September 23, 2026
To: Mayor Jarnes Donchess
From: Jennifer McCormack, Director
RE: Welcoming America initiative
Dear Mayor Donchess,
After attending the Personnel and Administrative Affairs committee meeting on
Monday, September 18" | wanted to share with you my own experience the Welcoming
America initiative. As an organization the library has acknowledged in the last several years
that the city’s population is becoming more diverse and that we are not adequately reaching
the newest residents with our services. Like you we have read the data from the schools about
their ELL programs and the data about the aging of NH’s population and the rapid influx of
immigrants into our city and our state. We've also seen the turnout at large events like Nashua
Goes Back to School and seen the variety of faces in that crowd: the most compelling evidence
of the increased diversity of our city.
In response to this the library has adapted “Become a Welcoming Space” as one of our
major strategic goals and we are implementing a variety of objectives and activities toward
reaching that goal. Through the Welcoming America initiative we have access to a network of
communities and agencies across the country engaged in the real work of ensuring that the
systems, policies and procedures in place are working to engage newcomers from anywhere in
the world. Of particular relevance to us as a library has been the work done in Nashville and
Dayton, and | have been able to connect directly to people from both of those communities by
attending the Immigrant integration conference in both 2014 and 2015: a-conference
2 Court Street | Nashua, NH 03060 | 603.589.4600 | www.nashualibrary.org
