Literacy Program halved due to reduced funding; New semester's ESL classes filled up in less than 2 weeks

Recently the Literacy Program of the Workforce division began its new semester of classes in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The program offers ESL courses at 7 different levels, ranging from beginner to pre-GED. The registration for these free ESL classes was full within 2 weeks. The program is, however, tremendously downsized compared to previous years because of financial difficulty.

For more than ten years, the Literacy Program has been a major part of CPC's Workforce division, enabling thousands of adult immigrants to navigate comfortably through an alien world in its native language-English-for the first time. The Literacy Program has greatly contributed to the assimilation of both new and old immigrants into the American society. It has also helped in bringing together different Chinese dialect-speaking communities each living in its own separate social spheres.

Beyond social and cultural influences, the Literacy Program also has important practical implications to the future economies of the U.S. "The Literacy program is a valuable investment of the government." Simon Chiew, the director of the Literacy Program comments, "for example, it give immigrants the necessary skills and broader opportunities to work, which eventually will return back to the government in the form of taxes."

The economic crisis, however, has cost the Literacy Program nearly half of available spaces of enrollment. The program used to offer more than 900 spaces for interested students, but now the number is cut down to less than 400.

Simon Chiew and his students have persistently gone to Albany and stood before state senators and representatives at the City Hall to advocate for the Literacy Program. In order for the Literacy Program to continue thriving and serving community, however, it will need much more support from both grassroots and corporate sources.

For more information and ways to help the Literacy Program, please contact Simon Chiew at 202-941-0041 x 507 or schiew@cpc-nyc.org.  

Photo by Cao Jian, courtesy of the World Journal

On January 15, 2011, Project COPE held a one-day free kidney screening in the Workforce office at 165 Eldridge Street. One hundred and fifty people, mostly Chinese, received kidney screenings from multilingual doctors and nurses during this event, which is mainly sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation.

This is the first year Project COPE held a kidney screening event in Manhattan, which may explain the large turnout of 350 people, of which 200 had to be turned away due to limited space. In addition to the kidney screening, the 150 people also received a full body exam and got tested for blood pressure, blood glucose level, and body fat percentage; 114 received a blood and urine test. 17% of the people tested were found to have kidney problems. Project COPE hopes that this event could help the high risk population of the community become more aware of their health and educate them about the services available to help them live a better, healthier life.

Project COPE is established two years ago intended to outreach to the Fujianese community to learn its primary needs that are not being met and to develop and tailor services to meet those needs. Project COPE has hosted workshops, special events and ESL classes specifically for the Fujianese community. "Our main goal is to help the newly arrived Fujianese immigrants get into the mainstream and become self-sufficient," said Paul Chan, the director of Project COPE. 

For more information about how to benefit from or help Project COPE please contact Paul Chan by either email pchan@cpc-nyc.org or call (212)941-0030 ext 229.

CPC Brooklyn Branch, Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership and NYS Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis in Albany for Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership Legislative Day 

For the second year in a row, CPC Brooklyn Branch and the Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership are working together to advocate for the Smoke-Free campaign in the Brooklyn community.  For the past year, CPC staff have been conducting workshops, attending health fairs and forums, and working with community partners to promote the smoke-free project.  Brooklyn Branch's health education workshops have received positive feedback on numerous occasions and they would like to continue its advocacy for healthy neighborhoods in the community.  

Children make up a large and significant segment of the population who are involuntarily exposed to environmental tobacco smoke and the harms it may cause. Both organizations believe that societal measures should be taken to acknowledge this harm and precautions should be taken to protect children from exposure. In addition, active smoking during childhood and youth can cause significant health problems such as respiratory illness and decreased physical fitness.  In addition, tobacco kills more New Yorkers each year than AIDS, drugs, homicide and suicide combined - some 7,500 New Yorkers each year. The health risks associated with tobacco usage and exposure to secondhand smoke include lung cancer, stroke, asthma and heart disease. There are no acceptable safe levels of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. 

If you would like to help support the Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership please contact Eunice Huang (rhuang@cpc-nyc.org). 

New program in Brooklyn helps with tax preparation 

CPC Brooklyn Branch is partnering with CUNY Baruch College's VITA Program (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) to provide free tax preparation at the Brooklyn Branch office.  Baruch's VITA volunteers will be at the CPC Brooklyn Branch Office for 10 Sundays from 10am to 5pm starting from the first Sunday in February.  All of the Baruch VITA volunteers have gone through training and testing before becoming certified by the IRS. 

For more information please contact the CPC Brookklyn Branch Office (718) 492-0409, and for more information on Baruch's VITA Program please visit their website.