Citing loss of federal funding, Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center to close Portland base
File Photo / Tim Greenway
The Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, co-founded in 2017 by the late Alain Nahimana (left), plans to close its Preble Street hub amid federal funding cuts.
Citing a loss of federal funding, the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center said it will close its Preble Street home at the end of June while continuing some programming over the summer.
“This decision was not made lightly,” the organization said in Friday's announcement, posted on social media channels with comments turned off. “Despite every effort to keep the Center open, the loss of key federal funding created a gap we couldn’t close.”
Walk-in services will end on June 30, but some programming will continue this summer, including Soccer Saturday and offsite English classes. The organization said it is working closely with community partners to expand what is possible “beyond this moment and to support clients through the transition.”
The center, located at 24 Preble St. near Monument Square, is home to an English-language learning lab, Business Hub and, more recently, a Food Security and Nutrition initiative offering fresh produce and weekly cooking classes. Over the years it has joined forces with employers including MaineHealth on English lessons for non-native speakers.
'Honor the mission and vision'
The late Alain Nahimana, working with Damas Rugaba, opened the nonprofit center in 2017 as a modern workspace and business incubator. Nahimana died in 2020.
Danny Muller has led the center as director since October 2024. In December, a weekend break-in just before Christmas forced the center to close for a few days.
Nahimana, a Burundi native who served as the center's first executive director, told Mainebiz that opening the center had been a longtime dream of his.
"If f I as a newcomer hadn't had anyone to guide me, telling me where to go, how to do things, I wouldn't have made it," he said in a September 2017 interview. "People in the immigrant community were deprived of that support, and fundraising for any one community was difficult, so why not pool resources and build something we can share and be empowered from?"
The center was opened with financial support from the Maine Community Foundation through its Broad Reach Fund as well as more than a dozen corporate sponsors including Coffee By Design and cPort Credit Union and individual donors.
Coffee By Design owner Mary Allen Lindemann, a past board member at the immigrant welcome center who was a friend of Nahimana's, told Mainebiz she was heartbroken to hear of the center’s closure.
"In the midst of unprecedented times of hatred," she said, "it's important to honor the mission and vision of the center and keep what were referred to as the three pillars — English acquisition, citizenship and civic engagement and entrepreneurship — top of mind even though the physical space may no longer be open."
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