You can borrow the quilts and materials from the Welcome Quilt Project to set up your own Welcome Quilt exhibit. (You will need to pay the cost or postage for mailing the exhibit.) You can stage such an exhibit in conjunction with other immigrant related activities such as Welcoming Week, or use it as a springboard to “get the conversation going” in your area. The WQP

can provide you with materials to print out signs for the exhibit as well as handout materials. You can incorporate information about local organizations and issues impacting immigrants in your community if you wish. You can also organize people in your area to make quilts from Welcome Squares made at your event so that you begin to develop quilts for your own local exhibits. The Toolkit will provide you with ideas for setting up and advertising your exhibit along with directions on making the quilts. The Toolkit also includes the many activities around empathy and belonging that you can choose from to do in conjunction with the exhibit.

Invite interested groups in your community to attend a facilitated “field trip” of your exhibit using activities in the Toolkit. For example, invite local college and university students who will be working with children and families who have immigrated as part of their program of study. After experiencing the exhibit and participating in the curriculum, they can reflect on applying

what they learn to their practice. Invite local immigration volunteers to the exhibit to honor, celebrate, and rejuvenate them in the work that they do. Invite local school children to discuss why feeling welcomed and knowing they belong is important and how they can do that in their classrooms and schools.

We will work with you to help make your exhibit a success.