Posts related to AAPI Heritage Month

Ships, Bridges, and Barriers: My Family in California

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My grandfather passed through the Golden Gate — where the Golden Gate Bridge would later be constructed — in October 1903. He was on a ship from Japan that had stopped in Honolulu. The ship’s manifest notes that he was none of the following: an anarchist, a polygamist or a cripple.

My grandfather arrived in the time between the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924 (which included the Asian Exclusion Act and the National Origins Act). By 1924 the U.S. government had completely blocked the immigration of people it deemed undesirable including Asians, Arabs, people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, people with a history of physical or mental health issues, and the poor — along.... Read More

             

How does the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) impact Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) elders?

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The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) is the only job training program focused exclusively on helping older Americans return to the workforce. The program assists low-income unemployed adults aged 55 years and older by providing job training through temporary paid work experiences that can lead to unsubsidized employment. Older workers are critical to the American economy, making up 35 percent of the U.S. labor force by 2020. While employers view older workers favorably for their experience, knowledge, professionalism, work ethic, and loyalty, older Americans struggle to return to the workplace once they’ve.... Read More

             

Disrupting Silos: Combating Ageism and Xenophobia

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This post originally appeared on the India Home blog.

Last month, India Home participated in the 2017 South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) Summit in Washington, DC. India Home Deputy Director Lakshman Kalasapudi and Case Manager Afroditi Shah Panna joined over 300 activists, organizations, students, and community members from across the country who had come together to raise their voices on a range of issues important to South Asian communities.

Suman Raghunathan, Executive Director of SAALT, explained the thinking behind the Summit: “Our communities continue to live in various states of shock as a panorama of hate violence, civil rights violations, and anti-immigrant policies continue to impact South.... Read More

             

Eun Jeong Lee and NAPCA are Providing Job Training, Community Service, and Support for AAPI Elders

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May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month! At the Diverse Elders Coalition, we try to lift up the stories of AAPI elders every month of the year, but we are especially interested this month in highlighting the work of AAPI advocates. We interviewed Eun Jeong Lee, the National SCSEP Director at the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA). Read on to learn about NAPCA, SCSEP, and what Eun Jeong is doing to support workforce readiness for AAPI older adults.

Tell me a little about yourself.
I was born in Incheon, South Korea and lived there until I moved to the United States at age 30 to get.... Read More

             

Community Healing and Intergenerational Support: An Interview with Nkauj Iab Yang of SEARAC

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May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and we want to use this opportunity to highlight some of the amazing work that our member organizations are doing on behalf of AAPI elders. We spoke with Nkauj Iab Yang, the California Director of Policy and Programs at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). When Nkauj Iab was hired in 2016, she wrote a beautiful blog post about her family and her heritage. Now, we talk with Nkauj Iab about her work with SEARAC and some of the challenges facing AAPI older adults today.

What is your role with SEARAC?
My title is the California.... Read More

             

What do South Asian Elders in NYC Want?

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As one of the only non-profits in New York city serving Indian, Pakistani, Indo-Caribbean, and Bangladeshi older adults, India Home recently undertook a survey of Bangladeshi elders the organization serves at its Desi Senior Center in Jamaica in order to gain an objective understanding of their needs. In the past the organization has commissioned reports such as the Attitudes to American Health Care among Elderly South Asians, a 2010 study, where doctors from Brown University conducted research with participants from India Home’s centers to understand the reliance of elderly South Asians on non-Western or alternative forms of medicine such as ayurveda or homeopathy as their preferred first line of defense against illness.

In this tradition of.... Read More

             

Blazing a Trail for AAPI Elders: Dr. Wes Lum

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Wes headshotMay is Asian American and Pacific Islander American (AAPI) Heritage Month! Back in 2014, we profiled Quyen Dinh, Executive Director of Diverse Elders Coalition member organization Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). This year, the DEC is excited to introduce Dr. Wes Lum, CEO of the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA). After an extensive nationwide search, Dr. Lum was appointed to the CEO position at NAPCA in March 2015 and has been leading the charge for AAPI elders ever since. Read on for more about Dr. Lum NAPCA:

What does AAPI.... Read More

             

A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans 50 and Older

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by Jeffer Giang, Research Analyst in the Demographic Research Project (DRP) for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA.

Those who work with older adults may generally know that the population is growing in size very quickly. In fact, Los Angeles County’s entire 50-plus population grew 28% between 2000 and 2010. What most people don’t know is that the Asian American 50-plus population grew 56% during the same time. In contrast, the entire population of Los Angeles County saw 3% growth during this time while the general Asian American population saw 20% growth.

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In other words, the Asian American 50-plus population grew.... Read More

             

APAHM Spotlight on Southeast Asia Resource Action Center

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This post originally appeared on Medium.com via the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans.

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As we enter into Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we are just closing a season of celebration and remembrance for Southeast Asian American communities. Lao and Cambodian families celebrated the New Year in April, but all of our communities also paused to remember our shared history of trauma and resilience as a refugee community.

Forty-one years ago on April 17th, 1975, the genocidal Khmer Rouge rolled their tanks into Phnom Penh and evacuated the city into the countryside,.... Read More

             

Celebrating Our Communities’ History and Future

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May is an exciting month at the Diverse Elders Coalition. Our communities, which are so often left out of mainstream conversations, are highlighted nationally in two different ways during the month of May: not only is it Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which allows our AAPI elders take the spotlight, it is also Older Americans Month, which celebrates the legacies and supports the future of all of our diverse elders. We love seeing the many ways in which our communities are working together to honor each other during May and all throughout the year.

The theme for this year’s Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month is “Walk Together, Embrace Differences, Build Legacies.” I love this theme, not only because it celebrates.... Read More

             

Representing Diverse Elders During AAPI Heritage Month (APAHM)

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May is recognized as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. From modest beginnings when President Carter signed a Joint Resolution on October 5, 1978 marking the first ten days of May as “Asian-Pacific Heritage Week,” to 1992, when the entire month of May became officially recognized as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), it has become an opportunity to lift up the experiences of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Across the country, communities, organizations, and governments at local, state, and regional levels celebrate the month in a variety of ways, including cultural performances, political discussions, and other activities.

11164657_10153228093175568_2271997763216837411_nRead More

             

May: A Month to Celebrate

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May has been an important month for me for almost my entire professional career doing policy work in Washington, DC. As Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM), it has served as an opportunity to focus on the communities I’ve served, lift up issues such as immigration, cultural and linguistic competence, and address anti-Asian violence and racial discrimination. From its modest beginnings in 1977 when it was just the first week of May, to 1992 when it became officially designated for the entire month, it was chosen initially to recognize both the completion of the transcontinental railroad and the role Chinese laborers played there as well as the arrival of the first cohort of Japanese immigrants.

May is also the.... Read More

             
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