Parent Recognition

Every quarter, our after school program holds a Family Night, usually showcasing the students' accomplishments for parents, teachers and relatives. This month, however, we decided to do something a little different and ask the parents to talk about their own kids.

As many of you know, Asian parents don't often compliment their children. In fact, many times the only interactions they have with their kids is to "encourage" them on to do better. As part of the introduction to American culture, CISC worked with parents to show them how encouragement, praise and positive reinforcement can be useful tools in raising their children in the US.

The kids ate it up! Most had never heard their parents say anything good about them in public before. For the parents, this was a huge learning opportunity, both in terms of acculturation, as well as in learning new and useful parenting skills and strategies.

Kudos to all our parents and our outstanding students!

Caregiver Appreciation

CISC salutes the untiring efforts of our family caregivers. Caring for a loved one 24/7 is a labor of love, but also a major stressor for those without outside support. CISC's Family Caregiver Program helps provide some of this support through education (like how to move someone safely from bed to wheelchair, how to ensure med compliance), respite services, and counseling.

CISC also provides social outlets like last week's appreciation party for caregivers who are all too often tied to the home, with no opportunity to engage with others. Exercise groups, peer support, and just plain socializing helps ease the stress of a full time, unpaid job done out of love.

Food doesn't hurt either.

1st Thanksgiving

CISC Pre-K kids getting their first taste of turkey. In fact, none of them had ever SEEN a turkey before.

WARNING:  CUTE KIDS!

Not only bilingual (Mandarin/English) instruction to prepare kids for success in kindergarten, CISC focuses on bicultural identity development as well.

November is Family Caregiver Month

CISC will be celebrating National Family Caregiver Month at the International Family Center-Seattle on Wednesday, November 16 with a thank you for all our unpaid caregivers. A special sharing session will be followed by lunch, and terrific raffle prizes as a small way of showing our appreciation for all the hard work our family caregivers put in throughout the year.

Did you know that in addition to providing emotional and physical support, 40% of family caregivers reduce their work hours or quit their jobs to care for their loved ones? Plus, they spend an average of $5,500.00 of their own money to help provide the care they give.

CISC's Family Caregiver Program has more information and resources for you. Contact Theresa Lam at theresal@cisc-seattle or 206-624-5633 x 4137

Karaoke Party!

Last Sunday a group of supporters from the International Family Center-Kent organized a karaoke/dance party at Tea Palace to raise funds for the center. Over 200 people were treated to the wonderful singing and dancing talents in our community and raised $7,000 for the IFC-Kent!

Trick or Treat

Yesterday, kids from our bilingual Pre-K program dressed up and went trick or treating around CISC. For most of them, this was the first time they had experienced Halloween. The looks on their faces when they realized that all they had to do was say, "trick or treat" and people would give them candy... priceless!

As part of our efforts to connect the generations, the kids ended up their trick or treating at Sunshine Garden. The seniors there had already prepared for the event with their own Halloween celebration, arts and crafts. They exchanged candies with the kids for beautiful autumn leaves that they took home to decorate with.

All in all, it was a fun morning. Even when we overheard one girl telling her friend how she didn't know if she could carry any more candy her bag was so heavy!

Bridging the generations - Sunshine Garden seniors and Pre-K children celebrate Halloween together

National Immigrant Integration Conference

Last week, CISC's senior management participated in a 3 day conference on immigrant integration. There were over 700 attendees from 38 states and 7 countries talking about all aspects of immigrant integration:  active citizenship, English language learning, workforce development, health, rights, youth and education, and engaging receiving communities.

We all came away with terrific ideas, great resources, and new friends who will support us in the work we do - and vice versa. Stay tuned to see how we begin to implement these ideas to create even more opportunities for immigrants and their families to succeed in their new community!