Welcoming Falls Church is building a community of neighbors. Our goals are hospitality toward immigrants and refugees and opportunity for us all. We believe that by engaging locally we will overcome divisions and reinforce some of our society's greatest strengths. Inspired by a national movement called Welcoming America, we are grassroots, nonpartisan, and public-private in character.
Falls Church's history bears testimony to the struggles of African-Americans to attain their rights and freedoms, from Jim Crow through the Civil Rights Movement to today. And Falls Church—especially greater Falls Church—is becoming more and more racially and ethnically diverse. Just as the United States is in the midst of a historical demographic transition, so, too, is Falls Church changing. The public schools of the City of Falls Church play host to families that speak a total of 42 languages in the home, and the national and cultural backgrounds represented in greater Falls Church—with its population of almost 90,000—are even more varied.
The residents of the City of Falls Church, Falls Church/Fairfax County, and their elected representatives are responding to the challenge and opportunity of this growing diversity. The City of Falls Church has been particularly supportive: the first sentence of the City’s "Falls Church 2040" strategic plan states that "Falls Church in 2040 will be a welcoming and inclusive community," and the City of Falls Church City Council has supported Welcoming Falls Church with resolutions proclaiming Welcoming Week in Falls Church in September 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Our vision is that we – by being intentional, relational, and local – can build a community of neighbors, at a time when we are threatened by division. We believe that hospitality toward immigrants and refugees will bring opportunity to us all. And we encourage the residents of Falls Church – many of whom have these same instincts – to become aware, take action and advocate together so that our and to weave our community’s social fabric.
Everyone who supports our vision is part of Welcoming Falls Church. That includes you, if you believe in building a community of neighbors!
Our activities and initiatives depend entirely on the support of volunteers. We are very grateful for every single one of our volunteers – over 150 people who got involved and helped out in some way with our programs in 2023-24.
We are particularly grateful for the people who are taking the time to take on leadership roles to make our initiatives and programs even more successful:
Members of Welcoming Falls Church’s board of directors are: Christine Lee Buchholz, President & Co-Founder; Paul Boesen, Secretary & Co-Founder; Emily Draper, Treasurer; Samira Davis; and Ann Niederpruem.
Questions? To learn more about Welcoming Falls Church, please sign up for our monthly newsletter below or email us to get in touch.