International Family Center-Kent

Work has begun on our new space for the International Family Center-Kent. We're moving to a larger space across the street from the Great Wall Shopping Mall where we have been located for the past 3 years.





This new and enlarged space will allow us to provide even more programs and activities serving our South End neighbors.

Check back often to see the progress!

Here are some "before" pictures.

Riding the Light Rail

To address the new changes in bus stops at Sea-Tac Airport and the extended service of the Light Rail to Sea-Tac Airport, staff and volunteer's from CISC's Sunshine Garden recently led a group of 20 seniors to the airport by light rail.

As more than 20 seniors are still on the waiting list, another trip will be scheduled in April. Seniors over 60 are welcome to join, but advanced reservation is required.

Minority Issues in Seattle

As part of its program for nonprofit leaders visiting from Thailand, CISC's Crime Victims Program Director Alan Lai will be part of a panel discussion on minority issues in Seattle hosted by the World Affairs Council on March 26.

Admission is free, but reservations are requested. RSVP here or call the Council at 206-441-5910.

Block Prints

Check out these cool block prints done by our after school program youth!



Last one is actually a collaborative project by 6 different kids making one unified picture.

Thanks to the Pratt Fine Arts Center for sponsoring this project and making it all possible!

Human Trafficking

For those of you interested in what is being done to address human trafficking across the US, or for those of you just looking for a little light reading, here's the final report on a study CISC participated in with the Department of Health and Human Services.

One of the main findings was that many in our community still do not have a clear understanding of what human trafficking is, and how victims can be identified and helped.

If you'd like to learn more about human trafficking, or just want to talk about CISC's crime victims services, give us a call!

The full study can be downloaded here.

Census 2010: A New Portrait of America

1st Annual Lunar New Year Walkathon

Photos from our first walkathon at Safeco Field. Nearly 500 participants, perfect weather, and amazing performances! Walkers spanned the generations, from 2.5 months to 93 years old.

A huge thanks to our sponsors: Cathay Bank, Community Health Plan of Washington, Pepsi Bottling Group, PCC Natural Markets, 2010 Census, Gee Oak How Tin Association, and Massage Envy!

This festive family event raised over $15,000 for CISC programs to help immigrants and their families transition to a new life while keeping later generations in touch with their rich cultural heritage.

Join us next year on February 5, 2011 and get the new year off to a great start!

Legislative Day

On February 4th dozens of staff, clients, and volunteers represented CISC at Asian Pacific American Legislative Day in Olympia. CISC was just one of several organizations providing a voice for Asian Pacific Americans in Washington State, as the state government considers solutions to its current budget crisis. Further cuts to the budget would undermine the services that CISC and other organizations provide to the Asian Pacific American community, and this event was an opportunity for CISC to make the Governor and state government aware of our clients' concerns. It was also a chance for our clients to educate themselves about the legislative process and the budget issues facing our state.

Cancer Workshops

New! Monthly cancer workshops every 3rd Thursday at the International Family Center-Kent 2:00-3:00 pm. Learn about cancer prevention, treatment and support. For more information, contact Gilbert Leow at 425-251-4300 or gilbertl@cisc-seattle.org

http://www.cisc-seattle.org//Content/PDF/Schedule/2010/SS_ifc-k.pdf

Choosing the Right College

Last week, CISC Clinical Director Hueiling Chan (second from left) took part in a panel discussion at Interlake High in Bellevue on finding the best college for your child.

Her basic message was this: don't forget to look beyond the high status, big name universities to find the colleges that fit your individual child the best. You may be surprised.

Too often, families get sucked into the trap of multiple AP courses and pinning all their hopes on admission to highly selective, big name schools only. Their individual student may have different interests, strengths and needs that also should be considered.

Think about it.

CISC Lunar New Year Walkathon

CISC is excited to announce our 1st Annual Lunar New Year Walkathon! This is going to be a large Walkathon event at Safeco Field on Saturday, February 20th. Registration will begin on that day at 9am, with the event kick-off at 9:30am. We aim to bring people together for a fun community celebration of the Lunar New Year, while raising donations to support the programs at CISC. As the participants take an approximately 3-mile walk around Safeco Field, there will be traditional Asian performances around the concourse, as well as free massages, T-shirts, a raffle drawing, and giveaways.

To take part in the Walkathon, you can grab the registration form from our office at 611 S Lane St or download it on the homepage of our website: cisc-seattle.org. Forms will also be available at the event. Over the next few weeks ask people you know to sponsor you on the walk, and keep track of their names and donations on the registration form. Remember to bring the registration form, $15 registration fee, and any money you have collected from your sponsors to the event. You are also welcome to form a team at your workplace, as we will have several corporate and community teams competing before and during the event to raise the most money. We hope to see you there!

If you have any questions about the event, please contact Dan Jones at danielj (at) cisc-seattle.org.

Chinese and Other Immigrant Kids

In data just released by the City of Seattle, children in various types of preschool programs were tested on English language vocabulary. Children who score lower than 85 points in this test are known to have more difficulty learning to read and to write in the future.

Not surprisingly, native English speaking kids scored highest, averaging 99 points.


More interesting is that Asian kids scored lower than immigrant children from Africa (but still slightly higher than Spanish speaking kids), further dispelling the myth of the Model Minority.

This further demonstrates the need and importance of CISC's bilingual Step Ahead preschool program - helping to prepare our children to be ready to succeed in school!

Take Care of Those Who Cared for Us

Wednesday, CISC participated in a press conference along with other senior service providers facing cuts of up to 77% in the governor's first proposed budget. This all-cuts budget would further reduce services for our vulnerable seniors by:

• Reducing or eliminating programs that provide support to more than 300,000 families including information and assistance, senior foot care, senior transportation, nutrition, and falls prevention.
• Eliminating home care for 1,400 seniors and people with disabilities.
• Cutting an additional $55 million from in-home care.
• Eliminating adult day health services for 600 seniors and people with disabilities.
• Slashing health benefits for low-income caregivers, leaving thousands without needed health coverage.
• Eliminating dental, vision, hearing, hospice, podiatry, and physical, occupational and speech therapy for seniors on Medicaid.
• Eliminating Medicare Part D copayment reimbursements so 85,000 elderly medicaid clients will not longer be able to afford their prescriptions.

What can you do? Please contact the Governor by mail, phone or e-mail with the following message AND send the same message to your legislators via the legislative phone hotline (800-562-6000):

"Please propose sufficient new revenues to preserve the Senior Citizens Service Act. SCSA funding makes it possible for the most frail and vulnerable seniors to stay in their homes."

Chinese New Year Lunch in Redmond

CISC will be holding a Chinese New Year Lunch featuring the cuisine and culture of China at the Redmond Senior Center on Friday, February 5th at 11:30am. Tickets are $5 and on sale now at the Senior Center:

8703 160th Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052
(425) 556-2314

Warm Scarves for a Chilly Winter

Winter has undeniably arrived in Seattle, and everyone seems to be talking about the cold weather recently. So there was no better time for the Scarf Knitting Group at CISC's Sunshine Garden Senior Day Care Center to warm up our community a little with some scarf donations in recent weeks. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, New Beginnings, an organization providing support to victims of domestic violence, and CISC domestic violence clients received some of the Group's hand-made scarves, hats, and socks. The seniors also recently donated some of this winter clothing to the International District Housing Alliance, an organization that provides low-income International District residents with community-building and housing-related services.

Family Caregiver Appreciation

CISC held an appreciation party last week to honor our caregivers. Everyone shared a homemade dish, as well as some of their experiences taking care of their loved ones. Each caregiver also received DVDs about Stress Reduction and Medication Safety that were produced by CISC's Family Caregiver Program. Some of the caregivers are home-bound and were unable to attend, in which case they will have the DVDs delivered to them. Home-bound or not, we appreciate the work our caregivers do and are happy to support all of them!

Donor Appreciation Photos

These photos are also from last Wednesday's donor thank you event. The food was a big hit, as was the CISC trivia Bingo board.

Family Caregiver Ad

Video featured on Komo 4 TV this summer.

Family Caregivers

November is National Family Caregiver Month, honoring the meaningful and selfless act of taking care of our loved ones.

Did you know that there are over 650,000 caregivers in Washington state alone? And 92% of them receive no pay.

Washington has a 20 year history of national leadership in supporting unpaid family caregivers. At CISC, each family we support costs around $2,000. But it saves the system up to $52,000 compared to nursing homes.

Now, that's an investment we can bank on!

Donor Appreciation

CISC appreciates its donors and held an event to thank them Wednesday evening. It was a chance to get to know each other better, learn more about the agency, and (0f course) enjoy some nice food together.

A huge thanks to our hosts Bill & Agnes Kwan and all our supporters for helping CISC create opportunities for Asian immigrants and their families to succeed!

Complete Count Committee Convening

We spent last Friday in Spokane participating in the Seattle Region's Complete Count Committee Convening for the 2010 Census. Representatives from WA, OR, ID, Northern CA and AK gathered to learn about the census and how to make sure everyone is counted.

CISC's contribution was to share our efforts on how we have tried to encourage our traditionally undercounted communities to participate. From T-shirts to chopsticks to fortune cookies to presentations at the international conference of Chinese Immigrant Service Agencies, we continue to try to let people know why it is important to be counted:

1. For every person not counted, our community loses $1,400 in federal dollars each year.
2. We need to count all residents - citizens and non, documented and not - so we can have adequate representation in government, and services for our community.
3. The census is safe - personal information cannot be shared with immigration, police, housing authorities, or the IRS.

For more information on why it's important to be counted, go to http://2010.census.gov/2010census/why/index.php

Providing a Voice for Immigrant Youth

CISC just received a generous $10,000 donation from Qwest for the Youth Voices Project. This is a project that aims to integrate middle and high school-aged immigrant youth into the wider community, improve their English language skills, and help them acquire needed technical and life skills. 30 students will engage in media production training over 12 months, and in the process create video documentaries on the early immigrant experiences of Chinese seniors in the community. The bilingual and bicultural education provided will help these students better acculturate into the American education system, and the Chinese immigrants interviewed will have an opportunity to uphold their rich cultural heritage.

CISANI 2009

Just back from the 30th annual conference of the Chinese Immigrant Service Agency Network-International hosted by the Chinese-American Planning Council in NYC.

Two very full days of meetings, site visits, discussions and sharing. This year's focus was on Service and Advocacy in Changing Times. And what times they are!

We heard about significant challenges for some of our California partners and what steps they have taken to meet them - furloughs, layoffs, dealing with state-issued IOU's.



We learned about the importance of advocacy and working together, especially now when resources are tight and ever shrinking.

Also had a chance to sit down with New York's only Asian American Assemblyperson, Grace Meng representing the incredibly diverse community in Flushing. Rich discussion amongst the partners about how to empower and mobilize the community to benefit all our members.

Workforce development, access to resources, civic engagement. These are issues common to all our communities across the US, Canada and overseas. Thank goodness there are organizations like CISC that help people around the world adjust to their new life and help create opportunities for success!

A Matter of Balance

2 CISC staff and 2 volunteers graduated last week from a 12 hour training course provided by Senior Services, a non-profit serving older adults and caregivers in King County. The training was for a fall-prevention course known as A Matter of Balance.

CISC will begin providing this 16 hour course for seniors in Issaquah every Monday and Wednesday from 12:30pm to 2:30pm starting on November 16th. It will also be provided in Chinatown every Monday and Tuesday from 1pm to 3pm starting on December 1st. The cost is $15 for each senior.

Hypertension and Osteoporosis Workshop

CISC's Family Caregiver Support Program recently held a Hypertension and Osteoporosis Workshop, with two pharmacists on hand to give presentations and teach CISC seniors about these two conditions. Individual consultations followed, and we received a lot of positive feedback from the seniors about the event.

Open House

CISC recently had an open house to celebrate the new office space for the Eastside Cultural Navigator Program at the Family Recourse Center in Redmond. Thanks to new funding from the Seattle Foundation, there will now be more Spanish and Russian Cultural Navigators at CISC.

And what better way to celebrate this expanded cultural assistance than through food! The 60 or so community leaders who attended were treated to Russian piroshky, Indian samosas, Chinese egg tarts, and tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole.

Happy 50th!

Long time CISC supporter Frank Chow celebrated the 50th anniversary of his arrival in the United States last night with friends, family, and CISC!

Wonderful food, warm companionship and much merriment were followed by an eloquent speech by Frank's wife Katty, a former CISC board member.



Katty explained how since retirement, she has been coming to CISC every week to volunteer in the SHIBA program and how spending more time in the office has given her a better understanding of the workings and goings on within CISC.

She and Frank reconfirmed their commitment to the community and acknowledged their own success by making a generous contribution to CISC and also to Kin On.

As Katty said, we all started from humble beginnings and needed the help that CISC offers, and all are moving closer to the time when we may need the help offered by Kin On too!

Thank you Frank and Katty for your fine example and continued support!

Halloween 2009

As promised, some photos of the pre-K kids trick-or-treating. First a walk through all of CISC's offices, then story time and more goodies at the ID/Chinatown library.

A Census is in Your Future

This week, long time CISC supporter Tsue Chong Company, maker of Rose Brand fortune cookies and noodles, hosted a tour of their factory to celebrate a new partnership promoting the 2010 Census.

They will be producing cookies featuring census messages starting in February. Their delicious cookies come in a wide array of flavors like apple, strawberry, almond and many, many more!

Probably the coolest thing was watching the fortune cookie machine spit out cookies at the rate of 8,000 per hour - and of course the samples!

Trick-or-Treating

Today, our pre-K students got all dressed up and went around CISC trick-or-treating.

Unfortunately, the video of them with their goodies was botched, but we'll get pictures of them soon. In the meantime, watch this cute video of them getting ready!



We really like watching the boy trying to figure out how to put on his policeman's jacket.

Shoe Day

Last month CISC partnered with Priority Footwear for a Diabetes Workshop and Shoe Fitting Session. There our clients with diabetes learned how to get proper shoes and prevent injuries. 8 of our clients were also eligible to have their feet fitted by a specialist and receive custom-made shoes through Medicaid or Medical Coupons. There's really nothing like a new, comfortable pair of shoes to put a spring in your step!

Mid-Autumn Festival

On September 30th CISC held a Mid-Autumn Festival Luncheon at North Bellevue Community Center. Those who attended enjoyed musical performances, traditional lantern riddles, and games.










The Mid-Autumn Festival, or zhongqiu jie, has been celebrated in China for over 3,000 years. It is the time when the full moon is said to be the biggest and brightest.

And no celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival is complete without mooncakes, one of China's tastiest holiday treats.

Annual Resource Fair

At the beginning of October more than 60 clients visited the North Bellevue Community Center for the Annual Resource Fair. There they attended three workshops, covering changes in the naturalization process, food stamps and how to apply for them, and changes in Medicare and Medicaid.




Find out more about Medicare and Medicaid from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You can also learn about food stamps from the Department of Agriculture and becoming a citizen from the USCIS.

Jack-o-lanterns

In the spirit of the season, Sunshine Garden seniors learned how to carve jack-o-lanterns this morning, creating masterpieces, each with their own individual personalities.



And of course, the ladies insisted on saving the seeds to roast and enjoy later!

Standing Tall

Over 60 CISC seniors attended an Osteoporosis Health Fair at the North Bellevue Community Center on Monday.

Participants not only got information about osteoporosis, they learned about disease prevention, nutrition, medications, preventing falls, and exercises.

There were also free bone density screening to measure bone density, followed by individual consultations with an experienced pharmacist to review their results.

Remember, even if you're over 30, it's still not too late to take steps to prevent this debilitating disease:

• Get your daily recommended amounts of calcium and vitamin D
• Engage in regular weight-bearing exercise
• Avoid smoking and excessive alcohol
• Talk to your healthcare provider about bone health
• When appropriate, have a bone density test and take medication
• 

For more information, check out the National Osteoporosis Foundation.