On Saturday, June 16, 10AM-6PM, National CAPACD Bay Area member organizations and partners will be coming together in San Francisco’s Chinatown and Manilatown to discuss strategies, challenges, and opportunities for strengthening APA immigrant communities.

Organized by a coalition of community organizations, the program will emphasize community based initiatives to preserve affordable housing, improve health care, protecting immigrant rights, funding immigrant engagement, and sustaining community activism.   Local members will have opportunities to participate in a dialogue with policy makers on issues critical to our communities and join a walking tour with community activists and hear about their efforts to improve conditions in Chinatown and visit the historic site of Manilatown and the new International Hotel Senior Housing.

A complete conference description and registration will be available shortly. Language assistance will be provided based upon needs of registered participants.
For more information contact: conference@asianlawcaucus.org

Co-sponsors for this event: Asian Health Services, Asian Law Caucus, Asian Neighborhood Design, Asian Pacific Islander Health Forum, Asian Women’s Shelter, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Chinatown Community Development Center, Community Tenants Association, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, East Bay Asian Consortium, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Southeast Asian Community Center, Southeast Asian Resource and Action Center, South of Market Community Action Network, and Veterans Equity Center with the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development.

We are excited to offer four scholarships to National CAPACD members to attend trainings that will help them develop their current work.

Chris Durazo, Community Planning Director at South of Market Community Action Network (San Francisco) will be attending the Multifamily Trends Conference 2007 sponsored by the Urban Land Institute in San Francisco, California. 

Angelica Cabande, Lead Organizer at South of Market Community Action Network (San Francisco) will be attending the Housing Law Overview and Eviction Defense Training sponsored by the Benchmark Institute in San Francisco, California.

Rissa Duque, Program Coordinator and Isaac Obenzinger, Program Assistant at Manilatown Heritage Foundation (San Francisco) will be attending the Community Action Training sponsored by the Center for Third World Organizing in Oakland, California. 

National CAPACD’s Community Development Training Fund provides scholarships of up to $500 for members to attend trainings and conferences in the fields of housing, community and economic development.  The Training Fund was created to increase access to training and learning opportunities for staff at member organizations.

On May 1st, in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol Building, hundreds of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders came together to urge Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.  The two day mobilization consisted of community convenings, meetings with Congressmen, and a rally entitled “Building America’s Future Together: Immigration Reform Now!” for the AAPI community.  

National CAPACD members from around the country delivered their message to their Congressmen insisting that immigration reform has profound impacts on all immigrant communities, including Asian Americans.  Toan Nguyen of the International District Housing Alliance and one of the participants said, “It was a very exciting and inspiring opportunity for me to come to the Capitol for this very unique event.  Seeing so many activists coming from all over the country to support the movement would make anyone shed tears to hear about the harsh stories that people, especially Asian Immigrants have to face.”

About two dozen groups from 27 states, including National CAPACD, organized the rally with banners, signs, and a Korean drum group.  National CAPACD and rally participants are now continuing their work with members of Congress and immigration reform coalition partners to ensure that immigration issues facing Asian Americans, such as family reunification, are addressed in the immigration reform efforts.