Welcoming Week 2023: Power of Place

Welcoming Week is an annual campaign and celebration to showcase the movement of communities striving to be more welcoming places for all, including migrants, refugees, people seeking asylum, international students and the entire community. We acknowledge that Welcoming Week events in Australia will be hosted on the unceded lands of First Nations.  We recognise the generosity and important role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the work of Welcoming Australia and Welcoming Week.

Welcoming Week 2023 will take place from September 8-17

Register your interest here in hosting a Welcoming Week event.

We are joining a global movement across six countries, hosting over 400 events annually. Welcoming Week 2023 is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the people, places, and values that ensure everyone feels welcome and belongs in the local community, no matter where they come from. 

Anyone can participate in Welcoming Week.
This year’s theme is #PowerOfPlace

Some key actions partners, members, organisations, and individuals can take this year to celebrate the #PowerOfPlace in advancing welcoming, inclusive communities

• Host an online or in-person event during Welcoming Week, for example:
  • Food festival featuring diverse cuisines
  • Explore the native ingredients in your area, led by a local Elder
  • Organise a welcoming mural – chalk, paint, otherwise!
  • Community BBQ or picnic
  • Festival or gathering showcasing the diverse musical talent of your community
  • Movie screening
  • Sports day
  • Crafts events
  • Community info session
  • Multicultural Quiz
• Attend an event near you
• On social media, share welcoming actions your community is taking
• Issue a Welcoming Week Proclamation or Resolution

For more information and ideas, please check out this toolkit

About Welcoming Week

Welcoming Week is an annual campaign and celebration to showcase the movement of communities striving to be more welcoming places for all, including migrants. Launched in 2012 by Welcoming America and its members in the United States, Welcoming Week is now a global movement that brings communities and neighbours of all backgrounds together to build strong connections and affirm the importance of inclusive places.

Core Messages

Welcoming Week is an opportunity to share the work of welcoming places with your community and the media. These talking points can help guide your messaging and outreach.

• Celebrated in hundreds of communities around the globe, Welcoming Week is an annual campaign that connects neighbours of all backgrounds through community-led activities and events.
• Welcoming Week is an actionable, holistic campaign that provides individuals and communities the opportunity to publicly proclaim welcoming values, foster a mutual understanding between First Nations, refugees, migrants, people seeking safety, settlers and everyone calling their community home, and build a deeper sense of belonging for all.
• More people than ever are on the move, displaced by climate and conflict and seeking opportunity and mobility. As this migration reshapes communities, many places are unprepared and underinvested in the work needed to create welcoming infrastructure – and they’re unsure of where to start. Welcoming Week invites communities to take the first step toward creating an environment where everyone can truly belong, contribute and thrive. In many ways, the initiative is an opportunity for communities to cultivate the awareness and energy that’s needed to sustain year-long welcoming efforts.
• We believe that being welcoming is much more than being friendly, tolerant, or peaceful. To be truly welcoming, a community needs intentional, inclusive policies, practices, and norms that enable all residents to live, thrive, and contribute fully. Welcoming Week is one of the tools that can help us achieve this vision. During Welcoming Week, we pursue equity in our community by [specific detail(s) about your Welcoming Week event(s).]
• Welcoming Week poses an opportunity for communities to cultivate the awareness and energy that’s needed to sustain year-long welcoming efforts. In [Location], this looks like [specific detail(s) about your Welcoming Week event(s)].
• The theme for this year’s Welcoming Week is “Power Of Place” and focuses on the places and spaces that foster belonging (e.g our cities, workplaces, neighbourhoods, schools, places of worship, etc).  
• #PowerOfPlace aims to spark reflection on how our places and spaces can advance belonging for all those who call Australia home. 
• Welcoming Week is a time when a chorus of thousands—in communities large and small, rural and urban—celebrate the benefits of an inclusive and welcoming society and deepen their commitment to creating places where everyone can belong, contribute and thrive. 

Social Media Templates

• Facebook templates
• Instagram Reel templates
• Instagram feed templates
• LinkedIn templates
• Twitter templates
• Profile photo frames

Ready to Use Social Media Tiles

• Save the Date: square  –  long  –  story
• Join us for Welcoming Week: square  –  long  –  story
• Welcoming Week celebrates the Power Of Place in our Communities: square  –  long  –  story

Welcoming Signs

• PDF and JPG of Welcoming Signs in different languages

Logos

• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Spanish

2022 Welcoming Week

For the first time, Australia joined the global Welcoming Week movement – and what a way to join the party!

In cities across Australia; from Port Phillip to Mt Isa to Unley to the Blue Mountains, Welcoming Week brought together local councils, refugee support organisations, community groups and more in a bold display of welcome, deepening their commitment to creating places where everyone can belong, contribute and thrive.

Hundreds of people across over a dozen events hosted around Australia joined a chorus of thousands internationally in a bold display of welcome, solidarity and belonging.

Read more about Australia’s first ever Welcoming Week here