2007 Friendship Dinner a Huge Success!

For those of you who weren't able to join us, this year's Friendship Dinner & Auction was an event to remember! Over 400 guests bid on items large and small, from a Swarovski crystal key chain to Diamond Club Mariner seats.

This year's focus was on continuing our legacy of service to the community and building on our first 35 years of success. As we move into the future, we work in early learning, services for youth and their families is critical to ensure that we create opportunities for success - in school, at work, and in life.

Because of generous corporate sponsorship, 100% of the funds raised from this event (over $125,000) goes directly to CISC services like our early learning program. Thank you to our supporters and our sponsors:




Platinum Sponsors




Gold Sponsor





Siver Sponsors







































Other Sponsor

Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program

On Monday, we had over 100 seniors line up outside our offices as early as 4:00 am to try to access vouchers for low income seniors to use at farmers markets. These $40 vouchers had to be accessed at the Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens, but because our seniors (and many other in the community) do not speak English, they came to us for help.

The city only had 3 phone lines open and our staff and volunteers were only able to get vouchers for 17 individuals in the first 2 hours.

Eventually, all of the seniors were able to obtain vouchers and are looking forward to using them to obtain farm fresh fruits and vegetables.

For more information, click here.

CISC Blog in the News!

We didn't think we were doing anything particularly innovative or exciting, but evidently our blog has spawned a great deal of interest in the nonprofit world.

As you know, it started with the construction updates during our building phase. But we decided to continue to use it as a more timely way to let our friends and supporters know about all the wonderful work CISC does.

Take a look at the piece in the Nonprofit Board Report. And don't forget to send a link and tell your friends!

Crime Victims Services

CISC is happy to announce that we will be able to continue our crime victims services in Snohomish County for another year.

Until recently, the state provided funding for us to do this work throughout the Puget Sound region. However, they have now divided up the money so that in order to provide the same level of services, we get to work through three separate grant application processes for Snohomish, King, and Pierce counties. Go figure.

We're just happy to have continued support to do the work. See the article in the Everett Herald.

9th Annual Chinatown ID/Little Saigon Spring Clean-Up

What a mouthful! But despite all the words, CISC this year put together another team into action to participate in this community wide event. Staff, board and volunteers all pitched in to help make this event a success.

Traditionally the largest of the neighborhood clean ups in Seattle, we saw hundreds of friends and neighbors working together to make this part of our city just a little bit better place to live, work, and play!

Promoting School Readiness

Today, we had a group from the National League of Cities, United Way, Thrive by Five and Born Learning visit the play and learn group at our International Family Center - Seattle. These visitors came from all over the United States to learn about best practices for promoting school readiness, especially in immigrant communities.

Besides hearing stories and singing songs in Chinese, Vietnamese and English, children and their caregivers (some dads and grandfathers among them) worked on school readiness skills through crafts, movement and play.

CISC is one of a small number of organizations nationwide that provide bilingual/bicultural school readiness activities. And they're free to participants!

To find a group near you, click on this link.

Organized Crime in Seattle and Beyond

As part of our commitment to building and maintaining a safe community, CISC participated in a presentation at the International Conference of Asian Organized Crime and Terrorism last week in Las Vegas.

CISC crime victim advocate Alan Lai is on the Washington State Advisory Committee on Trafficking and lent his expertise, along with other committee members, to the discussion with local, state, federal and international representatives from 23 different countries.

Other presenters spoke about the technological sophistication of many of today's criminals, using high tech networking to plan and communicate their crimes across geographic and international boundaries.

Eastside Cultural Navigator Update

Exciting news! In conjunction with the Indian Association of Western Washington, the Eastside Cultural Navigator Program will now be offering services at the Redmond site in Hindi and Gujarati as well!

This is the first sort of regular service to be offered to the South Asian community and we are pleased to be able to be a part of it. If you didn't know, King County has a large South Asian population concentrated on the Eastside and in the Kent/SeaTac area. We hope to be able to add services in Punjabi at the International Family Center - Kent in the near future.

For current sites, languages and hours for this program, click on this link.

German Marshall Fund

So what is the German Marshall Fund, you ask? It is a nonpartisan public policy group dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between the the US and Europe.

Today we hosted a group of visitors from across Europe who are here in Seattle to learn about policy issues that affect our community. They toured our new facility and learned about the many programs and services CISC provides to the local Asian community.












They were especially impressed with the work we do in bicultural identity development and promotion, and civic engagement and responsibility - just a small part of the many things CISC does in the community!

Eastside Cultural Navigator Program

In conjunction with the Eastside Refugee and Immigrant Coalition, CISC is proud to announce a new pilot program for the Eastside. The Eastside Cultural Navigator Program assists limited and non-English speaking individuals and families in accessing appropriate services and navigating through those service systems. This may include referral information, providing reference materials, completing application forms, limited interpretation and follow up, and family support services.

Four different service locations are at Crossroads Mini City Hall and Hopelink-Eastside Literacy in Bellevue, Family Resource Center in Redmond, and Peter Kirk Community Center in Kirkland. Services will be provided by bilingual/bicultural staff in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Spanish, Vietnamese, and Russian.

For a map, service hours, and languages, click on this link. Click on the push pin for specific site information.

Or, you can contact Chor Phen Ng by phone at 206.624-5633 x 4131 or e-via mail at phenn@cisc-seattle.org.

Oops! One more

We knew we were forgetting something! Of course we had our annual New Year lunch for seniors and volunteers, which was held at New Kowloon Restaurant between the open house and Great Wall Mall event.

Over 300 seniors and volunteers enjoyed a delicious 10 course lunch with entertainment, prizes, and lots of raucous hilarity! The God of Wealth handed out lucky money to each guest, and all seniors took home a goodie bag full of noodles, sauces, cookies, tea, and much more.

Board President Mary Hsu greeted the crowd and 2 lively lions did their best to scare away all the evil spirits. Many thanks to the International Lion Dance Team, and especially their president who delayed discharge of his wife and newborn son just to perform for us!

Sunshine Garden seniors serenaded the crowd with beautiful song. And the highlight of the day was little Issac singing a New Year's song in Chinese much to the delight of all.

Lunar New Year... Continued

As if we hadn't celebrated enough, the ESL program this year held a new year's party for its students and volunteers. Over 200 people came and participated in this fun and exciting event. We all potlucked and were amazed at the variety and amount of food!

Two former students shared their experience taking (and passing) the naturalization exam last year and encouraged other students to keep on studying. In 2006, over 100 students were successful in passing the exam. Hooray for our new citizens!

And of course, everything had to be said 4 different times - in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese - to make sure even our beginning students were included and would know if they had won one of the lucky raffle prizes.

Next year promises to be even more successful. Can't wait for the party!
For more photos, go to http://www.gobofoto.com/CISC/index.htm

Great Wall Mall

News Flash! CISC is opening a new International Family Center in Kent at the Great Wall Mall! With support from mall management and the Lee Family Foundation, we will finally be able to better serve our south end neighbors. And they can avoid the drive into Seattle!

February 24-25 was the annual New Year Festival at Great Wall Mall. Proceeds from this event went to support the new International Family Center - Kent. We're pleased to have a new play and learn group on Monday mornings, and will be adding ESL classes, information and assistance, and more in the future.

For more information or to volunteer, contact Ida Lam at 206-624-5633 x 4103 or idal@cisc-seattle.org

And What a Grand Opening it Was!

February 21, 2007 saw over 500 friends, supporters and honored guests at our new facility. Clients, former board members, volunteers, and funders all crowded into our new building and marveled at architecture, the spaciousness, and the light. What a contrast to our old offices!

CISC pioneer Lily Woo described the agency's history and talked about what it was like 35 years ago. What a long way we have come - from a grassroots group of high school and college volunteers with a folding table and chairs, to a professional organization with nearly 50 staff and a budget of $2 million.

The construction team was especially impressed to see what an impact their work has and will have on the community over the next 60 years. Yes, that's right, 60 years. That's how long our lease is, and we plan to take advantage of the very favorable terms and stability it affords us.

Major donors like Yale Wong, pictured here with his grandmother, whom he honored with a sponsorship of our reception area, were delighted to see their spaces completed and utilized by grateful staff, clients and volunteers.

Besides a short program and entertainment by our afterschool program kids, highlights of the day included a 30 foot long string of firecrackers, spirited lions dancing through the smoke, and of course, FOOD!

If you missed the big day, it's still not to late to come by and see for yourself. Just give Alaric a call and schedule a time to visit. You'll be amazed!

To see more photos, please visit:
http://www.chriswongstudio.com/galleries/CISC-BW/ and
http://www.chriswongstudio.com/galleries/CISC/

Grand Opening

Our building has slowly been coming together. Last week, we installed large modern lanterns as well as frosted glass in our Reception area. Our large outdoor signage will finally be installed today so that when you come to visit, you can find us!

After seeing all these great pictures online, come and see the building in real life. We hope you can join us for our special Grand Opening Celebration on Feb. 21st, 2007. Tours begin at 4:30 p.m.. We are located at 611 South Lane Street, Seattle. To RSVP, please call Kevin at 206-624-5633 x4117 by Feb. 12th.

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with CISC at our Grand Opening Celebration!