Grants to fund community-led Immigrant Integration efforts announced

20 projects include affordable home repair, a celebration of military interpreters, a music and dance festival, and resources for women and children

The Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs and the Immigrant & Refugee Commission today announced the winners of the third annual Denver Immigrant Integration Mini-Grant Program. Designed by the community for the community, the mini-grants fund projects whose goal is to break down barriers between Denver’s welcoming communities and the immigrants and refugees working to make a home here. 
 
“Denver is and always has been a welcoming, open and safe city,” Mayor Michael B. Hancock said.  “Everything we do works toward that end, including these mini-grants, which allow us to support community efforts that welcome immigrants and refugees into our neighborhoods and help build bridges where they matter most.”
 
The Denver Immigrant Integration Mini-Grant program provides twenty small grants to community groups that are raising each other up, creating spaces to share, learn and create real connections.  
 
“This grant project reveals how much Denver residents are committed to developing community connections, highlighting the value we all place on creating bridges between our immigrant and receiving communities,” said Jamie Torres, director of the Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs. “Residents are transforming their own personal understandings and providing space for all to feel welcome, valued and part of this city.”
 
The Immigrant Integration Mini-Grant program was praised by the White House Taskforce on Immigrant Integration in 2015 under President Barack Obama and has been replicated in several other cities across the country as a best practice for channeling community creativity for greater immigrant integration goals.
 
The 20 mini-grants for 2017 include funding for five projects that demonstrated success in previous grant cycles and have been renewed and 15 new projects that are receiving funding for the first time, for a total of $20k in grants awarded.
 
Among the successes from previous years are:

• The expansion of a youth program at the African Community Center that fosters critical conversations and civic engagement with peers and adults in their communities;
• The Good Neighbor Celebración hosted by the Clayton United Neighborhood Association during Denver Days, which includes a pig roast, art projects for kids, music and a panel on neighborhood relations with new and long-time residents; and
• The second-annual Unveiled event that brings together women from different faiths to share a meal, discuss culture and religion including the Hijab, and enjoy food and dancing.

 
The new projects for 2017 include:

• Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver will connect Spanish-speaking families in Globeville, Elyria and Swansea with resources to affordably repair their homes;
• Spring Institute will host a Veterans Day Celebration to connect military interpreters from Iraq and Afghanistan to U.S. veterans of wars from those countries; and
• The Farabi Persian Ensemble will host a Fall Persian Music and Dance Festival, which will include lessons in Persian line and solo dances.

 
For a complete listing of the 2017 mini-grant recipients, please visit the Immigrant Integration Mini-Grants webpage by clicking here.