement
- Tool 3 – A checklist to select which indicators will be used to assess selected characteristics and what comparisons will be made using these indicators
