Spotlight

Over the last three decades, Asian and Pacific Islanders have been the fastest growing ethnic group in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. As this population grew, so did its needs; however, adequate means to address those needs were not available. The rapid growth of this community became visible via disproportionate poverty and lack of education. Combined with other economic, cultural, and linguistic barriers, gang and youth violence incidents began to climb. As a response to the unmet needs of the Asian community, Korean Churches for Community Development (KCCD) was founded in 2001.

Since its inception, KCCD has provided extensive training and outreach for more than 500 organizations. With the help of its Compassion Capital Fund Communities Empowering Youth (CEY) grant, KCCD is implementing a capacity building project which will strengthen its youth-serving partners in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, California. By collaborating with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, KCCD is currently providing training and technical assistance to nine faith-based and community organizations. By strengthening those partners in the four capacity building areas of the CEY program- leadership development, organizational development, program development, and community engagement-KCCD is helping to address issues of gang activity and youth violence among Asian American youth.

KCCD's CEY partners consist of Asian and non-Asian social service providers, all of whom have witnessed the recent demographic trends. Partners report that participating in the collaborative has helped their work with the growing Asian population; partners have benefited from the cultural knowledge and experiences passed on through the collaborative. All partners appreciate the camaraderie of working with the executive directors of various agencies. KCCD trains at several sites throughout the community, and partners have been encouraged to visit other organizations in the partnership.

With the CCF Communities Empowering Youth grant, KCCD has begun an intensive community assessment process with assistance from the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. Once completed, the full report on the assessment will be featured on KCCD's Web site, and findings will be summarized in a future press conference. KCCD hopes that this process and engagement with the community will expand its audience and capture additional stakeholders.

KCCD is also using Yahoo! Groups to facilitate regular communication with Asian American serving organizations. KCCD continues to work on building a National Asian Youth and Family Summit. This project started as a response to the tragic events at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, in April. The summit will bring researchers, local and state leaders, and churches together to discuss methods to identify and improve the delivery of services to the Asian and Pacific Islander population. Throughout its CEY project, KCCD has continually been introducing its partners to helpful resources and bringing other social service agencies into the partnering network.

KCCD President and CEO Hyepin Im reports that KCCD is grateful for the support and financial assistance received from the CCF Communities Empowering Youth Program. KCCD is already thinking ahead about how to continue to mobilize its community after the three year CEY project period. Using its CEY collaborative and best practice models, KCCD is planning to develop a curriculum that will allow for replication of service delivery in other communities serving Asian American youth. By working with its partnership and in its community, KCCD is on track to develop a sustainable collaborative working to address the needs of the growing Asian and Pacific Islander community.