Day of Caring

September 11 was the annual Day of Caring, sponsored by United Way of King County. This year, we had volunteers from the King County Library System and from Microsoft come out and work with some of our clients.

Some helped English as a Second Language students practice their daily conversation and also performed mock interview for the naturalization test. Others worked with our After School students talking about education, careers and job opportunities.

We want to give these volunteers a big THANK YOU for coming out and giving of themselves and their time to help our immigrants and their families succeed in their new community!

There must be something in the water

Big news! Three (yes, 3) of our CISC staff members are expecting babies at the beginning of next year! Congratulations to Karia, Dock Wah and Cathy on their first borns!

And for those of you who are also expecting or have an infant at home, join us at the International Family Center-Seattle on Thursday, October 1 from 10:00 to noon for our annual Baby Boost Fair.

Lots of info and resources on breastfeeding, nutrition, child safety and more. Also free stuff for you to take home. Come and check it out!

Fighting Fraud

Congratulations! You've won our big prize! All you've got to do is give us your social security and bank account numbers...

OK. So maybe they're not quite that obvious, but scam artists often sound legitimate and it's easy to be fooled.

Last week, representatives from the AARP Fraud Fighter Call Center came to Sunshine Garden to educate our seniors on fighting fraud.

Many con artists target seniors over the phone. There are even specialists who conduct their work in Mandarin or Cantonese.

If you think you are a victim of fraud, call the toll free number at 1-800-646-2283. Leave a message and someone will call you back in your language.

For volunteer opportunities, call 206-517-9353 or e-mail waaarp@aarp.org

Back to School

For the 7th year in a row, CISC has received a number of back to school backpacks from Office Depot through its signature National Backpack Program.

The Office Depot Foundation places new backpacks into the hands of children who might not otherwise have the proper tools for success.

Since the program's inception, more than 1 million backpacks have been given to deserving children.

Fan Dance Tai Chi - correction

Oops! The clip of the fan dancers posted 8/20 was not at North Bellevue, but a program of Sunshine Garden, in conjunction with the ID/Chinatown Community Center.

Our Eastside fan dance tai chi class is held in Factoria. For more information, please contact Cathy Lee for Eastside cathyl@cisc-seattle.org or Andes Kong for Sunshine Garden andesk@cisc-seattle.org


These photos are from the Eastside.

Thanks staff for setting us straight!

Fan Dance Tai Chi

Check out CISC's class on fan dancing at the North Bellevue Community Center.



Great for exercise and for walking down dark alleys at night!

Workplace Discrimination

Nearly 20 people showed up yesterday for a workshop on workplace discrimination. Speakers from the Seattle Office of Civil Rights shared insights on the law, how to file complaints, harassment, retaliation, and the process for resolving issues.

We have been getting more and more complaints of discrimination in the community since the economy has soured.

Did you know that Seattle prohibits discrimination against 17 different protected classes? Bet you can't name them.

If you live outside Seattle, click here to see what services King County offers.

Picnic in the Park

Well, actually it was at the zoo. The Woodland Park Zoo to be exact.



Yesterday, seniors from Sunshine Garden participated in the 37th Annual Old-Timer's Picnic, sponsored by the City of Seattle. Not only was the weather perfect, they also had a chance to perform on stage for other seniors from throughout the city.

Food, fun and games - that's what summer's all about!

Brush Those Teeth!

Last week, the UW School of Dentistry came to the International Family Center-Seattle to talk oral health.





Together with Children's Hospital, they've developed a program for Early Childhood Oral Health and are bringing it to the community.




Parents and kids learned about proper brushing technique, what to look for in a toothbrush, flossing, cavities, fluoride and more exciting stuff.




They also went home with cool gifts too!

...And the Living is Easy

Over 100 people attended the International Family Center-Seattle's annual Summer Family Picnic last week.

This year it was at Pratt Park. Families enjoyed traditional American picnic food: hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, and potato salad. Everyone brought snacks and fruit to share.



Both kids and adults had a great time playing fun games like water ballons, shoe toss, and water relays.

American Public Health Association

The University of Washington's Asian Health Promotion Program worked together with CISC last winter to examine community and individual response to the swine flu outbreak. They will be presenting their findings at the 137th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Philadelphia this November.

Titled, "Knowledge, information-seeking, and preventive behaviors regarding H1N1 outbreak in the Chinese Limited English Proficiency community in King County, Washington," this research details our local experience, and hopefully will be used to guide services in other limited English speaking populations across the country as we head into another flu season.

Congratulations and a big thanks to principal researcher Mei-Po Yip and all her colleagues at the UW Department of Medicine!

Adobe Youth Voices

We're excited to announce that CISC has received support from Adobe to start a media production program for middle and high school aged youth, creating video documentaries on our seniors' immigrant experiences.

Demonstrating the power of technology to engage youth, Adobe Youth Voices provides breakthrough learning experiences using video, multimedia, digital art, web, animation, and audio tools that enable youth to explore and comment on their world.

In addition to financial support for the program, Adobe is donating $25,000 worth of softsare for use in this project and beyond!

To see examples of other cool youth projects under AYV, click here.

Dim Sum

Last Saturday, seniors at Sunshine Garden were treated to an expert cooking demonstration on making dim sum 點心.



Many happy faces were seen as men and women, young and old, learned something new and others shared their special talents with new friends and neighbors.

Sunshine Garden - just one of the places where we bridge cultures, communities and generations.

Wells Fargo

Yesterday, representatives from Wells Fargo stopped by to drop off a check for $2,500 to support CISC programs and services! Thank you Wells Fargo!!

Seniors on the Move

July 18-19 was the opening weekend for the much anticipated light rail here in Seattle.

Sunshine Garden seniors joined an estimated 92,000 friends and neighbors from around the region testing out the new transportation mode that weekend.

Several volunteers escorted seniors on their first ride on this 14 mile line from downtown to Tukwila, helping them explore new options for shopping, visiting family, and come Decemeber, getting to the airport.

Can't wait for the Eastside extension in 2021!

Summer Youth Program

This summer has been busy for the kids and staff of CISC's Summer Youth Program.


Field trips around town, like the Images of China puppet show at the ID/Chinatown Community Center.






Activities like bookmaking with the Seattle Center for book arts.

National Night Out

Last night, CISC took part with the Seattle Police Department and other community groups in the 26th annual National Night Out.

Each year, neighbors across the country come out to prevent crime and drugs in their community. This year was no exception as dozens of Chinatown/International District residents participated in the event.

Organizations like CISC worked to

1. heighten crime and drug prevention awareness,
2. generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime programs,
   
3. strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships, and
4. send a message to criminals letting them know that Chinatown/ID is organized and fighting back!

HBS

It's been a couple of weeks since Executive Director Alaric Bien returned from an intensive, educational, thought-provoking week at the Harvard Business School's Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program. (what a mouthful!)

Now, it's time to get down to work and figure our what it all means for CISC!

• What does CISC's value chain look like?
  
• How do our programs fit into that framework?
  
• What is our strategy platform?
• How do we accurately evaluate our efforts throughout the organization?
• Where do we need additional capacity or support to reach our mission?
  
• Do we really need to revisit our mission statement... again?!

These are just some of the questions the board and staff will be pondering over the next several weeks. The end result will be a more organized strategy for achieving our goals, and adding value to our community in whatever form it takes.

Heavy thoughts. But if you would like to participate in this process, just let us know! More, different, and new perspectives are always useful and welcomed!

Long-term Care Resource Fair

CISC held a long-term care resource fair for family caregivers last month at the Crossroads Community Center in Bellevue.

Participants attended workshops on long-term care insurance plans and various options for long term care in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.






There were also information booths featuring health care equipment, adult family homes and more.

hot, Hot, HOT!

In order to provide some relief to our seniors, Sunshine Garden Senior Day Care Center will remain open an extra 2 hours each day, until 5:00 pm for the remainder of this week.

It is now up to 100 degrees here in Seattle, with a high of 101-105 predicted. Lows tonight in the low 70's, and another hot day tomorrow.

King County has opened several cooling centers as has the City of Seattle.

Let's all watch out for our neighbors and don't forget to drink plenty of liquids!

Candidates Forum

Saturday, the Seattle Chinese Times, CISC and other community groups came together to hold the first Chinatown candidates forum in Chinese for this election cycle.

Candidates for Seattle mayor, King County executive, and Port of Seattle Commissioner seats 3 & 4 had the opportunity to present their views, while community members had a chance to air their concerns to the candidates.

Over 100 people attended this three hour event on one of the most beautiful days in Seattle this summer. This is a testament to the need for language access in voter education events so that all our community members can make informed, competent decisions.

Ants in Your Pants

Got ants in your pants? Fleas on your knees? Well, award winning children's singer and songwriter Nancy Stewart and a lot of our young friends do!



Yesterday, the International Family Center-Seattle and Seattle Public Library hosted an afternoon concert featuring fun, songs, and creepy crawly Bee Boppin' Bugs.

This is part of their summer reading program to encourage all kids (and adults) to get out there and read!

EastsideHelps

Eastsiders! Need help? Want to give help?

Check out the new EastsideHelps website. The Eastside Human Services Forum, of which CISC is a part, built upon an idea that started in Kirkland to put all this information into one easy to use place.

The Seattle Times calls it "a clear, simple way to find help, or to give it."

Pandemic Preparedness

This just out from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and & Policy at the University of Minnesota: Promising Practices for Pandemic Planning.

Featured is CISC and our experience with personal and community preparedness. We are happy to share our experience and learnings with other community based organizations so that we can all be ready when the next outbreak of swine flu/SARS/bird flu or whatever it may be hits.

Are you prepared? Academic types, click here. The rest of us might find this website useful.

Lion Dancing through Chinatown

Sunday, Mak Fai's Kung Fu Club performed 5 hours of lion dances at 50 businesses throughout Chinatown/ID. They helped raise over $4,000 for CISC programs.



Volunteers and staff also helped spread the word about the 2010 Census, passing out t-shirts and chopsticks and telling people about the importance of being counted.

A big thanks to all for a job well done!

Line Dancing at CISC

One of the more popular activities at the International Family Center-Seattle is the Line (not Lion) Dancing group. A fun way to get together, make new friends, and get some exercise at the same time!

For both men and women, this class has been shown to increase heart rate, decrease depression and take years off your figure!

Next session starts July 11. Only $24 for 12 weeks!

Contact Mabel Kwong at mabelk@cisc-seattle.org to register.

Seattle Public Utilities

As part of its effort to educate the community on changes to the recycling program, staff from the Seattle Public Utilities department came out to the International Family Center-Seattle to explain what can and cannot put into the recycle bin.






They've also created videos in various languages for those with web access.

Click on these links for Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese.

Medication Safety

Last week, Annie Lam, Director of the University of Washington Pharmacy Residency Program and 6 of her residents came to the International Family Center-Seattle to do a hands on presentation on medication safety.

Clients brought their medications while residents explained their side effects, possible interactions, and other safety issues in Cantonese, Mandarin and Taiwanese.

They also helped clients set up record keeping systems to track all their medications, when they are supposed to be taken, and if they were taken or not.

Museum of Glass

Thursday, 22 members of Sunshine Garden took a field trip to Tacoma to visit the Museum of Glass.

Seniors enjoyed exhibits on Contrasts, 20th and 21st century works, Cappy Thompson's Gathering the Light, and the legendary Chihuly Bridge of Glass.



But perhaps the most exciting part of the day was taking the Sounder train and experiencing the feel of mass transportation in all its diesel glory.

Thanks to all our volunteer chaperons who made this trip possible!

Stress Reduction part 2

Last month, we talked about our Stress Reduction Workshops for family caregivers. As part of our ongoing efforts to support caregivers, we held workshops in Bellevue and Seattle on basic self-hypnosis techniques.


Dr. Yvonne Kuan presented at this highly interactive session, after which nearly all of the participants left feeling totally refreshed.

The workshop has also been stored digitally and caregivers, especially those who are homebound, can request copy and watch it at home.

Who couldn't do with a little less stress?

Coconut Pudding

In our ongoing cooking class headed by French trained chef Christine Ho, this month our seniors learned how to make coconut pudding.

OK. So it doesn't sound so good, but it tasted wonderful and had a cake like texture. If you want the recipe, you'll just have to come to Sunshine Garden next month and ask Christine!



2nd Tuesday of the month, 1:00-2:00 pm.

Friendship Dinner Photos

At last! Photos from the 2009 Friendship Dinner & Auction. Do you see anyone you know?



CISC friends and supporters raised nearly $150,000 for programs that help immigrants and their families reach their dreams. Way to go!

A Learning Resource

Yesterday, we welcomed two new interns from Hong Kong University's School of Social Work who will be with us over the summer getting practical experience and learning about social work in the United States, particularly in the Chinese community.

Ronald Ho and Audrey Ip will be able to see first hand how CISC works through its bilingual and bicultural social workers to help immigrants and their families integrate into their new community.

Whether its providing services to keep seniors healthy and active, helping families navigate the American educational system, or connecting Latino residents on the Eastside to basic services, these learning opportunities will surely make a long lasting and positive impact on the next generation of social service providers.