This month we officially launched the Welcoming Fort Wayne Plan, an incredible milestone in Amani's journey of serving our multicultural community. We gathered with partners, community leaders and stakeholders to share a blueprint, backed by data, on how we can improve inclusion for foreign-born residents.

We are thankful to Greater Fort Wayne Inc., Downtown Fort Wayne, consultants Whitney Bandemer and Andrew Downs for lending your expertise to this project, and the supporting organizations who participated in the Gateways for Growth Steering Committee.

We also want to share our gratitude to the following funders for the ongoing support: Welcoming America and the American Immigration Council for selecting Fort Wayne as a Gateways for Growth community, St. Joseph Community Health Foundation for investing grant match dollars to support the Gateways for Growth collaboration; The James Foundation and Old National Bank for their early investment into the Welcoming Fort Wayne initiative; Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne for investing in the future of Welcoming Fort Wayne. This past fall, the foundation awarded Welcoming Fort Wayne a $200,000 multi-year grant to support the deployment of Welcoming Fort Wayne Plan. This grant was made possible through the Richard D. Waterfield Charitable Fund and the Richard Dallas & Marni McKinney Waterfield Charitable Fund.

A Year in Review: 2023 Client Data Summary

In 2023, Amani continued providing direct services to immigrants and refugees living in the Allen County community and served 2,119 individuals through our clinical programming. Amani's outreach team reached 27,884 individuals through community engagement, trainings, and mission events.

Amani's clients came from 34 different countries from around the world, including the United States (primarily 1st generation children of immigrants and refugees – 24%), Burma/Myanmar (22%), Mexico (15%), Guatemala (15%), Thailand (6%), Colombia (3%), Afghanistan (2%), Venezuela (2%), Haiti (1%), Honduras (1%), Bosnia/Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chad, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Vietnam (less than 1% each).

Amani's clients spoke 17 different languages, including Arabic, Bulgarian, Burmese, Creole (both French and Haitian), Dari, English, Farsi, French, Karen, Lao, Mon, Pashto, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

Save the Date!

Leading with Kindness: An Evening with Steve Hartman

Save the Date: Emmy Award-Winning CBS correspondent Steve Hartman will discuss the power of kindness as the featured speaker for the Jonathan Hancock Lecture Series. Join us at 6:30 p.m. March 6, 2024 at Arts United Center; doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 each and all proceeds will benefit Amani Family Services!

We are so grateful to Canterbury School and Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne who have partnered together to bring transformative speakers to our community and support organizations like Amani!

On Saturday, January 27, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year with a special Family Series program, featuring the Fort Wayne Children's Choir and special guest, guzheng artist Zhongbei Daisy Wu.

The event was held in partnership with Fort Wayne Chinese Families & Friends Association and the Fort Wayne Sister Cities. The performance included highlights from the Chinese book, The Peasant Prince, which explores the true story of Li Cunxin's extraordinary journey to becoming one of the finest dancers in the world. Pre-concert activities included Chinese instrument demonstrations, Chinese calligraphy, paper crafts, and local resource tables.