How Maybelle Center Made the Belonging Barometer Part of Everyday Practice

For more than 30 years, Maybelle Center has worked alongside adults experiencing financial hardship, mental health challenges, and social isolation in downtown Portland, Oregon. Today, the organization describes itself as a community health organization because it believes health begins with belonging. Through neighborhood programs, affordable housing, and assisted living, Maybelle Center helps people build lasting relationships and become known, valued, and connected.

When Maybelle Center shifted its mission from fighting social isolation to intentionally building belonging, staff encountered a familiar challenge: How do you measure belonging?

“We wanted to measure belonging,” recalls Shane Skinner, Lead Member Inclusion Coordinator. “But how can you measure something so subjective?” The answer was the Belonging Barometer.

As Maybelle Center developed its organizational theory of change, staff found themselves researching belonging from dozens of different sources. They wanted confidence that their programs were grounded in evidence. When they discovered the Belonging Barometer, they immediately recognized the framework gave them a research-backed definition of belonging that was both comprehensive and practical. 

The Barometer took belonging from being an abstract concept and broke it into measurable components that staff could understand, discuss, and intentionally strengthen through their work.

One of Maybelle Center’s biggest takeaways is that implementing the Belonging Barometer doesn’t have to be complicated. Serving approximately 200-250 active members, the organization launched its first survey using simple tools already available to them.

They:

• Introduced the survey through their monthly newsletter.
• Mailed paper surveys with prepaid return envelopes.
• Asked volunteers to enter responses into an Excel spreadsheet.
• Partnered with a board member who had data expertise to analyze the results.

It just took a commitment to learning from the people they serve.

While the annual Belonging Barometer survey provides valuable data, Maybelle Center quickly realized the framework could also shape programming. Rather than trying to improve every dimension of belonging at once, the team selected three priority building blocks from the Barometer’s local belonging framework to guide every activity they offer.

Those 3 guiding priorities are:

• Helping people feel welcomed and included.
• Helping people feel valued for who they are and what they contribute.
• Creating spaces where people feel comfortable expressing different opinions.

Before each event, staff intentionally ask: How will this activity strengthen belonging? Sometimes the answer is an icebreaker, changing how conversations are facilitated, or creating more opportunities for participants to contribute.

After each program, the team evaluates whether those belonging goals were achieved and uses what they learn to improve future activities. Each year, Maybelle Center plans to administer the full Belonging Barometer survey to understand how members’ experiences change over time. The findings will help staff identify which dimensions of belonging are growing and where more attention is needed. Rather than relying on assumptions, they’ll use data to guide future decisions. As Skinner puts it: “Belonging becomes the compass.”

Maybelle Center’s experience shows that you don’t need perfect data, a large staff, or a significant budget to begin measuring belonging. You can start with one survey and choose just a few dimensions of belonging to focus on.

Most importantly, you can begin using the Belonging Barometer to understand and strengthen your community. As Skinner says, the Belonging Barometer gives community leaders something many have been searching for: a tangible way to measure belonging.

Ready to get started?

Download the free Belonging Barometer Quick Start Guide and survey questions to begin measuring belonging in your community.

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New Report Shows Immigrants in Mecklenburg County Paid $2.6 Billion in Taxes and Held $7 Billion in Spending Power in 2024

Mecklenburg County, NC, September 18, 2026 – A new report, Immigrants in Mecklenburg County released today by the American Immigration Council—in partnership with the City of Charlotte, the Charlotte International Cabinet, and International House—underscores the crucial role immigrants play in the region’s labor force, business creation, and consumer spending power.

 Although immigrants made up 17.0 percent of the county’s total population, they represented 20.2 percent of its working age population, 20.1 percent of its employed labor force, and 26.7 percent of its workers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields in 2024. Immigrants in Mecklenburg County were 52.9 percent more likely to be an entrepreneur than their U.S.-born counterparts and immigrant entrepreneurs generated over $659.8 million in business income.   

The new report was awarded as a part of the Gateways for Growth Challenge, a competitive opportunity for localities to receive research support and/or technical assistance from the American Immigration Council and Welcoming America to improve immigrant inclusion in their communities.  

The report will launch during International House’s The Journey: Share Your Voice; A Community Exhibition and a Celebration of Student Art and Collaborative Research event on Saturday, September 19, 2026, at Queen City Art in Charlotte. The event will showcase artwork by children of immigrants created through a Foundation for Child Development-funded project with UNC Charlotte’s Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies and Urban Institute, International House, Queens University of Charlotte, and other community partners. The artwork is the first phase of a broader effort to elevate the voices and perspectives of children of immigrants and bring their experiences into conversations about Charlotte’s future. 

“Behind every number in this report is a person, a family, and a story that is part of Charlotte. Gateways for Growth matters because it helps us understand our community not only through data, but through the lived experiences of the people who call this city home. For local government, that understanding carries a responsibility: to listen, to remove barriers, to strengthen connections to opportunity and services, and to make sure people feel seen in the decisions that shape their lives,” said Saira Estrada, Language Access & Immigrant Integration Coordinator for the City of Charlotte. “As Charlotte continues to grow, we want every resident to know they belong in that growth and have a place in the future we are building together.” 

“The report tells a story through data. Immigrants contribute to the high quality of life we enjoy in Mecklenburg County, facilitating economic growth, infusing talent and innovation, and revitalizing neighborhoods. Strengthening our efforts to help immigrants thrive is ultimately an investment in Charlotte,” said Susan Bird, Executive Director of International House.   

“The report Immigrants in Mecklenburg County underscores how essential immigrants are to our community’s economic and cultural vitality. It is equally important to recognize the experiences and contributions of their children. Children of immigrants make up one in four children in Mecklenburg County, yet their voices are often missing from conversations about our community’s future. Today’s Share Your Voices event begins to bring those voices forward, offering a glimpse into how they see their families, communities, and futures,” said Stephanie Potochnick, director of UNC Charlotte’s Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies. 

“Immigrants are helping power Mecklenburg County’s economy and strengthen its neighborhoods. As captured in this report, their contributions as entrepreneurs, workers, and innovators, combined with the cultural richness they bring to the county, make them an indispensable part of the county’s present and future prosperity,” said Juan Avilez, policy associate of state and local initiatives at the American Immigration Council.  

“Much of what makes a community welcoming happens where no one is watching — in planning meetings, data reviews, and quiet conversations between people trying to get it right. Charlotte’s participation in Gateways for Growth is all of that, mostly invisible to residents, but it shapes whether people can access opportunity, whether their voices are included, and whether they truly feel at home here,” said Sorayda Díaz León, Senior Manager of Welcoming Network at Welcoming America. 

The new research report, Immigrants in Mecklenburg County, finds:

• Immigrants are fueling the growth in Mecklenburg County. Between 2019 and 2024, the total population of the county increased by 7.1 percent. During that same time, the immigrant population increased by 20.2 percent. As a result, 42.7 percent of the total population growth was attributable to immigrants.  
• Immigrants are helping the county meet its labor force demands. In 2024, immigrants were 24.0 percent more likely to be of working age than their U.S.-born counterparts. 
• Immigrants support the federal safety net. Immigrants contributed $1.8 billion in federal taxes and $803.7 million in state and local taxes in Mecklenburg County in 2024.  
• Immigrants are helping Mecklenburg County meet its rising labor needs in key industries. While making up 17.0 percent of the county’s total population in 2024, immigrants represented 20.5 percent of transportation and warehousing workers, 49.8 percent of construction workers, and 19.2 percent of hospitality workers. 
• Immigrants are building deep roots in Mecklenburg County. As of 2024, 72.6 percent of immigrants in the county had resided in the United States for more than five years. 

Read the full research brief at the Council’s website.

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About the American Immigration Council 

The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring. The Council brings together problem solvers and employs four coordinated approaches to advance change—litigation, research, legislative and administrative advocacy, and communications. Follow us on Bluesky @immcouncil.org and on Instagram @immcouncil. 

About Welcoming America 

Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that leads a movement of inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs. Through the Welcoming Network, we work to change systems and culture by providing communities with the roadmap they need to create welcoming policies and share new approaches to inclusion to create an environment where everyone can truly thrive. Learn more at www.welcomingamerica.org.  

About City of Charlotte 

The Charlotte International Cabinet creates awareness of Charlotte as an international city by promoting exchange between Charlotte and its Sister Cities, welcoming all citizens, residents and visitors, regardless of ethnicity or language skills, supporting global education programs, encouraging further growth of the international business sector and enhancing Charlotte’s non-profit international sector.  

About International House 

Established in 1981, International House is a nonprofit dedicated to helping immigrants and international culture thrive in our community. International House helps immigrants through legal assistance, English classes and other services, and provides opportunities for cross-cultural connections that foster understanding and build community. Learn more at https://www.ihclt.org/about. 

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DHS Oversight Agency Issues Scathing Report of Conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) own Office of Inspector General (OIG), an office that seeks to provide independent oversight and accountability within the department, issued a damning report last week about the conditions of confinement at Florida’s soft-sided immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The report described the troubling conditions OIG found during its unannounced inspection of the facility in January 2026 and made recommendations to ameliorate the issues OIG observed. Even though Alligator Alcatraz closed in June 2026, some of the issues noted in the OIG report are common among detention facilities that hold people in immigration custody.

OIG’s report provided gruesome details about the conditions that people detained at this facility experienced. Detained individuals were allowed to shower only three times a week, and the showers were infested with bugs. People complained of a lack of clean drinking water in part because the facility gave them only one plastic drinking cup and nowhere to properly clean or store them. OIG also reported that the overcrowding at the facility was problematic, noting that it provided less than half of the living space required by federal detention standards.

In perhaps one of the most shocking findings, the OIG inspection found that facility staff held individuals in literal cages for up to two hours.

The cages were approximately 18 square feet, roughly the size of a phone booth, and were equipped with locking systems. In its response, the facility claimed the cages were “calming” areas, but OIG found that in at least one instance, staff used the cages as punishment. The OIG stated that it had never seen this type of restraint.

The report also noted that people in this detention center had insufficient access to legal resources. Phones for legal calls did not work, and the facility did not have a law library. The OIG report concluded that these conditions could have impeded access to counsel for individuals detained at the facility.

ICE tried to evade oversight and accountability over these conditions by passing the buck. In its response to the OIG report, ICE claimed that the state of Florida, not ICE, ran Alligator Alcatraz under the authority of a 287(g) Memorandum of Understanding. The gray area as to which entity was actually in charge of the facility may have allowed these conditions to propagate, as facility staff told OIG they did not know which standards applied. However, ICE was heavily involved in the facility’s administration. ICE officers were constantly present at the detention center and individuals detained received ICE’s Detainee Handbook.

Unfortunately, some of the conditions described in the OIG report are common in detention facilities across the country. In September 2022, for example, OIG reported that the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico also failed to meet health and safety standards and limited access to counsel for those detained at the facility. In July 2023, OIG found that the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia also compromised the health and safety of people at the detention facility.

The Trump administration, with the cooperation of willing state officials like those in Florida, is expanding the use of immigration detention at alarming rates. As of July, the number of people in immigration detention was more than 65,000, and the Trump administration’s goal was to reach 108,000 detention beds by the beginning of 2026.

The rapid and continuous expansion of immigration detention suggests a full-steam-ahead approach without any regards for the rights of those detained. When this facility opened, President Trump said he would like to see more like it in more states, praising the compound by saying, “It might be as good as the real Alcatraz.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dismissed the concerns raised in the report. The governor’s communications director said about the cages, “We’d make [them] even smaller if we could.” It is deeply concerning that, despite its closure, Alligator Alcatraz could continue to be a model for states to get deeper into the business of detaining immigrants, while evading responsibility for civil rights violations.

Further, the OIG report highlights the continued need for robust oversight mechanisms, which the Trump administration has worked to dismantle or sideline. A November 2025 report indicates that the president removed 17 Inspectors General, left Inspector General offices without leadership and defunded some of these offices, minimizing their capacity to conduct investigations. The administration also decimated DHS’ Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, which investigated civil rights violations and issues at detention facilities, respectively. Transparency on these issues cannot be left to the states, as Florida law enforcement agencies have actively blocked access to records under state law.

Under the Trump administration, immigration detention will continue to expand. Congress has authorized unprecedented funding to DHS, none of which is going to improve conditions at these facilities. As problems with conditions at detention facilities increase, the remaining oversight agencies and Congress must — at the very least — ensure that the lives of people ICE chooses to detain are not in danger.

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Dear Immigrant: Build Your Own People

Letter 09

Re: Build Your Own People

Dear Immigrant,

The community you had at home was built over a lifetime without your awareness of building it. It was assembled by proximity — by going to the same school, attending the same church, growing up on the same street. You did not choose most of it. It chose you through the circumstances of your formation.

In the new place, you have to build community deliberately. Nobody assembles it for you by accident. The people who will become important to you are out there, but you will not find them by staying in your apartment. You find them by showing up to the same place repeatedly until the repetition creates familiarity and the familiarity creates the possibility of something more.

The immigrant community in your city is the most immediate resource. The people who came before you, from your country or from anywhere, who understand what the crossing costs — these are the people who will recognize your situation without needing it explained. Find them. Go to the cultural associations, the diaspora church, the African restaurant where the owner knows everyone. These are the nodes of the network. Be there consistently.

Also build relationships outside the immigrant community. The people who grew up in the country you have arrived in understand things about it that no immigrant, however long-established, fully knows. They know the informal rules, the unspoken codes, the history that shaped the present. They can explain things you cannot figure out from observation alone. These relationships are harder to build and worth building.

Your people are out there. They are also showing up to places and hoping to find someone. Be findable. Be consistent. Building community takes eighteen months of showing up before it becomes something you can rely on. Start the eighteen months now.

From someone who eventually found their people,
A former immigrant

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New Data: U.S. Welcomes High-Skilled Workers, but Path to Permanent Residence Is Growing More Uncertain

Record Backlogs, Visa Shortages, and Increasing Scrutiny Are Straining the Employment-Based Immigration System 

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18 — The United States continues to rely on high-skilled workers from around the world to stay globally competitive in key industries including technology, engineering, and health care. However, new data shows increasing pressure across the employment-based immigration system, with workers seeking permanent residence facing greater uncertainty and mounting obstacles. 

Two new reports from the American Immigration Council examine a decade of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data on nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions for high-skilled workers. The reports find that demand for high-skilled workers remains strong, with high approval rates across several nonimmigrant visa categories, including H-1B.

READ THE REPORTS HERE AND HERE

But they also point to growing pressure on USCIS as the agency struggles to keep pace with rising demand for temporary workers, contributing to increasing backlogs. For workers seeking employment-based green cards, they face an even more uncertain way forward, due to record backlogs, limited visa availability, longer waits, and heightened scrutiny in certain categories. 

“The United States continues to recruit and rely on high-skilled workers from around the world, but for many of those workers, building a permanent future here means navigating years of uncertainty,” said Nan Wu, director of research at the American Immigration Council. “If the United States wants to compete for the world’s best talent, it needs an immigration system that allows employers and workers to plan for the long term with greater confidence.” 

The Council’s analysis found that USCIS is still approving large numbers of petitions for temporary high-skilled workers. However, the agency is showing signs of strain and increasingly failing to keep pace with demand.  

The challenges become even more significant for workers seeking permanent residence. USCIS is falling behind on employment-based green card processing, backlogs are growing sharply, and workers can spend years waiting to complete the process even after USCIS has approved their immigrant petitions. In some high-skilled green card categories, denials have also risen sharply. 

“These findings show a system in which employers and workers have to spend years navigating a backlogged system. That kind of uncertainty makes it harder for workers to build their lives here and for employers to retain the talent they need,” said Steve Hubbard, senior data scientist at the Council.  

READ THE REPORTS HERE AND HERE.

Top findings include:  

• Temporary high-skilled worker petitions continue to receive high approval rates, but processing challenges are growing. Nearly 98 percent of H-1B petitions were approved in FY2025, while approval rates for L-1 and O categories stayed above 90 percent. At the same time, USCIS struggled to keep up with rising petitions, more than 456,000 for the H-1B category in FY2025 alone, leading to a growing backlog. 

• Workers seeking employment-based green cards face a fraught path forward. The backlog of employment-based green card petitions has more than quadrupled over the past decade, reaching a record 180,439 pending cases by the end of FY2025. At USCIS’s current processing pace, it would take about more than 9 months just to clear that backlog. Many applicants are paying additional fees to get faster processing, generating an estimated $300 million in fees for USCIS in FY2025. 

• Denial rates rose in key employment-based categories. At one point in FY2025, USCIS was denying roughly 1 in 6 employment-based immigrant petitions. In two categories intended for especially accomplished workers, the EB-1A and the EB-2 NIW, denial rates almost doubled during FY2025. 

• Visa availability remains a major bottleneck. Once USCIS approves a petition for an employment-based green card, the process doesn’t end there. Employment-based green cards are capped by law, so workers can spend years waiting for a visa number to become available even after USCIS has already approved their application. By the end of FY2025, more than 642,000 approved workers were still waiting for a visa number to become available. 

“The U.S. government is basically telling high-skilled workers, we want your talent for to build companies, conduct research, treat patients, and grow the U.S. economy, but we can’t tell you whether you’ll be able to build a future here. That is not a serious approach for competing for global talent,” said Wu. “If we want to attract and retain these high-skilled workers, we need an immigration system that provides them with more long-term certainty.” 

READ THE REPORTS HERE AND HERE

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