The Office is lean and outside of legislatively mandated programs, and addressing the integration of new arrivals, focuses its work on policy and systems change. ONA does this in partnership with state agencies and communities to advance immigrant integration goals. New Americans face challenges similar to those that all Coloradans encounter - a lack of access to affordable housing, reliable childcare, transportation, healthcare, and economic opportunity. As the state responds to such issues and develop programs to address them, partnerships are key to advancing equity for New Americans.
The Office's work includes the Inaugural Statewide Integration Plan. In March 2023, the Office launched the plan. The purpose of the plan is to implement a statewide strategy to facilitate economic stability and promote successful economic, social, linguistic, and cultural integration by investing in the success of immigrants in Colorado. The plan addresses high priority needs of Colorado’s New American community, and includes numerous strategies and activities that ONA with its current capacity cannot accomplish on its own. However, with the full partnership and engagement of Colorado’s civil society, it can be done.
ONA will treat the state integration plan as a working document and continue to hone it in furtherance of the overarching goal of helping New Americans thrive in Colorado.