Lancaster, PA

Institutionalizing Welcoming  

Understanding the importance of ongoing communication with local communities, Lancaster created the Office of Neighborhood Engagement in 2018, a primary focus for Mayor Danene Sorace’s administration with the intentions of fostering greater connections between city government and the community it serves, including newcomers, and their neighborhoods. That same year, Lancaster became a Certified Welcoming city, following a rigorous process to convene multiple community partners, strengthen collaborations, demonstrate capacity for immigrant inclusion, and highlight priorities for city growth.

"Welcoming America has given the City of Lancaster a roadmap with measurable standards for our commitment to welcoming new neighbors. The Welcoming certification process and their regular consultation and expertise is a great service to Lancaster," said Milzy Carrasco, Director of Neighborhood Engagement for the City of Lancaster.

Since then, the Office of Neighborhood Engagement has grown into Lancaster’s Department of Neighborhood Engagement and Office of Language Services, with a three-fold focus on community access, civic engagement, and the celebration and promotion of Lancaster as a proudly multicultural community.

Language access is central to this work, and the city’s capacity for language services has grown along with its commitment to welcoming. In 2018, Lancaster had only a part-time staff person focused on language access; as of 2023, the work is institutionalized as a full office that manages, among many projects, a dedicated phone line and remote video interpreting service that provides translation in 300-plus languages and ensures real-time access for city employees and residents alike. A future goal is to train bilingual staff as qualified interpreters across city offices for enhanced customer service outcomes.

The Office’s efforts to advance language access also reaches county-wide community partners and stakeholders, by providing information on local language access providers, culturally competent engagement best practices, and popular language service requests. In 2022, the Office participated in Lancaster’s Places 2040 Summit with a breakout session, “The Importance of Language Access and Cultural Competency to Good Governance: Gaining Diverse Feedback for Lancaster’s Comprehensive Plan” reaching local community members, educators, government leaders, and employers. .

“We collaborate with all departments city wide, primarily promoting language accessibility, tools, services and providing staff education on [federal and state] language access requirements – with the understanding that we are a welcoming city and that we view language justice as a basic need,” said Zayra Falu, who heads the Office of Language Services. “All departments can come to us and utilize the services to serve the community.”

COVID-19 Catalyzes Creativity

Lancaster’s response to Hurricane Maria – including its commitment to language access and development of its network – served it well in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outreach strategies like bilingual virtual community meetings, social media updates, public art, and mailers that went to homes, food banks, and gas stations, and corner stores. 

Engaging neighborhood businesses was a critical strategy; city leaders knew that local shops often serve as information hubs for residents with limited internet access. Culturally savvy staff understood the importance of communication that met local residents where they were. 

“We thought about how campaigns happen in Latin America, with big [audio] speakers going through towns, so we thought, ‘we’re going to put a big speaker on a police patrol car that’s going to tell people to socially distance, stay home, stay calm,’” recalls Falu. “It happened in four languages; it was a real bridge of cultures. Communication is not always horizontal or vertical, it’s all about the preferences of the people you’re serving.” 

The non-traditional approach to public health communications was effective and inclusive, but met a few detractors.

“As a whole the community is really supportive of welcoming,” says Johnson. “There is pushback, but it is usually very specific pushback: It’s not like ‘we don’t want immigrants here, we don’t want refugees here,’ it’s usually more about a specific issue that we want to be addressed.” 

Getting community feedback is central to Lancaster’s approach to mitigating backlash. In 2022, the city instituted “Block Walks,” a community engagement strategy that connected city staff and community partners directly with residents to identify neighborhood needs.  While the primary objective of Block Walks was building maintenance and repairs, the effort revealed concerns from some residents about their refugee neighbors having access to services that were perceived as preferential. Block Walks helped identify the tension and address it. 

“During one walk, we met a man who expressed a lot of concerns. Because the City of Lancaster was intentional with the partners invited for the block walks, we had two CWS staff members – including our Community Organizer, who was a former refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – who were able to talk with the gentleman about his perceptions and concerns,” recalls Johnson. “One colleague was able to describe the arduous and dangerous journey refugees face and provide a general sense that they shouldn’t be seen as ‘competition’ for resources. Several times the City and CWS staff checked back with him to see if there were any lingering questions and concerns. He reported none.”