Blog - Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians

Let’s Learn Together: Developing Inclusive Best Practices

July 9, 2020 By Welcoming Center In Employer Engagement, Workforce Development No Comments

In January, we launched the Engaging Immigrant Talent initiative with the Office of Workforce Development which is funded by the WES Mariam Assefa Fund. Our project was designed to understand existing talent strategies and develop inclusive best practices as it relates to immigrants, refugees, and English Language Learners. In February, we hosted a Corporate Cocktail [...]

Employee Spotlight: Manuel Portillo and Nikki Pumphrey

July 7, 2020 By Welcoming Center In Staff Voices No Comments

This July we will celebrate six years of work with our Director of Engagement, Manuel Portillo and our Deputy Director, Nikki Pumphrey. Both Manuel and Nikki have played a significant role in the Welcoming Center’s growth and community impact. In honor of this anniversary, we sat down to learn a little more about what led them to the [...]

Summer Reading List: Immigrant Authors

July 7, 2020 By Welcoming Center In Staff Voices No Comments

We asked our staff to share their favorite fiction book or memoir written by an immigrant author and they delivered! Support immigrant authors by adding a few of these books to your summer reading list and let us know which ones we missed. Share a book by YOUR favorite immigrant author on social media and [...]

From Yemen to Philadelphia: Finding Success Through Hard Work as Entrepreneurs

June 22, 2020 By Welcoming Center In Entrepreneurship No Comments

Hussam and Moneef Bin Break launched Diagno Pest Control in 2018 soon after graduating from the Welcoming Center’s Business Training Program. Within a few months of operating, the brothers obtained a small business loan from FINATA, a Welcoming Center partner specializing in lending to immigrant entrepreneurs, allowing them to purchase their first branded truck. Like many immigrant entrepreneurs, Hussam and [...]

Overcoming Barriers as a High Skilled Immigrant in Philadelphia

June 9, 2020 By Welcoming Center In Community Engagement, Participant Voices, Workforce Development No Comments

I am Fode Kaba Traore. I am from Guinea which is in West Africa. In 2012, I earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University Gamal Abdel Nasser of Conakry. Also, I earned certificates in HSE and transportation. Afterwards, I worked for different companies in the transportation field in Conakry and the countryside of [...]

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