Diverse Elders Coalition

January 18, 2021    |    

  • A A A
    • Who We Are
      • The Coalition
        • Who We Are
        • Our History
        • Our Team
        • Our Supporters
        • Employment Opportunities
        • Contact Us
      • Diverse Elders
        • AAPI Elders
        • Black Elders
        • AI/AN Elders
        • Hispanic Elders
        • LGBT Elders
    • What We Do
      • Current Campaigns
        • Civic Engagement
        • Family Caregiving
        • Health Reform
        • Public Education
      • Past Campaigns
        • State Advocacy: Georgia
        • State Advocacy: New Mexico
        • White House Conference on Aging
    • What to Know
      • Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
      • Data Collection and Disaggregation
      • HIV & Aging
      • Immigration Reform
      • Medicare & Medicaid
      • Older Americans Act
    • What You Can Do
      • Tell Your Story
      • Explore Our Stories
      • Share Our Blog Posts
    • Library
    • Blog

    Blog

    Comments 0 Comments

    Diverse Elders

    June 23, 2020

    SEARAC 2020 Census: Voices from the Cambodian Community

    This article originally appeared on the SEARAC blog.

    Lanica Angpak
    Director and founder, Cambodian American Girls Empowering
    Philadelphia, PA

    Like many other programs across the country, COVID-19 has forced Cambodian American Girls Empowering (CAGE) to stop its traditional classes and move its offerings to a completely virtual setting. “While it has been a struggle to learn how to build new capacity and bridges from screens to homes, it’s also been so wonderful to be able to provide relief and joy to others,” said Lanica Angpak, director and founder of the Philadelphia-based performing arts organization.

    As a SEARAC Census Ambassador, Lanica thinks deeply about the power of collective impact, and she brings this curiosity into her work in the performing arts. “It’s vital for us to know each other as a community, locally and nationally,” she said. “Where are we, how many of us are there, and how can we use our collective numbers to be changemakers?  These are questions I find myself asking when I’m planning my dance classes or looking out to a crowd during a performance.

    Shifting to online programming has opened up an even wider audience for CAGE to share the importance of census and encourage census participation. “Now, we’re able to dance with our students and meet new friends from all over the world,” Lanica said.

     

    Stephanie Ung
    Program manager, University of Washington, GEAR UP Achievers  college access program
    Renton, WA

    This year is Stephanie Ung’s first year doing work around the census, working in partnership with the newly reactivated Khmer Community of Seattle King County (KCSKC). The organization had planned to involve a new generation of community leaders to cultivate relationships with the hard-to-count elder population. “Our hope was for us to have in-person gatherings where we’d have food and music and then have mostly young community leaders, people who maybe haven’t been involved in community work in the Khmer community, but want to contribute and want to start getting involved,” Stephanie said. “We recruited them to be facilitators who would learn about census and essentially give a presentation and then do one-on-one help and small group help.

    Plans were forced to change abruptly due to COVID-19. As a consequence, intergenerational relationship-building became even more challenging. “To establish relationships with elders and people whom we really want to reach, that would be hard to do online — not even just accessing online for elders and other families where Internet might not be easy to come by, but just the relationship and building that trust,” Stephanie explained, adding that seniors may not feel comfortable sharing personal information with someone they’ve never met. “We were taking that trusted messenger approach, and without in-person, and without food to bring everyone together, and without already established relationships, it feels really hard to try to do that online.”

    A key focus for Stephanie’s organization is now offering food delivery and financial assistance for elders, an effort that is led by husband and wife community leaders Tessavan Ros and Thyda Ros, who both serve on the board of KCSKC. Through simple word of mouth, the organization has identified elders who live by themselves and could use additional support. After Tessavan, a professional medical interpreter, makes house calls to these elders, he takes the time to follow up with them and walk them through filling out their census forms, Stephanie said. These calls have solidified what the community has long known: there is a need for more support for SEAA elders.

    “I think by Bong Tessavan reaching out in a very intentional way, they have met people who have never been connected with a larger Khmer community before, which is really amazing,” Stephanie reflected. “And during this time also, I think as they’re building relationships with elders, they’re finding more people who once we can resume activities and in-person stuff they want to help. And that’s been pretty neat.”

     

    Savoeunn Phan
    Technical engineer
    Silver Spring, MD

    Savoeunn Phan considers herself new to activism, feeling an urge to give back and become more involved with her community by engaging them with census. “I want to help Cambodians and other minorities be counted in the 2020 Census,” Savoeunn said. “We are a minority of a minority group. We are Asians, but we’re also Cambodians. There are only 260,000 of us in the United States according to the 2010 Census, so having everyone counted is important.”

    As part of the Angkor Association, one of the oldest Cambodian associations in the Maryland, Virginia, and DC area, Savoeunn saw that her local community’s needs were different from other Cambodian communities in the country. Rather than language barriers to participating in the census, it was more a lack of awareness of its importance and getting them motivated to actually fill out the form.

    Because of the public health crisis, the association wasn’t able to host a table with census fliers and swag bags at the local Buddhist Wat as planned, so now Stephanie and others have shifted to pointing people to the information they need. “Mostly, it’s getting people’s children or grandchildren to help them fill out the census,” she said, adding that SEARAC’s and other organizations’ census trainings and emails have helped with material curation. “We have been sharing information and resources online. There’s a lot of information floating around — you just need to know how to find it.”

     

     

    The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Diverse Elders Coalition.

    Share Print this        Email Email this        Print Print this

    Recent Posts

    • It’s Time to Meet the Needs of African American and Black Caregivers
    • SAGE’s COVID-19 Response
    • Election Reflections from SEARAC’s Field Staff

    Most Popular Posts

    • 35 quotes to help guide your life from famous African American older adults
    • Dion Wong: A conversation with a 69-year-old Chinese gay man (AAPI Heritage Month)
    • Growing Older Together: Queer People of Color and Aging
    • HIV/AIDS is Still an Issue for Older Gay Black Men
    • Chinese Seniors in New York: Where to Live

    Issues

    • All
    • Access to Services
    • Aging & Ageism
    • Caregiving
    • Chronic Illness
    • Civic Engagement
    • Cultural & Linguistic Competence
    • Data Collection / Research
    • Discrimination
    • Economic Security
    • Elder Abuse
    • Health & Wellness
    • Health Reform
    • HIV / AIDS
    • Housing
    • LGBTQ Communities
    • Medicaid / Medicare
    • National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA)
    • National Caucus and Center on Black Aging (NCBA)
    • National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA)
    • National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA)
    • Older Americans Act (OAA)
    • People of Color
    • Public Policy
    • Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP)
    • SAGE || Advocacy and Services for LGBT Elders
    • Social Security / Retirement
    • Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
    • Transportation

    Tags

    #MakeHistory #PrideInPlace #TellACL 2020 AAPI Heritage Month AARP Activism ADRD advocacy Affordable Care Act Africa African American African American Elders Ageism & Culture Aging Aging in America Conference AI/AN AI/AN Elders AI/ANs aid AIDS Alaska Native Alyssa Tulabut Alzheimer's Alzheimer's Disease American Indian American Indian & Alaska Native Elders American Indian Alaska Natives American Indian and Alaska Native Elders American Indian and Alaska Natives American Indians/Alaska Native Elders American Indians and Alaska Native Elders American Society on Aging Arab American Asian American and Pacific Islander Elders ballots barriers BIPOC Black Black History Month Black Lives Matter Black Veterans Black Veterans for Social Justice Brazil care Caregiver Caregivers Caregiving Caregiving in a pandemic Caring Across Generations CDC CDSME Census Christmas Civic Engagement Clinical Trials Commemoration Commonwealth Fund communities communities of color community Community Catalyst Community Catalyst. Pandemic Congresswoman Continuing Education Coronavirus COVID-19 COVID-19 Cases Cultural Competence Cultural Competency Culturally Competent Healthcare data Dementia Department of Aging Direct Services Disability Discrimination diverse Diverse Elders Stories Initiative Dr. Marcy Adelman Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early Voting Earthquake Economic Security Egypt eldercare elders Election Election Day Election Reflections Employment/Workforce Issues End of Life enrollment Essential Workers event Events Executive Director exercise Families family Family Caregivers finances Financial Finding a Job Finding a Job LinkedIn Fitness Fitness and Exercise Food and Nutrition Functional Exercise funds Geriatrics Gerontological Society of America Gina Le Grandaughters Grandmother Grandparents Hassan Abbas Health Health & Wellness Healthcare health care Health Care Workers health coverage Health Disparities health equity Health Insurance health research Healthy Aging Healthy Eating Hispanic Elders Hispanic Heritage Month Hispanic older adults HIspanics HIV Holidays Home Exercises Hunger Hurricane Immigration / Refugees immunizations Indian Country Indigenous insurance Intergenerational Intergenerational trauma In The News Isolation Justice & Equity Justice in Aging Katrina Dizon Mariategue Kham Moua Khmer Languages Latinos LatinosAgainstAlzheimer's Latinx lawsuit Leadership LGBT LGBT Caregivers LGBT Elders LGBT History Month LGBT Older Adults LGBTQ LinkedIn LinkedIn Profile Listening Session Living Lockdown Long Distance Caregivers mail-in vote Mayra Acevedo medicaid medicare Medicina Salud Publica Mental Health mental health care money National Council on Aging National Disability Employment Awareness Month National Indian Council on Aging National Minority Health Month National Work and Family Month Native American Heritage Month Native Americans needs assessment Neighborhood and Community New York New York City Next Avenue NHCOA NICOA Nonprofit NYC obstacles Oklahoma Older adults Older adults of color Older Americans Month open open enrollment Paid Leave Pandemic People of Color People with Disabilities Personal Perspectives Philanthropy Plan policy polling PPE Pride Month prizes Programs public health Puerto Rico queer Quyen Dinh raffles Reflection registration research Resiliency RRF safety SAGE SAGECents SAGEVets SEAA SEARAC Second Wave Self-Care seniors Services Shawnee Tribe Sina Sam Social Engagement Social Isolation Social Justice social worker South Asian Elders Southeast Asian American Southeast Asian American Caregivers Southeast Asian Elders support survey Technology telehealth telemedicine Thanksgiving The John A. Hartford Foundation trans Transgender Elders Two-spirit U.S. Treasury Department Unemployed United States University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine vaccinations vaccines Veterans vote voting Voting plan webinar Web Seminar Weight Gain Weight Loss White House Conference on Aging WHO Work & Purpose Workplace Workplace Issues Yvette Clarke
    • Who We Are
      • The Coalition
        • Who We Are
        • Our History
        • Our Team
        • Our Supporters
        • Employment Opportunities
        • Contact Us
      • Diverse Elders
        • AAPI Elders
        • Black Elders
        • AI/AN Elders
        • Hispanic Elders
        • LGBT Elders
    • What We Do
      • Current Campaigns
        • Civic Engagement
        • Family Caregiving
        • Health Reform
        • Public Education
      • Past Campaigns
        • State Advocacy: Georgia
        • State Advocacy: New Mexico
        • White House Conference on Aging
    • What to Know
      • Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
      • Data Collection and Disaggregation
      • HIV & Aging
      • Immigration Reform
      • Medicare & Medicaid
      • Older Americans Act
    • What You Can Do
      • Tell Your Story
      • Explore Our Stories
      • Share Our Blog Posts
    • Library
    • Blog

    Join Our Community

    © 2021 Diverse Elders Coalition. All Rights Reserved.  |   Terms of Use