Our Partner

The New American Welcome Center at the University Y helps immigrants fully integrate into American society and prepares receiving communities around Champaign County to be welcoming and inclusive. By engaging local institutions and mobilizing community resources, we help make our community a place where newcomers and immigrants can thrive and flourish.

Learn More ↗

Problem

Champaign County is home to over 24,000 immigrants from nearly 80 countries around the world. The University YMCA New American Welcome Center (NAWC) is a focal point for many Champaign newcomers as they transition to their new homes. Starting a new life in a new place is a daunting task, especially so for immigrants. There are a wide variety of challenges to face: language barriers, cultural differences, and work-life balance. In Champaign, there are over 100 resources available, ranging from healthcare to financial assistance. However, there is a large accessibility issue between those resources and the immigrants who can benefit from them.

Our Solution

To address this problem, we created the Oasis, a centralized virtual resource hub that equalizes and promotes information access to vital community resources. This tool allows immigrants to independently access resources according to their personal needs, and enables NAWC to better serve the community by offering more informed recommendations. With new features to increase accessibility in Spring 2021, the NAWC is currently piloting the product through 2021 through La Linea, YMCA legal clinics, and their public office hours.

Tech Stack

React, Express, MongoDB

Key Features

Find Relevant Resources: Filter resources in your area by category, cost, languages spoken, location, and distance closest to you.
View Resource Details: See important details about each resource provided, including recommended contacts, addresses, required documents, and schedule.
Multi-Language Support: Language support for Spanish, Chinese, and French (the three most common languages in Champaign) allow users to view in their preferred language.
Admin Management: A centralized admin portal allows admins to upload, save, and share resources, as well as customize the homepage, testimonials, partners, and more.

We believe in a future where immigrants can be empowered to find resources on their own, and those providing can connect with those in need. To see our vision imagined, check out https://nawc.vercel.app/.

For the last few semesters, the New American Welcome Center has been working with Hack4Impact to create a virtual resource navigation site called Oasis, which is specifically made to house a lot of information in regards to resources and services for immigrants and refugees in our community. We have been working really tirelessly with Hack4Impact to make sure that we are collecting as much information that we can from the community, from our staff, from our clients to make sure that this resource navigation site is accessible and is addressing the needs that they are facing. We are really really excited in the progress that we have made, and we think that we are in such a great place in terms of our community once we’re able to launch oasis. It’s all thanks to the hard work that the students in Hack4Impact have put in and all of our clients who are going to be looking forward to this service and to be able to have this available at our community. We’re really really thankful to have been able to build a long-standing partnership with Hack4Impact and for the impact that we know they’re gonna have in our community.

Griselda Escobedo
Americorps Vista at the YMCA NAWC