Monday, August 31, 2009

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.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

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!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

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!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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!

Friday, August 14, 2009

...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.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

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.

Monday, August 10, 2009

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.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

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!!

Friday, August 07, 2009

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!

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

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!

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

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!