“Too often, we’re sending families to services that are already full. With BIRD, we’ll finally have a clear, real-time picture of what’s available. I am so excited for the potential of this dashboard to equip all of us to better serve our immigrant neighbors.” — Pastor Melinda Priest
Boston is a city shaped and strengthened by immigrants, yet too often new arrivals and those who serve them struggle to find up-to-date, reliable information about essential resources. Whether it’s shelter, legal services, English classes, or job training, the systems meant to help can feel confusing, outdated, and fragmented.
That’s where the Boston Immigrant Resource Dashboard (BIRD) comes in.
Over the past year, leaders across the city have been collaborating to build a dynamic, real-time platform. BIRD allows immigrant-facing providers to post and update their available services, so providers and clients can quickly see what’s available through a simple green–yellow–red light display. Read the story below, and plan to join us on October 30 at Boston Flourish when we will publicly launch the dashboard!
At Immigrant Connection at Awaken City, Site Director and Pastor Melinda Priest meets many immigrant neighbors seeking legal help, English classes, and citizenship support. She often refers people to other organizations, knowing that no single church or organization can meet every need. Yet every referral requires time—calls, emails, and website checks to confirm what’s actually available.
For the past two years, Boston Flourish has been convening conversations on migrant care and solidarity. Through a panel discussion, hundreds of individual conversations, and monthly gatherings supported by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement, a central challenge emerged: while Boston has no shortage of resources for immigrants, connecting people to them requires exhausting and often duplicative effort. Faith-based organizations and city agencies are frequently working toward the same goals, but in isolation from one another. A collaborative team with faith and city leaders began to dream: What if technology could streamline these connections and make real-time information accessible to everyone?
Why the Boston Immigrant Resource Dashboard Matters
Too often, existing databases are incomplete or out of date, leading to missed opportunities at critical moments. BIRD seeks to bridge that divide by building a shared platform where churches, nonprofits, and civic agencies can work together to serve immigrant neighbors more effectively.
- Real-time updates so providers and families know what’s available now
- Key service areas including immigration legal services, housing, workforce development, and ESOL/citizenship classes
- A collaborative ecosystem where referrals are streamlined and clients don’t need to repeat the intake process at every step
The mission of BIRD is both simple and urgent: to provide real-time, accessible information on vital resources for immigrants, refugees, and service providers—ensuring that help is timely and never lost in the shuffle. At a time when immigrants are too often dehumanized in public discourse and policy—whether through detention of people without criminal records, prolonged solitary confinement, or sweeping deportation strategies that target vulnerable families—BIRD offers a different vision: belonging in action.
Many on our core team are guided by the Biblical mandate to love the foreigner and sojourner, remembering that “you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt” (Lev. 19:34; Deut. 10:19) and Jesus words ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Mt. 25:35). In that spirit, BIRD seeks to help build a “city of belonging”—a network of care, rooted in justice, that restores dignity and connection for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers across Boston.
“BIRD helps us live out our commitment to “love thy neighbor” in practice—so we can become a city of belonging, where no one is left searching alone.” – Rev. Kelly Fassett, UniteBoston Executive Director
Built in Partnership
BIRD is being built through extraordinary collaboration. The need for a real-time infrastructure became clear at a collaborative session at Boston Flourish in 2023. A team developed with leaders from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and contexts. They fundraised and received a generous grant from the Imago Dei Fund, then hired web developer Richard Tang to create the foundational infrastructure for the dashboard. Now, a team of students from Boston University’s SPARK program is refining the user interface to ensure the platform is intuitive, accessible and easily updated.
Left – Students from Boston University SPARK Program involved in this project
Immigrant-Facing Service Providers on a BIRD Orientation Call this week
“Our UX team at BU Spark! is excited to create a welcoming, intuitive, and accessible user interface for BIRD. We hope our efforts can improve the lives of many in the community.” — Evan Jaquez, Boston University Spark! UX Project Manager
“We wanted to make the platform simple enough for anyone to use, but powerful enough to handle the complexity of Boston’s service network.” — Richard Tang, Web Developer
This technical development is paired with a wide coalition of partners who are shaping the project on the ground. We are grateful for the early leadership and engagement of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement, the Immigrant Family Services Institute, SEND Relief Boston, the Fellowship of Haitian Evangelical Pastors Association, the Emmanuel Gospel Center, the Center for Public Theology and Migration, the Boston Haitian Resource Hub, True Alliance Center, Voice of the Gospel Tabernacle Multi-Service Center, and Massachusetts Immigrant Collaborative among others.
“I am very excited about the potential of BIRD. Unfortunately, many times we serve in a context where the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. BIRD can help us improve in this area to be better informed and increase our effectiveness in collaborating to serve and alongside our immigrant and refugee communities. We are grateful for the efforts that have made this vital tool an integral part of our shared ecosystem in Greater Boston.” — Rev. Dr. Gregg Detwiler, Senior Consultant, Intercultural Ministry, Emmanuel Gospel Center
Join Us: Orientation & Launch
We’re now inviting immigrant-facing providers to get involved. If your organization serves immigrants, refugees, or asylum seekers, we’d love for you to be part of the dashboard! Reach out to Rev. Kelly to learn more and schedule a time for an orientation.
And be sure to save the date: on October 30 at Boston Flourish, we’ll be officially releasing BIRD to the public and sharing stories of collaboration across the city.
Looking Ahead
This fall, we’re beta testing with leaders and preparing for a citywide launch. In the future, we envision expanding services, adding new functionality, integrating volunteer opportunities, and building a sustainable funding model.
“When a pastor can point a family to legal support or a social worker can see ESL openings at a glance, we’re not just sharing data—we’re sharing hope.” — Rev. Devlin Scott
BIRD is more than a database—it’s a collaborative tool to strengthen Boston’s support ecosystem and ensure that no immigrant or refugee falls through the cracks.
Together, we can make Boston a city of belonging.
